The Beginning - From her perspective:

Our story begins at a young adult group in January 2021, at a church that I had been visiting since moving back to Georgia. A guy walks in that I haven't seen before. I do a double take.

Connor had been repeatedly invited by a mutual friend to attend our young adult group, and though he was usually busy Sunday nights, the stars aligned and schedules shifted to allow for us to meet.

This night, however, happened to be my going away party because I was about to embark on a three month mission trip out of the country. We met, exchanged numbers (so I could send him my missions blog, of course,) and parted ways.

I was working at a coffee shop at the time, and when I came back from the trip three months later, I started seeing Connor a good bit around my shop. We started talking which led to Instagram messaging (he forgot he had my number,) which led to hanging out and binge watching Netflix together. An entire season of Squid Game later, I was thinking I could really be into this guy.

Then we go out for breakfast, and Connor politely lets me know that he just wants to proceed as friends.

I was disappointed, of course. And my pride most definitely took a hit. But over the next eight months or so of only seeing each other occasionally at the coffee shop, my main take away was that Connor was someone that I wanted to have in my life in whatever way I could. If it wasn't meant to be romantic, so be it. I admired him for who he was as a person. I thought he was considerate, funny, smart, and personable. I would be honored to have someone like that in my life. And so, when he reached out again in the summer of 2022, I jumped at the opportunity to be friends.

The following weeks felt like a movie, slowly falling for each other in the safest way. Watching the way he interacted with my friends, went out of his way to see me, and began to pursue me with intention, all built up to the inevitable question. He told me, "Emily, I want to date you."

To which I replied, "I would love to date you."

The Beginning - From his perspective:

Our story began with a friend's repeat invitation to come and join him for his churches young adult group. It was on the same night as our churches ministry night so I had to wait for a week we didn't have students. That came in January (I remember this because I read her perspective above) of 2021. The whole night came and went until the church was being locked up (I'm a lingerer... shocker). As I was walking back to the car there was only one other person parked on the opposite side of the parking lot with me. I am not able to walk in silence so I struck conversation with her about her. "I have a huge heart for missions. Where are you going?" (I had only been on two mission trips.) She proceeded to tell me where she was going and says that I can keep up with her by signing up for her email updates if I would like. I proceeded to make it as difficult as possible for her to add me to the email list by telling her to get my number from my friend (because it would have taken WAY too long to just give it to her myself) and to send me the link to her email chain. She faithfully did.

Months pass and she comes back working at the local coffee shop. We bonded through watching squid games and even went on a hiking "not" date. I panicked and was unsure what I wanted from our relationship so (after a week or so of pondering) I invited her out to breakfast and decided to not pursue anything further since I was so unsure of what I really want from it.

Months pass again and I was thinking back over our time hanging out together and realized that I enjoyed hanging out with her. I texted her and we struck up conversation about the next season of squid game. Over the next few weeks we started regularly hanging out and I found myself leaving my college in-between classes to hang out with her at work. Over these weeks I realized that I could see myself with her. Finally, I asked her to go out bowling one night and said that she could invite her friends if she REALLY wanted to. This was my test to see if she wanted it to be a date or not. To my surprise, she panicked and actually invited her friends. In a way it felt like a date with training wheels. Almost like going on a date with your parents loosely following behind. We had a great time and it just solidified my decision to ask her to take the next step and begin dating officially on the car ride back to the paring garage.

She replied, "I would love to date you."

E&C