We met like all good modern love stories do, online. Syd had spent the better part of a year going on first dates, just hoping to find a long-term connection. Whereas Nic was about to give up on dating apps all together when Syd came across his feed. Who reached out to who first? We don't remember and the app, Hinge, has been long since deleted-as its marketed to be- along with the receipts. All Syd remembers is that once we started messaging, even when he didn't ask questions back (which usually would be the end of a conversation on the app for Syd), she felt like this was someone she needed to keep talking with. We met a local bar for drinks on December 8th, 2023. What Nic might not know is while I, Syd, sat in my car, waiting for the right moment to walk in, I saw him walking in first and thought to myself, "I hope that him he is really cute and TALL". We hit it off over drinks. And went our separate ways after an hour or two. (Syd has an early bedtime). Syd had told Nic that she was busy the next day- which she was- she just left out the fact that it was on a second date with a different guy. However, the entire time on this date, Syd was checking Hinge (when the other guy wasn't looking) to see if Nic had messaged her yet, she ended the night letting the guy know she wasn't interested. When she got home, she decided not to wait any longer for Nic to reach out, she sent him a message giving him her phone number and asked if he wanted to go out again. (Nic would like to add that he was just being respectful of Syd saying she was busy that Saturday and was planning to message her the next day.) From there we spent most of our time together. About a year later we moved in together, a few months after that we adopted our two cats, Otis and Casper, and in August of 2025 he FINALLY asked Syd to marry him and after a few hours and a lot of "what the fucks? Are you kidding me" he got a definitive yes.