We met in 2015 as interns at Rockwell Automation. He worked for my mom and I was in town visiting over the summer. We didn't think much of it at first. We'd see each other at work, he'd drop by my mom's office to chat. And then one day, I got a message from a colleague requesting an opportunity for an early career candidate to shadow me. And guess what? It was Brandon. We were both full time now. He in Software Engineering and me in Sales. He wanted to visit a few clients to see how they used our technology. I drove and of course we were late and of course got lost and missed the first meeting. The second meeting, though, we made it on time. We went to Nestle/Stouffer's. I was so impressed by how much he knew about our products. He thought I was cute. And that was that. Again, not much more. Then the pandemic hit. We both ended up at a Juneteenth cookout. I left Rockwell by then and started working at Microsoft. He came up to me and noticed my career move. I was like "okay" , "so he's paying me attention". We chatted probably more than we ever really have about what we wanted to do with our careers and wanting to move down south. And that was it. I went home. Then a few days later, on LinkedIn, He asked for my number. I just discovered 1619 Project Podcast and finished reading the Autobiography of Malcolm X. It was all I wanted to talk about. He listened. We went on our first date to Pinecrest. I went on and on. He just listened and told me about his Grandfather and his interest in politics. Next thing you know we started talking, hanging out and watching our shows everyday since.