Prologue:

To write our story isn’t difficult to do. There was a sequence of events that occurred in the beginning, the middle, and the end. The challenging part is being able to explain the two perspectives that each person was feeling and experiencing. That is where the true love story lies.

Dylan:

It had been a crazy month of paperwork, emails, packing, and unpacking into what would be my first home that I owned. It was a new start, a blank canvas. And I had already started brainstorming what this new canvas would look like. I knew at some point that I wanted a part of that canvas painted with the colors falling in love with someone; When, where, and who were the tricky parts that we don’t always have control over, but hey that’s dating. Initially, I thought it would take some time that I would be in a few relationships until I found the one. But the plan and the story did not quite come out at I thought it would:

As one does at the youthful age of 29 years, I threw myself into dating apps, carefully cross-examining the options because this time I was not going to waste my time. I came across a photo of a guy sitting on a motorcycle looking like a gentleman and a boss. I was instantly intrigued to see what else this dude was into besides motorcycles and looking cool. I scanned through his profile and photos learning that he was a bisexual car guy who owned as many cars in his life as I did shoes at that time. Motorcycles and cars were something I did not know a lot about. But it wasn’t a concern because it was Joe’s charming smile and perfectly matching gorgeous blue eyes that made want to know more about this man.

Soon after, I realized that I got message from Joe. I had been dealing with messages like “Sup? How are you? Hello.” Etc etc. They were mundane and lacked thoughtfulness. But Joe’s response was different. His first question to me was “Who’s your favorite Pokémon?”. I think at this time he hadn’t known he made a grave mistake. One does not simply ask a Pokémon fan who their favorite is. It is a long, complicated question with many variables to consider. And with that, I made sure to explain that his question was nearly impossible to answer. And he replied with something witty that got me expanding more about my love of Pokémon amongst other things.

After what felt like weeks but was probably just days of back-and-forth messages, one being merely a string of memes that were substituted for words, we decided we should go on a date. I’m not going to lie. I don’t remember who asked who, but I can tell you we were both down for meeting in person. Before I jump to the date, I would like to point that Joe was being gentleman-like and asked if I wanted to be picked up. The thing was that it was 2021 and kidnappings were at all-time high, so I kindly declined the very nice gesture.

Not knowing that Joe was going to be coming from Amsterdam, NY, we both agreed to have dinner at Toro, an upscale Mexican restaurant that recently had been built. I made sure I looked extra cute for the date because I was really looking forward to it. With my floral button-up and matching shoes, I stepped out the car and walked towards the entrance. As I got closer, I saw a guy in a floral maroon button-up with skinny fit khakis and matching maroon shoes. I told myself that I hope that was him because everything I saw was everything I wanted.

As Joe turned around, he flashed his handsome smile and formally introduced himself. At this time my heart started to flutter with excitement. Our dinner felt like the movies, it was perfect at every moment; It was perfect and funny at every time it should have been. Joe was attentive, engaging, and genuinely interested in what I had to say which was the freshest of fresh air. We laughed over our drinks that got mixed up. And Joe silently let me pretend that Volkswagen and Volvo were the same thing. We even fought over the check when we were done with me losing this time around.

After dinner, Joe gave me a tour of his 1993 Volvo 940 wagon that was imported from Japan. His face glowed as he showed me all its quirks and features. I then sat in the passenger seat, which was weird because it was technically the driver seat by American standards, and we just talked. We talked about everything and nothing. And of course, I couldn’t resist myself from asking him if I could kiss when a period of silence opened for a moment. I won’t go into details, but the kissing was off the charts amazing. Even though I tend to give off this air of confidence when I am on date, I didn’t know what to say since we came to the end of the date. So, in the humorous matter that is me, I told him “Thank you for your time and money” and pretended to leave. Joe laughed so hard which made me smile. With both of us knowing that we have this undeniable chemistry, we planned for our next date. And we just kept going on more and more dates until we are here. Where I asked my best friend, my partner in crime, my “bean to my geen”, to marry me.

Joe:

Life has a funny way of working out sometimes. I had somewhat recently relocated to Amsterdam, NY and was living with my buddy Austen when a freakin’ pandemic hit. Work had become unbelievably stressful as a result, and due to the worlds collective freak out I was getting a bit stir crazy. So, I did what any single guy looking for connection in the modern age does and joined some dating apps. While sifting through the pain that is online dating, I came across an amazingly handsome guy name Dylan’s profile. Reading through his description I was pleasantly surprised to see that he was a bit nerdy and into Pokémon. I had been very much into Pokémon as a kid, but hadn’t given it much thought since then. I decided to swipe right, assuming this guy was way out of my league. Much to my surprise, we matched! I was elated, but then had that awkward moment of trying to figure out what to say. I gave it some thought, and then figured I’d ask about the thing that really stood out to me on his bio! I shot “what is your favorite Pokémon?” and hoped for the best. Thankfully I got a response back, and not even just a generic response…I got a witty one! This kicked off us communicating regularly, and when we spent the whole day talking back and forth using only .gifs I knew I was smitten.

Dylan did such an amazing job in capturing our first date that I am going to skip ahead to our second date. As I drove home from our first date, I distinctly remember calling my friend Jenn to rave about how unbelievably amazing everything had gone! I was so excited to get to see this wonderful man again that I could barely wait. Obviously, the feeling was mutual as I did not have to wait long, and we met up the very next night. This time we decided to play mini golf, and race some go-karts! Little did I know that Dylan is extremely competitive, and I was in for quite the challenge. It escapes me who ended up winning at mini golf. I assume this was deleted from my memory banks due to how the go-kart racing went, and the events that immediately followed. Dylan and I had a furious battle on the track, weaving around small children and trying to overtake one another like we were in formula one. Ultimately Dylan defeated me, which occurred ONLY because of the aforementioned small children. As we stood there talking, I received a phone call from my mom on my cell phone. As I was on a date, I simply silenced it and figured I’d call her back. About 2 minutes later my phone rings again and it’s my Dad. Odd timing for them to call back-to-back like that, but I silenced it and resumed my conversation as not to be rude. Another couple of minutes passes and my Mom calls again. At this time, I am highly concerned that something has happened, and excuse myself to step away and take the call. My Mom answered and was both excited to hear my voice, and audibly worried. She then explained that her, my father, and all of my emergency contacts had received a text from me stating that I was in trouble and it had GPS coordinates of my location. Unknown to me before that moment in time, my new iPhone had this nifty feature where if you pressed the buttons a certain number of times it assumed you had been hurt and then contacted emergency services along with your emergency contacts to get you help. Apparently, our furious battle on the go karts had triggered this, and I was quickly called by our local police department to see if I was okay as well. After I had assured everyone that my second date with this amazingly attractive, wonderful man was going well, and he had not tried to kill me I returned back to Dylan to explain how I called the cops on him on our second date. What followed was a whirlwind of dates, bonding, meeting each other’s families, me trying to subtly ask Dylan to be his official boyfriend, Dylan nearly having a panic attack when he was going to tell me he loved me the first time, and my best friend in the world getting down on one knee in my favorite city to ask me to be his partner for life.

D&J