"You seem fun! I love every detail of your profile. Oh! How I would be honored to have you as a friend and maybe more. I also went to school in New Orleans. Where did you attend? You are beautiful BTW."

On a random Thursday morning, Matt sent a cheesy message, hoping to catch Jen's attention. She almost didn't respond, but he did mention her favorite city, New Orleans. Maybe she should take a peek at his profile. She laughed at his photos and noted several things they had in common - New Orleans, New York, broadway shows, travel, documentaries, being silly...let's see if he can carry his part of a conversation.

A flurry of messages between them and so many more commonalities discovered. Matt knew his life was about to get complicated with a mission trip, a baseball quest, a new volunteer position at church - but he knew he wanted to meet Jen. About 24 hours after their first messages, Matt asked Jen out for dinner that night at Bob's Steakhouse.

Jen was definitely intrigued with this man who not only could carry a conversation, but who also had so many things in common. It's almost as if someone had been stalking her...she needed to slow things down and make sure this was real and not love bombing. She told Matt she couldn't make that night work, but to give her some options the following week. They settled on the Friday night, but Jen forgot she had double booked herself with an event at church.

The continued messaging through the weekend and eventually, Jen offered her number. Matt quickly asked if he could call her and they made plans for a phone date on Tuesday night, right after his Bible study.

At 8:00 (and 3 seconds) Matt called from the parking lot - where he stayed for 2 hours because he wanted to give her his full attention. They talked about everything, including the fact that Bob's was pretty fancy for a first date. Matt promised to even things out by taking her to Waffle House on their second date. Two hours later they ended their call with plans to talk again soon. Wednesday night they picked up right where they left off - and Thursday night too!

By Thursday, Jen realized that she had double booked herself and was trying to finagle a way to do both. She definitely did not want to reschedule again with Matt because she was very interested in meeting him, but she also did not want to miss her other event. As they talked that night, Jen asked why both reservations were at 8pm, was that Matt's normal dinner time? He said no, those were just the open reservation times. 5:00 was open too - they could go earlier if she wanted. Jen quickly responded "no, that won't work" in such a way that prompted Matt to ask why. And so, she shared her mistake at double booking herself.

His response was simple and direct. "Well, I'll cancel the date I have for Saturday night and we can go then, that way you can go to your church event." Absolutely not, Jen was not going to ask him to cancel a date with another woman. He insisted - created a new reservation for the two of them on the spot. Jen was in shock and not quite sure what to think at this point. They kept talking for a while and Matt remembered that Jen didn't work on Fridays, and he wasn't working until late that Friday - "Hey, can I take you to breakfast tomorrow?"

Jen was confused, "You mean instead of Bob's?"

"Oh, no, we're definitely going to Bob's. I'd just like to take you to breakfast."

Still confused, "Well, where?"

Matt laughed, "Where else?"

It hit Jen, and it was perfect. "Waffle House. Yes. Let's do it!"

A little side note - Jen once went on an absolutely terrible date with a man who showed up in old, ratty, yardwork worthy gray sweatpants and a Super Mario Bros t-shirt. In talking through some of their worst date stories, she shared this with Matt and he promised to never wear sweatpants when he was on a date with her.

The next morning, Matt was early - 30 minutes early. He wanted to make sure he was able to get a table. Jen, had warned Matt that she was typically late, no matter how hard she worked at it. His gracious response was, "It's ok. You're worth the wait." In this case - Jen was miraculously about 5 minutes early. She's still not even sure how that happened. When she walked in, and he was already there, she paused for just a moment, and then felt so completely at ease. The waitress whispered to her, "He's been waiting for you."

Jen noticed Matt was nervous and asked him about it. He admitted it - and then immediately felt at ease. They told stories, laughed, held hands and let their terrible Waffle House food get cold because they were talking so much.

About an hour into their date, Matt shared that he had a surprise for Jen. He had previously shared that he was terrible at pulling off a surprise so Jen was intrigued. What could he possibly mean? At that moment, he pulled at the snap buttons on his shirt and revealed a Donkey Kong t-shirt underneath. She full on, belly laughed for a good five minutes. The most perfect surprise.

They spent another hour together and though neither one of them wanted the date to end, they did, with both looking forward to their second date.