It's a Thursday night in October 2021, Halloween weekend in Chicago. Neither Mikelle nor Trey were supposed to be at Concord Musical Hall that night.

A good love story needs an element of triumph and boy does this hollywood “meet cute” have one.. The same man who will be bestowing a blessing on our eternal marital nuptials was also close to becoming the harbinger of death to Obie’s (Mikelle’s pup) mortal life. Added context - Obie is a dog that basically weighs the same amount as a New York City pigeon whose primary dwelling space is an Einstein Bagels eatery; plump sized pigeon, demure little pup. Substrata of context - Xylitol is a chemical found in sugary gum. A single piece of it can kill a Great Dane or a Bernese Mountain dog - easily the size of like 50 of those NYC pigeons…..you get it ... .they're big and they can die from one single piece of gum. Kyle, the royal fool, did all but open a full pack of Trident Watermelon Gum (wonder if that’s real watermelon or Xylitol) and spoon feed it to the pigeon beast. Cut to, Mikelle is prying Obie’s mouth open with the jaws of life and the Chicago squad is funneling hydrogen peroxide down his gullet to make Obie’s cotton swab of a physical frame spew. That was the reason Mikelle and her gang almost missed Dom Dolla that night.

Trey, on the other hand, who was sporting freshly bleached blonde hair, was flexing too hard in the mirror and passed out on the floor after forgetting to breathe for too long. Sorry Trey, that was low hanging fruit. The real reason was because he and Jason had recently crawled back from EDC Vegas.

Lady Fate did not care about excuses. Obie was not dead and Trey’s frosted tips were not permanent – there was cause for celebration. So both crews took to the streets not knowing that lives would soon change.

Kyle, being Kyle—never met a stranger, always the social butterfly—did what he does best. Deserted the group to find cooler friends. He found Trey and one can only imagine that this is how the conversation went:

Kyle: “Hey man you’ve got a lot of mayonnaise in your hair.”

Trey: “Nah man those are my frosted tips.”

Kyle: “Oh sick. Could’ve sworn it was just globs of Duke’s Mayonnaise in your hair.”

Trey: “Sorry to let you down brother.”

****A very long beat*****

Kyle: “I almost killed a dog tonight”

Trey: “Look at how I can make my pec muscles fire at exactly 130 BPM to match this Sonny song.”

Kyle: “I think I have a girl for you, dude.”

In reality, I can definitively say that what actually happened is that Kyle met Trey and they goofed very hard. He noticed that Trey had a sharp and quick witted sense of humor but more importantly he could tell instantly that Trey had a massive heart. Trey made Kyle feel safe and Kyle could picture spending the rest of his life with Trey…..I mean KYLE THOUGHT HE WOULD BE A GREAT FIT FOR HIS FRIEND MIKELLE. So begrudgingly, he made the introduction to Mikelle.

Now here's where it gets good. Picture Mikelle in her natural habitat—jumping like the floor owed her money, dancing with the kind of energy that made everyone else look lazy. And what did their bleach-blonde hero decide was the perfect flirting technique? A light, rhythmic punch to the back. Smooth, right?

Realizing this might not be his most charming moment, Trey went to apologize. But before he could even get the words out, Mikelle turned around with the line that changed everything: "You couldn't hurt me if you tried."

Game over. Trey was officially hooked on a woman who could out-sass him without breaking a sweat.

These two had actually matched on a dating app years earlier but never met. Apparently, it just took dog puke, Vegas recovery, questionable hair choices, and some aggressive dance-floor flirting for the algorithm to make a connection.

And that is how two people who were supposed to be literally anywhere else ended up exactly where they needed to be.