Layla and Carson met the way a lot of love stories begin, through their large friend group. At first, Layla wasn’t exactly impressed. Carson was goofy, loud, and a littleee bit annoying. But somewhere between the group hangouts, their inside jokes, and all the late-night conversations, something shifted. The more time they spent together, the more Layla realized that the reason Carson annoyed her was that he was just her in another form. They shared the same humor, the same energy, and the same way of seeing the world. What started as joking banter turned into a genuine connection. They began to find reasons to hang out outside the group. Group hangouts slowly turned into “accidentally” sitting next to each other, or picking eachother as partners during game nights. Conversations got longer. The laughs got louder. And without either of them really planning it, their friendship turned into something much more.

In May of 2023, they took a wild chance and started seeing each other without any labels. They spent the entire summer doing "boyfriend and girlfriend" things, but never made it official. Layla finally decided to bring up the age-old question, "What are we?" and Carson made the regrettable decision to respond by saying we should go back to being friends. From late August to early November, they remained friends until Layla mentioned moving back home to Georgia for the following semester. Carson couldn't imagine the next year without her, so he asked Layla to hangout again, and then a month later, December 16th, 2023, he asked her to be his girlfriend.

In December of 2025, Layla joined Carson and his family on a trip to Japan. They spend just over a week traveling the country while staying in both Osaka and Tokyo. On their last full day in Japan, they planned out a day trip to Hakone, where they were surrounded by breathtaking views of Lake Ashinoko and Mount Fuji. Though the original plan was to propose here, the day carried on, and everyone made their way back to Tokyo. Layla and Carson ended up splitting from the rest of the family and found themselves in downtown Tokyo. They spent some time walking around the Tokyo Skytree and ended up by a small river that runs through the city. They stopped underneath a bridge, and Carson got down on one knee and popped the question!