We're getting married!

Thank you, HINGE! There I was, on Christmas break drinking my morning coffee, opening up my apps, and there he was, in my top 10 of suitable matches HINGE thought I would be good with. The only way to contact a top 10 is if you give them a rose. His picture was black and white, which was mysterious but caught my eye, as I LOVE black and white photos. There's just something about not seeing it in color. I gave him a rose and was then able to see his profile. I liked what I saw/read, so I proceeded to comment under a post he had in regards to the type of "women," he liked. I don't think he was ready for my sassy foul mouth. After he responded, we talked back and forth ALL DAY, to the point I gave him my number because opening the app was annoying and draining my battery. We proceeded to text back and forth for days. I was intrigued. He was actually giving me his time, without having to reach for it. Soon after that we set up a date because we lived 70 miles apart from each other, go figure. I leave the Katy area to Galveston, and find a man in Richmond. We chose Main Event. I drove through a legit tornado on the ground somewhere in my area to get to this date. I was late because I had to drive slow due to weather, which I did inform that I was going to be late. Then I sat in the parking lot for a few minutes to get my bearings. According to Cody, I WALTZED in the door, strutting my stuff, confident, head held high with a smile on my face. Cody was sitting at the bar and got up to greet me, then we had a beer and shared an appetizer. After the jitters were out of the way, because even though I waltzed in confident, I was still nervous, duh, I'm a human, we went and played some games. I smoked him in air hockey. I still says he let me win, but I'm a badass and competitive person when it comes to any game and sport. I kicked his butt. The date ended with a kiss, one I will never forget. It was romantic, sweet and something that reminded me out of the movies (if you know me, I'm a hopeless romantic old soul) He placed his hand so gently on the side of my face and went in for a smooch. I still wasn't sure if I wanted to pursue this, but my closest friends kept urging me to keep going on dates. There was no drama, it was calm, something I had been needing in my life forever, as everything else was always chaotic. His entire presence was calming to me. Two months go by and we are still in communication and we've gone on a few more dates. I'm starting to warm up to the idea of actually dating him with a purpose. I fly to Maryland to visit one of my besties, Eliza, we're out having a good time in Frederick (my other hometown) and I get a call from my dog sitter, that the house key is lost. I used to keep it under a flower pot, but Duke had got excited and knocked it over and the key was thrown from the deck. I was panicking because no one had a key to my house. It was also 10 pm CST and 11 pm EST, so my people on the island were sleeping or were out of reach. Eliza kept telling me to call Cody, but I was hesitant because I was going to be asking a lot. Drive from Richmond to Galveston to get my dog and then keep him for 2 days until I got home. Well, I had no choice, so I called Cody. He answered and gladly said he would get Duke. He left his house around 10:30 pm, got some chicken nugs from McDonalds to coax him into his truck and take him home for the weekend. It was that action of taking care of my dog, that I knew if he would do that for Duke, what would he do for me?! MOVE MOUNTAINS. The rest is history and he proposed on September 28, 2024.