Forever ever, Forever ever?

Jamal & Garrett met at Forest City Shuffle (playing floor shuffle board, like the 84 year olds they are at heart) back in 2021, after The Great Pandemic. In Real Life. Jamal had just moved back to Cleveland and formed her own team called Jamal & Co. (which stood for cousins...that's a longer story). Garrett had been playing for a few seasons with his team, HatchGaming.com. Now the verdict is still out on whether it was Josh or Bridget who initiated the conversation between the two teams (Jamal's money is on Bridget) but we all got to drinking a pitcher of Miller, and Garrett his Corona. At this time, it's believed the conversation was on whether Garrett could pick up someone else up at the bar, but he quickly changed the conversation to how Jamal's team knew each other. To which she replied, EUCHRE <3 If you don't know what Euchre is, Euchre is a trick taking card game with a trump, played by four players in teams of two. Almost every midwesterner will know how to play, and so did Garrett. So he asked, "Can I come play?" and without hesitation she replied "Of course. We play on Tuesdays. What's your phone number?" The following Tuesday, without having a week go by, Garrett texted Jamal asking if they were playing Euchre. THEY WERE! So he grabbed his buddy Josh (aka wingmaster inc.) and came all the way to the west side to hang out. Now this wasn't a date. Yet he would meet Jamal's mother for the first time, because she too was in the Euchre club. No, the first date would come a few weeks from now because Jamal was heading out of town for her best friend's wedding reception on the east coast. But they would see each other the following two nights before her departure. Wednesday night at shuffle and Thursday the two of them both had tickets to the very last series of the team formally known as the Cleveland Indians. Garrett had CLUB seats and Jamal was a povo sitting down in the bleachers. Her simple request was for the two of them to meet up following the game and asked for him to bring her a pocket dog. He followed through and since the team won, they all stayed downtown to celebrate. Here's where the story get good. They found themselves playing pool at a local bar when Jamal spotted a few other bros wearing Miller Lite t-shirts with the Indians Logo on the back. She asked the dude's where she could acquire said shirt. They told her the bar they were at was giving them out earlier. She wanted that shirt so bad and even tried to buy it off their back and then went as far as trying to play them in pool over it. They politely declined and went on their merry way. Yet that didn't stop her from getting what she wanted. So she followed up with the bartender and asked if they could go look in the back for any extras. He came back with a similar blue shirt, but this one ONLY read Cleveland across the front. She was disappointed. A few moments later, the bros walked back into the bar and tracked Jamal down. They handed her another shirt and said "We felt bad, so we got you this one." Again, a SIMILAR shirt, but not THE SHIRT (you know, the one with the cute Miller Lite logo and more importantly, The INDIANS logo that would never be printed on bar shirts again after tonight's game). So there she was, a shirt in each hand and yet still feeling empty handed. Fast forward to date #2, because date #1 was so good, but too inside baseball. Jamal was coming back from the Wolf Pack Pub Prowl in Cinci and rushed to get to her date with Garrett at the Jolly Scholar to watch the Charger's play the Browns. All weekend she had been hyping this man to her friends. When the night was coming to a close, Garrett had one last surprise for Jamal. He handed her THE SHIRT. That sweet man went through hoops and crossed state lines to get the shirt she so desperately wanted, custom made. To which she immediately asked him the question "Will you be my boyfriend?" And honestly, the rest is herstory. Rumor has it, she asked for his hand in marriage too;-)