Mallory lives her life through sarcasm, and when people asked about her dating life, she’d often respond with snark. At a family dinner in October, she jokingly claimed she wasn’t worried about dating because clearly multiple BYU athletes were in love with her (not even remotely true, by the way). Her Uncle Paul shot back, “You should date and marry Connor Pay.” The only problem? Mallory had no idea who that was. Connor quickly became the topic of dessert conversation as her uncle—who isn’t even a BYU football fan—explained that linemen are the “best of the best” and play real football. Though he had never met Connor, he gave him a glowing review. Mallory sarcastically replied, “Well, if Connor Pay asks me out, I’d say yes.” She never expected that to actually happen. But over the next few days, Connor kept popping up in her social media feed—interviews, podcasts, and more. Slowly, Mallory connected the dots: that was the guy her uncle had randomly recommended. Then, one night in mid-November, Mallory had a dream that Connor Pay was in love with her. Why, you ask? We don’t know—she has quite the imagination. She woke up that Sunday with a one-track mind: she had to message him. There was no plan, no real goal—just a gut feeling. After much deliberation (and a full emergency meeting with her roommates), she sent the message. To her surprise, by the end of the night, a group date was set for November 14, 2024. From Connor’s perspective, the story is pretty straightforward. He got a message from Miss Provo USA—and the message happened to catch his eye. And honestly? He was in. The first date was at The Cheesecake Factory with Mallory’s roommates and their dates. Connor began to suspect that this “date for Thursday” was actually a setup to give Mallory an easy line to ask Connor out. But he enjoyed the night and the company. As the check arrived, he reached for his wallet—only for Mallory to pull out her card and tell him, “Just sit there and look pretty.” He was shocked… and impressed. They exchanged real numbers that night—and they haven’t stopped talking since. They fell in love easily, and are so grateful they found each other.