In June of 2021, I (Katie) went to see Best Man David's band play, and I met James for the first time. It was a very boring encounter with a classic "Nice to meet you," and that was that. A month later I ended up going to David's church, where James and I got to know each other more. He likes to say I was some random girl he didn't know what to do with, but he's also the one who considered us friends first. I joined the campus ministry at UMass Lowell that fall, so James and I were now seeing each other at least twice a week. We became pretty close in a year, and I always wanted to be around him.

After deciding James was one of my favorite people, I kind of pondered how I felt about him. Surely we were just friends, and surely he never thought of me any other way. But as time went on I started to look at him differently...oops. We entered a conversation that went nothing like we thought it would, and we left feeling confused, nervous, but maybe a little hopeful? That "just friends" status went out the window real quick. As school wrapped up for James, we spent some time evaluating our situation, and I waited for him to finally ask me on a date.

For our first date, we grabbed coffee from a cute little place in Lowell. We sat on the couch and talked about anything and everything. Sharing all my favorites made me nervous because I didn't want to say the wrong thing. What if he didn't like the same ice cream flavor as me? (Hint: he does) It was strange getting to know someone I already knew, but I'm glad we had that time to focus on each other. After coffee, neither of us wanted our date to end so we continued the night by watching Star Wars Episode IV at his place. This is where we learned it's okay if we like different things, because Star Wars isn't my favorite, but James is.

The two of us have wanted to walk up Gibbet Hill in Groton since we started dating, but winter came too quickly and it never happened. Recently, we started going on weekly walks together and both had the idea to go as our next location. We decided we'd do the little hike to the top, and then have dinner at the restaurant to celebrate being together for a year and a half. It was about 90 degrees and humid that day as it had been all summer, but I didn't mind. We explored the castle ruins, then continued on to the top of the hill where the already perfect view got even better as James got down on one knee. Then came the question I've been so eager and excited to answer, and the easiest yes of my life!