Our story begins in the Fall of 2021. Kelsey and James first met at Little City - a school where they were both employed. They instantly noticed the other person the first time they saw one another. This mutual interest soon turned into phone calls and texts... not to each other... but to their close friends, excitedly telling them about the person they "met" at work. There was also, of course, a reasonable amount of social media stalking carried out by both sides. Nevertheless, even with this mutual interest and the encouragement from their close friends, Kelsey and James refrained from introducing themselves to one another for a solid two weeks. Mutual admiration was practiced by promptly ignoring the other person, both parties mistakenly playing "hard to get." This very well could have gone on indefinitely but thankfully Kelsey finally broke the ice and stopped James in the hallway to introduce herself: "Hi, we haven't officially met. My name is Kelsey.." James responded with a romantically poetic "euhr..eh hi.." and then quickly turned away and kept walking. He could not believe such a beautiful girl was talking to him. It took him another hour to build up the confidence to say hi back. But he finally did and this led into daily conversations between the two at work and at home via their job's communication app. James took too long to ask for her number. She had to give it to him several days later. In December of 2021, James eventually got the courage to ask her out on a date.

She said yes.

Their first date was meeting at this same school to clean a fish tank and then awkwardly wait for two hours while their talkative coworker talked their ears off, him being blissfully unaware that this was our couple's first date. The weight of this one-way conversation was eventually lifted though, and James and Kelsey escaped the school to go get coffee and then to a pet store to play with puppies (nice move James). After several hours of the caffeinated petting of various fuzzy animals, Kelsey had to leave in order to take her sick cat to the vet. James offered to go with to help (an obviously desperate move, but hey, it worked). She accepted his offer and James met Todd (Kelsey's cat and soulmate) for the first time. (A quick note: James has come to peace with the fact that Todd is Kelsey's favorite. James has learned to be content with 2nd place). After the vet appointment, Kelsey went home to visit with her family because her brother was in town. James couldn't stop thinking about Kelsey and berated her with text messages asking if she wanted to go out that same day later in the night. Although it was a frantic gamble but:

She said yes.

So James, excited about seeing Kelsey again but foolishly without any sense of plan, desperately looked for a place that was open late where the two could get drinks and talk. He got overwhelmed with the limited options and panic-picked a dinky biker bar that was blasting rock music (and not good rock music. But like early 2000s, overplayed on the radio rock music). Not a great place. But thankfully, Kelsey showed up, and the two talked and drank together until 3:30 in the morning. (Despite the romantic history behind this location, Kelsey and James have never returned to this bar and do not plan to in the future).

Kelsey then got COVID and was sick for two weeks. James thought she was lying and using this as an excuse to not see him again. So he did the only logical thing and went outside her apartment late at night and constructed a snowman that held a cardboard sign that said "get better soon so we can hang out." THANKFULLY, she thought this was a cute gesture and not the beginning of a creepy stalker ritual. Thus, upon recovering, Kelsey agreed to several more dates. This eventually led to New Year's Eve of 2021, when Kelsey and James joined a few of their mutual friends at a New Year's Party. James was way too shy and awkward (and stupid, quite frankly) to make any sort of move at midnight. Thankfully though, Kelsey new what she wanted, pushed her way through the crowd to James at 11:59:55 PM, and kissed him for the first time. His world was changed forever.

Soon after that New Years night, both knew they were falling in love. On January 16th, 2022, in a tent set up in her living room, James asked Kelsey if she wanted to be his girlfriend.

She said yes.

James proposed to Kelsey on September 28th, 2024. She had (mostly) no idea that it was coming. Kelsey's friend Jenn had lied to her by saying she was having marital issues and desperately needed girl time with Kelsey to vent about married life. Similarly, Kelsey had been angry at James for about a week because she had resolved that he was just never going to propose to her. And instead of comforting her when she was clearly upset, all James did was ignore her feelings and play video games (A note to the reader in defense of James: he knew she was angry at him, but decided to act the part of a jerk to make the proposal all the more surprising. Plus, it was a fun video game). As such, both women agreed upon a quick angry-girl-walk at a park called Independence Grove to complain about boys. Meanwhile, this was, of course, all a farce. Jenn and James and Anna (James' sister) had been hatching this master plan for weeks. Jenn would be the distraction excuse (Kelsey completely believed all her lies), Jenn's husband would be the unfortunate fall-guy for the lie to work (thanks Lamar! James still owes you a beer for that), Anna would be hiding in a bush with a camera (and simultaneously losing her car keys), Anna's fiance Ryne would be hiding in a bush with another camera (he later found the car keys), and James would be waiting with the ring by the lake (and trying to awkwardly not make eye contact with random fishermen).

Despite all the moving pieces and last minute hiccups - Kelsey getting an aggressive allergy attack the morning of (Benadryl being the unsung hero of the day), James hitting every single red light while racing to the park (following all speed limits of course), and fishermen having claimed the preferred site (thank you Anna for scaring them away) - all worked together perfectly. Kelsey saw James, burst into tears, and blacked out as she walked up to him. James got down on one knee, blacked out, and then hopefully recited everything he had been secretly practicing in the shower for the six days leading up to this.

She said yes.

Actually, more accurately, she said:

"ehrmygod*sniff*ican'tbelieve*sniff*thisI'mso*snort*sorryIwasmadat*sniff*you."

THEN she said yes.

And this brings us, dear reader, to the next part of their story. On Saturday, December 13th 2025, Kelsey and James are going to get married. There will be food, dancing, music, and the start of a new chapter for Kelsey and James when they say:

Yes*

Plus, James will probably cry like a baby. And that will be cute and funny.

*(Kelsey when editing: "You know we're going to say 'I do' and not 'Yes' right?" James: "Shoot. That ruins the whole yes mantra I had going. I'll have to make a note.")