Aaron and I met on a cold night in November. The Browns were playing a Thursday night game, and while we both generally do not participate in spirits on work nights, we chose to go out. My friend and I wanted to get some Christmas Ales and stopped into Riverwood Cafe, it was packed and there was no where to sit. We got our Christmas Ales and stood there with a beer and a water in hand, and that is when Aaron came over and said "you guys can put your drinks on our table". He was with a group of his friends watching the game. We chatted all night, and when Aaron finally asked for my number I noticed he had a woman on the background of his phone. I immediately said "are you seriously asking for my number with a girl on the back of your phone?" to which he replied "its my mom" and as we laughed I said "I have my mom on my background too"!

It took a whole 24 hours for him to reach out to me the next day, and I was about to throw in the towel. I thought, wow I really liked that guy, why hasn't he texted me yet?! But then he did, and our story began. We had our first date in Tremont at the Tremont Taphouse, and for some reason although we were starving, we both pretended that we weren't that hungry. We devoured a basket of fries within 3 minutes. We had a couple beers and talked about how much we loved our families, which we both believe to be the reason we connected so well, they truly are the best.

As time went on and COVID happened, we decided to go stay with our parents and were away from each other for about a week, which felt like an eternity. I decided that it was time to go back to my apartment in Lakewood and shortly after, Aaron decided to come back to me. While this time was harsh for others, for us it was sweet. We were able to get our little Charli girl, who has changed our lives. We spent our days eating, napping, playing drinking games, and walking the dog.

We fell in love during lock down, and soon realized that we found each other at the perfect time. A couple years went by, we moved into a space of our own, had some job changes, purchased our first home, and the rest was history.

Thank God for Riverwood Cafe, The Cleveland Browns, and Charli Atzemis-Shaffer...

Cleveland is for lovers!