One day, only two weeks after Misty had returned to Buffalo, she rode her bike up to a coffee shop to meet Matthew. Before the date, she worried about what to wear, about what she'd talk about, listed out her interests in her head, and tried not to go blank. For his nerves, Matthew downed two amaretto sours, and arrived thirty minutes early. When Misty walked in he waved, she waved back.. Five years, four apartments, and two dogs later, they are still together, still happy, still drinking coffee and even the occasional amaretto sour.

In February of 2017, I took Matthew to a beautiful cabin in Johnstown, NY (ask me for the details, seriously so beautiful). We snowshoed, steamed out in a hot tub, put our feet up by the fireplace, and throughout this whole trip I never found the ~perfect~ moment to pop "The Question". On our last day, on our way home, we stopped at a little diner up the street from our cabin. It had started snowing, hard, and I stopped him from getting out of the car and held out my fist and opened my hand. When He saw the ring his eyes lit up, he yelled "yes", and threw his arms around me over the car console. It was perfect.