In December 2019, Avery ran into Eric and his daughter Ava at Outback Steakhouse over Christmas break. Later that evening, Eric sent Avery a Facebook message to tell her thank you for being such a positive influence on Ava at school. (Apparently she had a lot of great things to say about "Miss James" at Outback that evening!)

A week later, Eric sent Avery another FB message to apologize because Ava had "told her friends that her dad was dating Miss James". Eric was so embarrassed and wanted to go ahead and clear up the rumor before it went too far. Avery read the message and smiled thinking "well maybe you should be". She even typed it out as her response, only to delete the message before sending it and saying something much less profound instead!

The conversation continued for weeks, and after multiple covid quarantines, Eric and Avery finally agreed to their first date on May 1, 2020. Avery went to Eric's house where he cooked hobo dinners over an outside fire and they sat by the pond talking until 2:30 in the morning. The next couple days were spent at the lake and cooking dinner together for the first time at Avery's house. By the end of the weekend, Avery knew she was in it for the long haul.

What started as a funny kid rumor turned into forever. Eric and Avery continually give Ava the credit for setting them up!