When Jimi met Tori, he thought "who is this cute short girl?" she went on bashfully yet proudly rambling about the reason her bike's handlebars are crooked and chain dislodged with a flat tire.

She was ramble rousing on the trails like a teenager with minimal mind about the bodily damage that could come from crushing bikes down mountains at maximum speeds. With little training, she assumed her innate ability to fly downhill on a bike was inherited from her gear head dad; or maybe even her Italian grandma who tended to brag about being the first to be able to ride her bike through town with a vase of water balanced a top her head... Either way, the only thing Tori had to show for her lack of training, was the battle scars of her bicycle.

"Just my type.." Jimi thought to himself cracking his neck slightly as the memory of his own mountain bike victories and injuries poked him in the side.

Tori nervously touted about her bike a little longer. She noticed his stout posture and the clean collared shirt Jimi wore embroidered with his company logo, Axtell Mountain Construction. She admired how blue-collar and sharp he looked compared to her usual company of mountain college degenerates and hippies.

Unbeknown to herself, she kept Jimi on her radar for the next couple years as the small town would sometimes bring them together to note each other again.

__

One time, Tori went on a date with Jimi's roommate. They all gathered in the living room that night to share a drink and a laugh. Towards the end of the night, she looked upon Jimi sitting in a recliner, he was looking up at her. His blue eyes burning with an obvious hint of jealousy.

"The short girl comes around and I don't even get a chance with her..." he thinks to himself.

She realizes she prefers him.

__

Later on, that roommate decided to leave town long after that doomed first date. Tori took note of this--She figured that Jimi might be lonely now that he's been left behind. His name popped on social media as she lounged in her apartment one morning. In pity and curiosity, she pushed a button to innocently add him as a friend.

Moments later...

"Hey!" From Jimi

__

After lots of inquiring texts from Jimi, Tori finally put her guard down and decided to go biking with Jimi... then rafting... the text messages kept coming.

She next finds herself at work changing trash bags for the restaurant. Over the gritty trash, she peers up to the blue collared Jimi handing her something. It's a sock in a Tupperware. Her soggy sock from the raft. "thank you?"

She quickly resumed her posture while studying the Tupperware. She had been stunned by the handsome blue-eyed man holding out a Tupperware for me with her sock inside.

This stout young man, with a blondish early 2000’s beachy demeanor.

After deliberating the drama with a friend, they determined Tori should return his Tupperware to him at his mechanical shop. The new gestured Tupperware contained a sock; a another one of hers …a cleaner one.

Her genius plan was to get him to once again return the sock, thus extending future interactions. You don’t have to tell me how clever I am, I know!

8AM the next morning she biked up the back side of the shop, amply greeted by a trio of running dogs who darted around the corner to her, then shortly behind them was him chasing after. Suddenly he was standing right in front of her, and she was not prepared for that!

The nerves in her flared hot as his crystal blue eyes shined in surprise at her early presence.

Suddenly, her plan did not seem so clever, and she poured the Tupperware and a friendly can of very cheap coffee into his arms declaring "these are for you!", and she turned around to waddle away tiptoe style over her bike, doing her best to push away without dismounting.

From behind, he studied the Tupperware as she made her exit.

Calling out to her.

“There’s a sock in here!”

“Yes, I’m going to need that back.” she called to him biking away in a frenzy of morning time adrenaline.

Wedding Day

Reception