Drew's Story:

In 2019 some of my friends from rock-climbing arranged a trip to Colorado. We held a game night to get introduced to everyone. This is where I met Lizzie. As we played, I noticed that she was warm, witty, and a worthy challenger.

Our next encounter was on the rock-climbing trip itself, we sat next to each other while Sam drove and discussed our education. We both went to school for science, so we discussed fun subjects like spectroscopy and the hurry up and wait aspects of school labs. Poor Sam had to listen to it all as he drove through Iowa. During the trip we squared off in a series of games, including Poetry for Neanderthals, where she and I quickly distinguished ourselves as excellent clue givers. This led to us playing for several hours after everyone else left to go to the hot tub. We forced Sam to stay and be our guesser. She again proved to be a worthy challenger with a strong arm. We tied.

After the rock-climbing trip, someone started a group chat and requested that we all meet up again to continue playing board games together. We formed a board game group. As we continued to meet, a pattern formed: we were both the last ones gaming. During this time, I realized I liked Lizzie as more than a platonic friend. Perplexed, I reached out to others about what to do, the resounding advice was to tell her.

Shortly after, we found ourselves in our normal spots across the table from each other playing game after game. After we were done and I was walking her out, I decided to act. I looked at her and said "There's something I'd like to tell you. I like you." She looked shocked, took a step back and said "This is very sudden and a lot." I was devastated, this was in the top 5 worst ways this could resolve. She continued, "I think we should take a step back and I think what you mean to say is 'I have feelings for you.'" Now I was confused, I took a moment and said "Yes, I have feelings for you. But just to clarify, to me the saying 'I like you' is the same as 'I have feelings for you'"

"Oh" she replied, "I think I must have misheard you"

I was pretty sure I knew where this was going but asked anyways "What did you think I said?"

Her face turned red, she was fumbling with the door and said "I'm sorry, sometimes my ears just don't work. I thought you said you love me."

I laughed hard. I was so relieved and also wildly amused. "I don't know you that well."

"I should be going now." she said as she awkwardly fumbled with the door.

I pointed out that we had addressed what she thought I said and requested that we address what I actually said.

She looked at me and said, "I really like the group and don't want to disrupt things, how about we take baby steps." I agreed, not having any idea what that meant.

We continued to see each other at game nights, and as winter fell she started to reach her feet under the table to touch mine. She said it was for warmth, but privately we called it a foot bridge. I began texting her apart from the group. I kept it casual by sending a dad joke to start the conversation - if she didn't want to talk, she didn't have to say anything. We began swapping books we found fun and continued our fierce rivalry. One day I missed my joke, and she texted me first. "WHERE'S MY JOKE FUNNY MAN."

Several months of this later, the board game group set up a birthday party for me. We were going to have a card tournament. Lizzie baked an amazing coffee flavored cake, and even stayed up until midnight to send me a happy birthday text (this is quite the feat for Lizzie). The tournament went well, I was able to win it all. After everyone else packed up and left, Lizzie and I took up the tradition of playing more, the loser requesting one more game each time.

Eventually she looked up and said, "I think it's time for us to address the feelings developing between us." I was elated. I replied with "So, you do like me." Immediately she corrected me with "I have feelings for you."

This is the story of how it started. Since then, we've stayed rivals, playing thousands of games against each other since. The competition is still fierce, but I've stopped keeping score. Why would I? I've already won.