As much as Mike hates the Westside, they have Santa Monica and beach volleyball to thank for this crazy, wonderful life.

Jessica started playing beach volleyball in 2017 wanting to get some exercise and spend time at the beach. In the summer of 2018, Mike was approached by his best friend from college to join a beach volleyball league because it would be a “great opportunity to meet girls”. Trevor and Mike joined the “Underdogs” and played in the competitive league, because anyone that knows Mike and Trevor knows they are only slightly competitive. Each week after the games at the beach, they’d venture over to Brennan’s for the social aspect of the league in quest for winning the social/bar championship for the year (which they did). In between beer pong, flip cup, das boot, or whatever drinking game they had on tap that week, Trevor started to introduce Mike to a bunch of other people he knew.

One such bunch was “Soul Glo”, which featured a lot of awesome people, as well as a quiet girl with sunglasses on who (according to Mike) only talked to her teammate, Robb. The only three words she spoke to Mike were, “Hi, I’m Jessica” (again, according to Mike; Jessica disputes this recollection).

Fast forward to April of 2019, both Mike and Jessica attended a teammate/friend’s birthday in Hollywood. It was a last minute decision for Mike and a friend. Not knowing many people at the party they post up at the bar to hang out. Jessica approached them (see, seems to contradict the story above) and struck up a conversation. Knowing his friend was actively looking to meet someone, Mike took a backseat. Later that evening, Mike and Jessica had a chance to chat one-on-one and learned they had a lot in common: both loved country music (she was jealous he was going to Stagecoach later that month), had a big passion for sports (although not many of the same teams), and grew up in the Valley.

Later that night Jessica sent Mike a friend request on Facebook, they began chatting, and met up at Public School 818 later that week (Jessica claims it was their first date, Mike claims they were just hanging out as to not get his hopes up). About a month later, they shared their love for country music together and went to an Eric Church concert.

Fast forward to July 4, 2023. It was a nice holiday morning where Mike got up to make coffee for everyone and tried to convince Jessica to join him in their backyard before it got too hot. What Jessica didn’t know was that Mike’s best man, Russell, and his girlfriend, Laura, had prepared the area for a very special proposal. After what seemed like an eternity to Mike, she came outside where he asked, “Will you marry me”. Whether or not she actually answered the question is still debated by them to this day.