Bri and I met at a college party when we both reached for Doritos at the same time. Despite my ravenous hunger and fake cheese addiction, I let her grab the first chip. Nah... I'm going to be honest with you. Bri and I met on Bumble. For those of you who don't know, Bumble is a dating app where the lady has to make the first move after matching. And man, did she come on strong. She immediately messaged me and said, "Damn Ryan... you are without a doubt the sexiest man alive!" Wait, wait.. that's not right either... Actually, she played hard to get. She said, "Hi Ryan! I liked your bio... radically open communicator, I like that :) why do people say that? And how's your weekend going?" Before long, our chats turned into arguments over who had better grammar, discussing our love of dogs (we have one now.. his name is Rio), and bonding over her love for music and my horrible karaoke. After a week of Bumble wooing, I managed to convince her to meet in person at Barbarian (a brewery with a very romantic name) for a pre-date.. you know, one of those dates where you have a drink together to decide if you might want to go on a real date sometime. I thought the conversation was really good, that she was like eight times prettier than me, and I was hopeful that we might venture beyond Barbarian. Then, suddenly, out of the blue she says, "Oh shoot, I really must be going. I told my friend I would meet up with her after our date and I'm running late!" At this point, I'm thinking to myself, "Oh boy... She has her exit planned and this may be the last (and only) time I get to gaze into those big, beautiful, fiery eyes." We hug, exchange pleasantries, and part ways. But then, something truly magical happened. We kept talking to each other... It wasn't long before she agreed to go out on a real date with me. It was very cold on the night of our second date, but we made the most of it by following up our dinner (where I almost ate an olive to act cool, but bailed last minute because they're absolutely gross) with a trip to The Handlebar, a warm, cozy little bar where we somehow managed to talk about literally everything over the course of a few hours. It felt like we'd solved the mysteries of the universe... It was crazy to me how fast we were getting to know each other and how comfortable I felt opening up about some truly personal stuff. When it was time, we moseyed back out into the cold. I'll admit, I was nervous, but as I stared into those aforementioned fiery eyes, I knew I had to try... right then and there, in the freezing cold.. on a very public street corner... So I went in for the kiss. But, much to my chagrin, it turned out that, "I was willing, but she wasn't ready. So I settled for a burger and a grape snow cone. Dropped her off early, but I didn't go home. Down by the river on a Friday night. Pyramid of cans in the pale moonlight. Talking 'bout cars and dreaming 'bout women. Never had a plan just a living for the minute". Just kidding... those are actually lyrics from Chattahoochee by Alan Jackson. He's basically the lyricist of a generation. Anyway... I later learned that she was actually just very cold and not really feeling like PDAing on a street corner that night. What a relief! Well, safe to say that I eventually did get that kiss... and I've been chasing after more ever since. It's truly unbelievable how much we've grown together since then. We're proud dog parents, have explored many lands, eat foods other than Doritos, and I even clean up my messes from time to time. In any case, that's pretty much the story of how we met right before Covid, got locked indoors together for twelve months, and figured shit out from there. But in the end, there couldn't have been better timing, because then it wouldn't be our story.