Scott and I "technically" matched on a dating app, but our story goes beyond a simple swipe. It all began on a Thursday in November 2020, during the heart of the pandemic. Scott and I had matched on tinder and exchanged a few messages back and forth, but that was the extent of it.

The next evening, I found myself on a first date with another guy. We had planned to meet at Wiseacre, but when he lost his ID, we had to shift our plans to Loflin last minute. I had a few friends spying on me from afar including Payton, and her dog Miles.

To make things even crazier, I was originally supposed to be in Birmingham that weekend to be a bridesmaid in a friend’s wedding. Unfortunately, she got COVID earlier that week, and they had to limit the ceremony to immediate family only, leaving me free to be in Memphis.

While my date stepped out to the bathroom, I noticed a guy walking by who looked familiar. With masks on, it was hard to tell at first, but then Scott pulled down his mask, and we recognized each other. We exchanged quick hellos before he returned to his friends.

Meanwhile, Payton’s dog ran off, and she called out for him. One of Scott’s friends, also named Miles, thought she was calling for him, which led to a friendly conversation between Payton and Scott’s group around a bonfire. Payton and Miles (the dog) joined in with their group.

As the date continued, I saw an opportunity and managed to combine our two groups. We all decided to head back to Payton’s apartment to continue the night. While at Payton’s apartment, my date ended up going to the bathroom again and I took a leap and went up to Scott and asked for his number, and if he would want to watch Tennessee and Mississippi State football the next night. He said yes!

Our first official date turned out to be the following evening. We had planned to go to Railgarten, but this time I ended up losing my ID a, so we found ourselves back at Loflin (again), where it all began.

As we got to know each other better, we discovered how many connections we shared, including several mutual friends—one of whom had even been on the same team as Scott at work. So, while we may have “matched on an app,” our story runs much deeper, which is why when people ask us how we met we often just say “Through mutual friends”.