Calin:

When asked how we met, I always say we met through mutual friends. Which, is true. However, we knew of each other sooner than that. We both attended Southside High School. I transferred my junior year, his senior year. My first impression of Tyler was that he was incredibly shy. I'm not sure we ever made eye contact during that time. Fast forward a few years and one of my friends was dating one of his friends. I spent most of my time with my friend Kati, who spent most of her time with her boyfriend at that time. Therefore, I, too, was always around when their friend group got together. Tyler would randomly show up, usually late at night, coming from Jonesboro. I knew nothing about him, other than Kati was not a fan. YIKES.

About 6 months after initially meeting Tyler, it was fall of 2016 and we were all going to get together to watch the Razorback game. No one had a free house to watch it, except me. That night, everyone came over, including Tyler, who, again, randomly showed up. Up until this point, I had no interest in Tyler, and he clearly showed no interest in me. After the game, my mom came out of her room as everyone was leaving and made a comment to the nature of "why don't you date him?". Talking about Tyler. Again, not a singular meaningful conversation between us at this point. I was quick to shut her down.

A few weeks later, I get a friend request...from Tyler. I accept it and nothing evolves.

About a month after that, I get a message from him... "Hey". Ummm, no.

I truly almost didn't answer. But curiosity took over and he got a "Hi".

We would talk off and on, usually between the hours of 5pm-10pm. So imagine my surprise when he comes into town one night before Christmas and wants to drive through the lights. I was skeptical because he had truly shown little interest, but my mother heavily encouraged it. To appease her, I went. When I tell you this man spoke two words the entire drive from walmart, to the lights, back to walmart, this is no joke. I immediately called my mom and said "absolutely not. I will never see him again".

Until, he wanted to go on a real date. One more shot, and if it went south, I was sending Kati "SOS" and she was coming to get me.

When he got to the house to pick me up, he walked up the front door. Never had I ever experienced someone actually coming to the door to pick me up. He came in, shook my dad's hand, hugged my mom, and then opened my door to the truck, while I proceeded to fall getting in. MORTIFIED. That was me. We went (fake) ice skating at the river, for 3 hours, and I couldn't get this man to stop talking. When I got home, I told my parents "I'm going to marry him".

Here we are, 7 years later.

Oh, and Kati is a fan now.

Tyler:

The story of "Us" is almost as hard to write as it is to describe the colors of a sunset, but here we go. Calin was a girl I had seen very little of in the beginning, just the occasional glace in a shared high school Spanish class while I was visiting others in the class. She had that fiery amber red hair and that was all she was at the time, just the girl with red hair.

Fast forward a year or two, college is now in full swing. I am commuting back and forth on weekends to partake in tom foolery with my friends. There she is, the girl with the red hair. Instead of sharing senior Bennet's classroom, we are now sharing Casey's bachelor pad complete with lawn chairs and a makeshift poker table, and the mid-construction leaning pyramid of "water" cans. The girl with the red hair has now become the girl that is cool to hang out.

One night on a late drive back home, in an attempt to stay awake and ease the lull of boredom, a slew of snapchats went out to the whole address book. The girl with the red hair, the girl that was cool to hang out with, was the only one that responded. After a couple back and forths, I asked for her phone number " because it was easier to text than to snap". With those 10 digits, begins the chase.

We continued to mutually hang out at the same spots with the same friends, and eventually I decided I had to get her alone. She had all this talk about how good she was at baking and she apparently made some darn good brownies. So a bargain was struck, in exchange for brownies, I would treat to a drive through of the Batesville Christmas Lights. I had the best time, shoveling my face full of brownies, no words came from me as there was not enough room for a single syllable to slip past the mounds of chocolate goodness in my mouth. (Long down the road I was told this made me seem extremely awkward for not talking). And just like that the girl with the red hair that was cool to hang out with, was everything but.

After this first solo encounter, I asked her out on a proper date, no confectionary strings attached. When I picked her up I did all the gentlemanly things, knocked on the door, greeted the parents with a firm handshake, smiled and lapped on the charm like the best of them (which won her mother over instantly). On the way out the door her brother Layton made sure to bellow out " she has a curfew of 9:00 PM!" of course I agreed to the terms set before me. I opened the truck door for her and away we were. I took her to the make shift ice skating rink nestled in the same Christmas lights. "Ice skating" is a generous description of these razor blade boots on a clunky plastic board with no slick or slippery component to them. We walked on those uncomfortable stilts for 2 maybe 3 hours and the conversation was euphoric. Her laugh, her smile, the way she held on to me for balance, this was love. This was Us.

The girl with the red hair. The girl who was cool to hangout with. She was now the woman I was meant to be with. She was the angel that God amazon prime delivered straight to my doorstep. I was hers, and she was mine. Our love continues to blossom and change minute by minute just as the colors of the setting sun, which is -- oh-- so hard to describe.