Emily: I've never considered myself a lucky person, and when it came to dating, I felt like I had the worst luck. Especially when I, like any other millennial out there, left it all up to chance through dating apps. When the Covid-19 pandemic shut the world down in March of 2020, dating was the last thing on my mind as what was supposed to be a mere few days off from work evolved into a full-blown lockdown. By the month of May, boredom crept in and I decided to download the dating apps again. Whenever I got bored, I would randomly pick an app and nonchalantly scroll and scroll and scroll, put my phone down, forget about Hinge and Bumble, rinse and repeat. Within a few weeks of mindlessly scrolling through profiles and enduring cheesy pick up lines and answering the same questions over and over, I was ready to delete the apps again. But then a profile came up on Hinge that piqued my interest, "Jesse...oh, he's cute". I slowly read through his profile and figured, "why not, if this one doesn't pan out, I'll definitely delete this thing". I decided to answer one of his written prompts: Did you know... some people have a gene that makes cilantro taste soapy? I responded, "Yes! My brother-in-law has this and thinks cilantro takes like dirt. I love cilantro though. Which one are you?" From there, it evolved into phone calls about Jesse’s experience moonlighting as a DJ in college, discussing reasons why the Nathan hot dog is superior to any other hot dog, to going on a real in-person first date to Point Pleasant where we asked each other silly questions like "is cereal a soup" as well as serious questions like "what are your ambitions" and "what is your idea of what a family looks like". Little did I know, I would fall in love with this man who prepared so hard for our first date and thought of a multitude of scenarios of what could happen that day - packing towels, flip flops, extra shoes, sunblock, swim trunks, and a jacket. This man I would eventually move thousands of miles away from home with, and who I would say “I do” to. I knew there was something special here, and after so many years being unlucky in love, maybe my luck was starting to turn. Jesse: Hmmm… what type of fun fact could I write that would make me seem intelligent and sophisticated… I know, let me google fun facts! “Did you know that there is a gene that some people have which causes them to taste soap when they eat cilantro?” was the hinge (dating app) prompt that started it all . A one liner that hooked Emily into thinking “wow” this guy must be so smart wink wink. It started with a few texts then an awkward phone call during peak covid of 2020. What did we talk about during the first 4 hour phone call? Nathan’s hot dogs of course! I couldn’t believe that I could be so infatuated with someone who loves hotdogs just as much as me! As we shared our love for food on that first call, so grew our love for each other. Finally on our first date, we roasted on the hot sands of Point Pleasant for 12 hours where I revealed my one true love…. my car Rhonda. Needless to say Emily was pretty accepting of this and said “challenge accepted”. As if that date wasn’t long enough, we continued dating for 9 months before I quickly popped the question…. will you move in with me… in LA? Thus began a whole new journey together talking about street tacos instead of hot dogs. Our love for each other grew more and more over the year over each dish we shared together until December 2022 when Emily finally beat the challenge and took the number one spot over Rhonda as fiancée.