The first thing I ever said to Amy was telling her about my travels across the world.

In typical James fashion, I tried to look cool while missing the mark by overshooting my #humblebrag. Thank my lucky stars, it was enough. Unfortunately, Amy tells me was going to be traveling soon, and wouldn't be able to meet for several days. Instead, we began our first real conversations online.

It was so natural to chat with Amy... she is so curious and quite the sleuthing expert online. And it wasn't just small talk. Amy really wanted to get to know me, and the more I learned about Amy, I also felt the same. Here is a pretty interesting person who travels, plays video games, takes big risks with work, and seems to have a healthy sense of curiosity and humor.

But, during the course of that first week, Amy trolled me two times to my utter amazement. The first is when she recommended that I visit Coco's in West Nashville for their Argentenian / seafood place. Having never been to Coco's before, I eagerly walked the two miles there from my home, only to learn we had a humorous miscommunication. Coco's is an Italian restaurant. I walked in with such conviction that I was going to be eating a delicious steak and drinking the best Malbec you'll ever have ... you should have seen the look on the waiters face when I asked him for an Argentenian steak. Turns out, Amy was looking at a menu for herself that was Argentinean while at the same time recommending Coco's as a nice eatery. I couldn't be upset at the circumstance. It was just so absurdly funny to me I couldn't help but laugh.

And then came Bigfoot - Amy sent me a photo of herself with her new boyfriend, Bigfoot. While Amy was out on her business trip, she found a large, plastic Bigfoot existed and took a photo with it. Why not, right? Her smile was infectious ... even through the still picture. She must be enjoying life. Who is this woman? I must know more.

Several days later at our first date, I arrived at Merchants a whole hour before our scheduled meeting. I like to tell myself it was so I could get a good seat at a table, but it was because I was nervous. Thankfully, I had my work to keep me busy while I waited. And I waited. And then our scheduled date time hit, and she wasn't there. Oh no. After several minutes, I am all but about to lose hope when Amy walks in with the biggest smile I have ever seen. She walks up immediately apologizing because she took time out of her day to help a person in need. I won't deny I was almost smitten right away. She was funny, charming, good-looking, and caring.

That meal went so fast. Merchants was closing and I wasn't ready for the night to end. Amy suggested going to Beercade, a vintage arcade that also had Savage Bingo that night. This was my first glance into Amy's competitive side. I loved it. We absolutely blew through several video games and when that wasn't enough, we spent another 2 hours talking. It was a fantastic evening.

And then we kept talking. I was looking forward to meeting again, and this time I wanted to really work to do something I thought would be off the beaten path a bit, allow myself to be a bit goofy, and really see Amy's competitive side. So, I chose axe throwing.

I'll never forget that day. Our axe throwing competition came so close to the wire that Amy won by a single throw! I don't think I've ever had so much fun throwing heavy metal objects around. The banter did it for me. I loved it. I cannot remember the last time I smiled and laughed as much as I did during our outing. We made a bet that the loser had to buy the winner something from the merch store. Amy chose a trophy to celebrate her victory. This photo still remains in my phone today in my address book for Amy and the trophy sits on a shelf in our home.

After axe throwing, we ate dinner and then headed to Hip Hop Karaoke. I was nervous. I had a good time at this portion of the date, but I spent the entire time trying to figure out how to just make any physical contact with her. "Hold her hand? What is this, middle school" - I would think. The music was good, and the karaoke was so wonderfully horrible, but I was excitedly nervous about being around this absolute ray of sunshine.

That night before I turned in, I felt I had to try and get a kiss. This was just going so well, I need to see if this just going to be a good friendship or something more. Nervously, I asked her if I could kiss her.

We kissed. It wasn't anything I could have expected. This was something else completely.

I was hooked.

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