Like all great modern romances, it started with a swipe—shoutout to Hinge.

Our first date? Christmas Eve. You’d think the magic of the holiday would involve hot chocolate and walking around a market. Instead, it was at Tatte, where I thought it would be funny to sneak up behind her and scare her. What could go wrong? Instead, I tripped into a table, knocking over a stack of menus :,) I then sat across from Sam… and ordered absolutely nothing, drowning in embarrassment. Sam, meanwhile, awkwardly sipped her coffee, looking as if this would be the shortest date in history.

Somehow, I managed to win over Sam despite breaking all the “first date” rules, scoring a second date. From there, things turned from coffee dates to real deal dates and we’ve been building our life ever since.

Naturally, it was love at first swipe…

While our first IRL date was on Christmas Eve, our first actual date was via FaceTime. Let me set the scene... I'm super nervous pacing around my room waiting for Niki to call... when I answer, she's in a striped fuzzy robe FaceTiming me from her iPad. For some reason I looked past her outfit choice and joined her for coffee.

Our coffee date started off strong with Niki's failed attempt to scare me resulting in us having to pick up the 50 Tatte menus she knocked over. Then, after an hour of conversation while she stared at me drinking coffee, she walked me to my car... where I was so dizzy from our first kiss I forgot to offer her a ride home! Despite my fumble, she asked me on date number two of what is now infinite dates... half of which are spent in our now matching robes.