Stephen and Nicole fatefully swiped right one day in February 2017. Nicole reached out and said "hello" first. After a few exchanges about a new nephew cat entering Stephen's life and the small talk of getting to know someone on an app, they decided to meet for drinks. On March 8, 2017 Nicole walked into the basement of Meridian Pint and saw the cute bearded guy with the great smile from Tinder. They had a few drinks, talked and laughed, and four hours passed before they knew it. Stephen's cheeks were sore from laughing so much. A few nights later they went to a comedy show and knew this was the start of something special.

We planned a lazy summer Saturday on June 29th. Nicole taught a spin class that morning then came home and made breakfast. Stephen cleaned up around the house and at 4:45 we hopped into a Lyft over to Maxwell Park to try some French wines before the theme of the month ended. We had 2 glasses of wine and appetizers and then headed home to get takeout from Indigo and play Bananagrams. Stephen wanted redemption from a recent night where he lost 2 games in a row to Nicole (or so he said!). They ate and Nicole started dozing off on the couch. It was 8PM, so of course she was falling asleep. Stephen encouraged her to wake up and play, so about 20 minutes later the game began. Nicole's competitive side emerged and she was making her board like crazy; yelling peel A LOT. She thought it was strange that Stephen wasn't saying much, but who cares, she was going to win! Once Stephen yelled "peel" and Nicole looked up to see he hadn't even used all of his letters which she of course pointed out! No Cheating! After a few minutes, Nicole won with "Bananas". Per ritual, Stephen had to thoroughly check the board. Nicole, gloating, kept her eyes down and stared at her board verifying each word. Finally, Stephen captured Nicole's attention when he loudly proclaimed, "No, I'm the winner" and pushed a "will u marry me?" board towards Nicole at the table. The moments that followed were full of love, kindness, smiles, and tears. Oh, and a BIG ole YES!