See you in Tennessee!

Who would have thought a boy from Indiana and a girl from Texas would fall in love sight unseen? Well in this case that's ~sorta~ what happened. It all started at the infamous Barton Associates, their first work place. With Codey working in the AZ office and Lauren in the ATX office. When Lauren's boss quit, and Lauren had to take over some of her accounts, she was quickly introduced to Codey whom she'd have to work alongside due to a shared assignment. Unfortunately, the assignment was cancelled the very same day that Lauren took over the account, and started Lauren and Codey's "Enemy Era," as we'll call it. Codey thinking Lauren was a liar and unethical, and Lauren thinking Codey was irrational and rude. Fast forward to a few months later, another shared project presented itself; one in which Lauren would have to message Codey to get the commission. Lauren being the mature, business-oriented aka bigger person called Codey up and the conversation went a little something like.. Lauren: Would you like to make some money? Codey: What do you have? Lauren: Dr. T, I need him. Codey: I'll see what I can do. **a few minutes pass & Codey calls back. Codey: Heyyyyyy Lauren! Great news! Dr. T is in, how's your day?? Thus their feud ended and a beautiful workplace friendship began. Although, this workplace friendship quickly became communicating everyday, catching up about their days, weekends, hopes, dreams and everything in between. Lauren recalls thinking to herself, "if this guy lived in Austin, we'd get married," and little did she know they'd get there one day, just in a round about way. Codey ended up quitting and moving to Nashville, TN to be closer to family and was moving in with his brother; coincidentally, Lauren had quit around the same timeframe and was going to a bachelorette party for her college friend Sage in Nashville! Lauren did what any logical person would do, and slid into Codey's Facebook DM's. Codey responded immediately, and the two exchanged numbers (they hadn't before because they are professional of course!). On the last night of the Nashville trip, Lauren left her gal pals (highly against girl code, but was encouraged) and went on a date? Date has a question mark because the two of them truly had NO idea what this was. They went to a bar over in Midtown, and closed it down, not moving from the very spot they arrived. The conversation never stopped, and that's when they both knew, they might have something there. Codey took Lauren back to where they were staying, and due to rain Lauren said goodbye and ran back inside, no hug, no kiss.... not even a high five. This obviously left Codey bewildered, but nonetheless he sent her a text upon arriving home that read, "It was great putting a face to the voice," and Lauren knew, it had to be mutual. Fast forward a couple months, the two of them kept in touch daily, but no plans of meeting back up in place yet. I mean one is in TX and the other in TN, how logical could it be? That was until, Lauren was at the ACL Music Festival where her phone got stolen, and she quickly realized she needed to replace it that VERY next day, and couldn't wait for the free option that would arrive Wednesday (3-day wait) because she HAD to keep the conversation going with Codey and couldn't let him think she ghosted him. The drama of it all, but it led to Lauren calling Codey, a call that lasted 5 hours; which led to the plans of Codey coming to visit. Codey came to TX, and went with Lauren to her friend Taylor's Engagement Murder Mystery Party. While he barely knew anyone, he quickly immersed himself into his character, which was a kleptomaniac. It was a small role, but Codey ended up stealing multiple phones, only to be revealed at the end. That's when Lauren knew, she had a keeper. They ended up dating a few weeks later on Taylor's Nashville Bachelorette trip, a full circle moment! Rachael, Dr. T, Sage & Taylor - Thank you for your roles in our love story!