Rachel was in Orlando at our company's training facility for the weekend, working as an evaluator for new hire flight attendant trainees, while JT was also there, training to fly an Airbus A320. While Rachel was having dinner with some other evaluators at TGI Fridays (one of the only restaurants within walking distance) Toni, another evaluator, joined the group. A few pilots had come in behind her, looking to crash the party. One of these pilots was JT. As dinner was winding down Toni asked if anyone wanted to join her and the guys and go to another restaurant. Rachel didn't know Toni, or any of the pilots, but by this time she was feeling more chatty than usual, so she enthusiastically jumped at the chance to continue socializing. As the night went on Rachel and JT had a good time getting to know each other, but before the night ended had forgotten each others' names. Over the next three years Rachel and JT continued to cross paths at the Boston Logan airport, where they were both based, however they never actually worked together. They always seemed to run into each other in the crew lounge, and would chat while killing time between flights. JT would continually ask Rachel, "When are you going to let me take you on a date?" and Rachel would laugh and think about the advice she was given at the company headquarters, even before her first day of flying... "don't date the pilots." Finally, as New Years Eve 2018 was approaching, Rachel was sitting in the crew lounge in Boston, and thought about how she hadn't heard from JT in a while, or seen him around. She reached out to him to catch up, and asked what his holiday plans were. JT took the opportunity to invite Rachel to North Carolina, where he lived at the time, to ring in the new year together. Even though NYE seemed like a serious day for a first date, Rachel decided to take a chance. It turned out JT was not like the pilots Rachel had been warned about, and the rest is history.

JT and Rachel had decided together to get married, and designed and purchased a ring in Salt Lake City, a place they love and had been together several times. Something endearing about JT is when he's happy and excited about something, he simply cannot keep it to himself, so there was not a lot of secrecy leading up to the proposal. Rachel knew the day when JT would be picking up the ring, and tried to make plans to be somewhere beautiful that day, just in case he wanted to pop the question. JT considered it as they went for a drive up the mountain through Bountiful, but after a terrifying experience near a cliff where Rachel was convinced they were about to plunge to their deaths, JT decided to wait. That night JT was scheduled to fly the redeye flight back to Orlando (his current base and home) and Rachel headed back with him. She had expressed over and over that she did not want a public proposal, so getting down on one knee in the airplane was out of the question. After arriving into Orlando around 5 am JT couldn't wait any longer. They got in JT's car and started driving home when he took a sharp turn. Rachel asked where they were going, as they hadn't made it to the freeway yet, and JT said they needed to make a pit stop. Rachel was very confused about where they could be stopping in what felt like the middle of the night, as it was still dark and they were both groggy, and then it hit her. JT was going to propose. But where??? Suddenly the red neon lights of TGI Fridays came into focus, and Rachel began to laugh. They had driven past this cheesy chain restaurant so many times to and from the airport, and always would point and comment about how that's where it all began, but Rachel never imagined herself getting engaged there. They pulled up to the restaurant and JT got down on one knee in the dark, with no one around but maybe some crickets, and popped the question in front of the place where he'd met Rachel, almost exactly five years before.