love is in the air

Our journey began in the streets of New Orleans, Mardi Gras 2016. Austin, who I had heard of through mutual friends, but never met, "accidentally' bumped into while walking through the lively parade crowd. He applied his charismatic (if a bit overly-confident) 16 year-old charm to ask for my help finding his friends somewhere in the immense congregation of parade-goers. The charm may have worked because Austin and I became fast friends and almost inseparable. Before you know it, I was whisked away on a first date to our favorite Mexican restaurant, Felipe's, and the rest, as they say, is history.