Austin and I lived at the same apartment complex in College Station. I was working at the leasing office during that time. One day, Austin came by to return a pair of lost AirPods. Right before he walked in, my coworkers were joking around about whether guys would like to receive flowers. Naturally, they pulled him into the conversation and asked, “Do you think guys should get flowers?” Austin said, “Yeah, that’d be cool.”

Then they asked, “Do you have a girlfriend?” and he said, “I don’t.” So they followed up with, “Do you want one?” Austin replied, “I don’t know… is she a God-fearing woman?” Without missing a beat, they said, “Yes! She LOVES Jesus!”, and then immediately pulled up my Instagram. They were so convinced this was meant to be that they called me to tell me all about him and said, “He’s coming back Tuesday when you’re working!”

Sure enough, that Tuesday evening, Austin came by before we closed. My coworker told me he was at the desk, but I didn’t see anyone until he peeked out from behind a pillar. We started talking and it was awkward at first but once we started chatting we got more and more comfortable with each other. He asked for my number, and we set a time to grab coffee.

That “coffee date” turned into five hours of deep conversation outside of Kyle House. We shared our testimonies, laughed, and talked like old friends. The shop literally closed while we were still sitting outside. After that, we went on more dates and quickly realized this was something really special.