You could say our story began on Hinge, although if it were up to Aly, we may have never met at all. Trent was immediately intrigued by the cute, adventurous blonde girl who said she was from Germany and swiped right. (He would be only slightly disappointed by her lack of accent and EU passport). Aly, however, had just moved to San Diego and had zero interest in jumping onto dating apps. After a few drinks, her friends Veronika and Saki convinced her to let them scroll through the local options, partly for entertainment and partly because it was time to see what Southern California had to offer. Somewhere in the chaos of their group swiping, they matched with Trent. To this day, Aly insists she had nothing to do with it, and Trent is grateful for the somewhat lowered standards her tipsy friends employed when matching with him. They started flirting on the app with High School Musical quotes, something neither of them is particularly proud of but still comes up on karaoke nights. The banter clicked, the timing felt easy, and they shortly decided to meet for their first date at OB Dog Beach. Trent picked the spot strategically so he could introduce Aly to his secret weapon: the most loveable creature in San Diego, Momo. It was love at first sight, at least for Aly and Mo. But Trent wouldn't be too far behind. The date was supposed to be a simple sunset walk. It turned into hours of talking, dinner, and drinks. At the end of the night, Aly asked a very efficient question: “Do I have to pretend to not be interested and wait to reach out, or can we just admit we had fun and see each other again?” Trent texted her the moment he got home, partly because he felt the same way, and partly because he is incapable of playing it cool. They saw each other again almost immediately - four dates in ten days, each one better than the last.