We first crossed paths at the Broken Spoke Campground in Sturgis in 2013. I was bartending one last year to pay off grad school & Brad in his camo pants, full beard and bandana headband was there to party. That week he bought many a drink from me, probably funded at least my books for a whole semester, & also continually did burnouts INSIDE my bar, which is my personal hell. As the rally finished we all became Facebook friends & I left Sturgis vowing to never return & honestly thrilled to never hear or smell another burnout in my life. Fast forward to December 2014, I'm working a trade show in NYC & turn around to a bushy bearded man very happy to see me - it's Sturgis Biker Brad. We chitchat briefly he snaps a photo of us (...obviously) & I honestly don't really think anything of it other than weird small world. After that I received A LOT, I mean a LOT of Facebook messages from Brad & to be honest I never opened or saw half of them - I’m terrible I know. I was busy in school in NYC & this biker man who seemed super nice, but lived in Iowa was not really on my radar. Also disclaimer - sending direct messages to girls you barely know that say “Where you at in NYC. I’m here roaming around” has a low success rate. But then in 2018 Brad decided to move to Arizona & it just so happened my best friend had ALSO moved to Arizona. She & Brad reconnected a friendship and subsequently threw him back into my vague orbit, opening the door for a LOT more Facebook & Instagram messages. I finally answered one of them Christmas Eve 2021, and after listening to me complain about the hellscape that is NYC dating in your 30’s Brad’s response was “keep waiting, I feel like the rom com plot for your life is just about to start”. February 2022 I ventured to AZ to visit friends & was again hit by a very persistent Brad asking to meet up - anywhere, anytime, any activity - I told him I’d see if I had time. The last day there my friend got sick that evening & I was left with no plans, so I figured why not give him a shot - dinner, NOT a date, couldn’t hurt. We went to sushi - talking for six hours is a totally normal not date situation - right?! I flew home to NYC the next day & went back to normal life - but then he just started calling every evening & suddenly I was the one sending a barrage of messages every day anxiously waiting for his reply staying up til 2-3am shooting messages back & forth. This is probably the part in the story where I felt bad for leaving his messages on read for like 10 years prior to this. I finally worked up the courage to bring up visiting AZ again, but this time I’d MAYBE stay with him a day & then go see my friends - spoiler: I never saw my friends that weekend. I knew pretty much immediately after flying home from that weekend that I was all in - ready to pack it up from NYC & move right to AZ - but did NOT want to scare him off, oh how the tables have turned. We continued the constant conversations & I admitted I was ready for a change & was thinking about moving to AZ - but definitely NOT for him (yes it was 100% for him). I spent two more weekends in AZ between June & August - collectively maybe 10 days together. November 2022 I bought a car, literally relearned to drive (thanks 10 years in NYC), packed up my studio apartment & drove it straight to Brad’s house in AZ. I was clear, I was NOT moving in, I just needed somewhere to put my stuff for like 2 weeks before I left for South America for a month & then in January I was definitely getting my own apartment. I think within the first weekend we both knew I wasn’t ever going to get my own apartment. We got engaged in Sturgis last year on the same bike I first met him on with the same backdrop of where we first ever crossed paths. The irony is not lost on me that one of my most despised place has now turned into one of my favorites. So yeah 10 years of literal persistence paid off & Brad finally now knows that doing burnouts inside the bar is NOT cool.