Living in Cookeville, TN in Spring of 2024, Nick came across an Instagram story posted by an old college friend. He did what can only be described as a digital double-take: tapping past, then immediately swiping back to figure out exactly who that was in the picture. This was the first time Nick ever saw Noel. He proceeded to pull the very charming move of randomly following the attractive stranger, then stared bullets through his phone until, at last, he got a follow-back. As casual and silly as this sounds, both Nick and Noel consider this to be an unlikely crossing of paths that neither of them could have engineered on their own — which leaves only One who could have been responsible.

Weeks passed while Nick calculated his next move. Doing what had never really been "his thing," he weighed the risk, decided it was worth it, pushed all his chips to the middle of the table, and dropped the single worst pickup line ever devised by man — sent in response to a selfie of Noel on her way to an event with a cooler visible in the background. "Great picture. Would be a lot -cooler- if I was in it with you." Poetic. Noel must have found this deeply impressive, because after 12 painstaking hours, Nick received her response — and just like that, the first date was set.

Nick arrived 30 minutes early. Noel arrived 20 minutes late. A sign of things to come. They spent three hours talking about their love of music (Noel owns Billy Joel's 52nd Street on vinyl — a very good sign, in Nick's eyes), Saturday Night Live (Nick went decade by decade listing his favorite cast members; Noel lied and had never actually watched a full episode), and how fun and cool it must be that Noel coaches spin classes (Nick hated spin classes).  As the night came to a close, Noel said she’d like to see him again. Nick had already decided that Noel was going to be his girlfriend.

After a few months of dates and getting to know each other, Noel wasn't sure she was ready to move forward. Nick said he understood. He would like the record to reflect that he did not. What followed was the kind of conversation that changes everything: all cards on the table, no pretense — the high points, the low points, the struggles, and the dreams. The sort of honest exchange that you can't plan for, and that, looking back, could only have been a gift. After a few hours, Nick offered his closing argument: "I believe that we would be great together." God had already decided the same thing.

A year and a half later, Nick proposed. He was right all along.