Our story started in the apartment building of Eugenie Terrace in Old Town, Chicago. Tony had just moved into the apartment building during the summer of 2021, and Rachel moved in shortly after. The cliff notes of our story (this is Tony typing) is we had a very close group of friends in the building - all of us being in our 20's, working in Chicago, similar personalities, etc. Eugenie was known for the rooftop pool in the summers on the 45th floor, overlooking the entire city. One day, our group of friends were up on the pool during a random Chicago Saturday - playing music, having a few drinks and all of a sudden a beautiful blonde girl walked through the doors, Rachel, and sits down starting to read. ALL of us looked at each other wondering, "who is that?!" Long story short, through the help of some friends - I was able to get enough courage to go and introduce myself to her, ultimately leading into conversation and inviting her to a party a few friends were hosting that night in the building. Fast forward to the party - I'm nervous, waiting for Rachel to get there so I can talk to her. Sure enough, she walks in with some friends, starts to mingle and I await my time to go talk with her. I saw a window of opportunity and went up to Rachel - immediately thinking, "okay, she's from Michigan, went to MSU - let's talk about that" As I thought it would go great..... yeah, it didn't. Rachel looked at me like a deer in the headlights and quickly goes, "I'm sorry, I have to go" and turns around and walks out. Here I am wondering, "what the hell just happened? I didn't say anything bad! Good lord there goes my shot with her," proceeding to try and enjoy the rest of the night, while that was definitely on my mind. The next morning rolls around and a few of us decide to go out for Sunday morning brunch. I text the group, "meet in the lobby at 9:30." I roll out of bed at 9:20, put a hat on and am not looking my greatest. I get off the elevator, walk to the lobby and immediately see Rachel - sitting on the couches waiting for a ride. My heart rate spiked 5x and started thinking, "this is bad... I can't turn around now because she saw me. I have to say something" I walk up to Rachel and go, "helloooooooo, sorry about last night if I said anything that bothered you." Sure enough, Rachel goes, "oh my gosh, I was meaning to tell you that I got really sick and had to quickly leave. I felt terrible all night and you definitely didn't do anything bad! That was all me!" Once I heard that, I breathed a massive sigh of relief - and we began to chat for the next 10 minutes in the lobby, ultimately ending with me saying, "We do have a Eugenie group chat - want to put your number in my phone so I can add you to that?" She took the leap of faith and put her number in my phone, left and I felt the most excited I have ever felt before - telling all the guys at brunch and knowing it was going to be something special. I texted her one off that night and 4 years later, here we are getting married. Let's party!