It was the year 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic was in full swing, and the singles of the world were hunkering down to play board games with their parents (Sam) and go on neighborhood bubble bro dates (Jeffrey). There’s no spontaneous bar pickups or meeting new people at the office. The only dating that remained… virtual dating via apps. Ah, yes. The era of the Zoom date. While Sam admittedly traversed the sea of dating apps like a drunken sailor, Jeffrey was a rare Seattle breed who enjoyed “talking” to girls in person. It was only when the pandemic stole this privilege that he looked to something new: Tawkify, a match making service (#notsponsored but maybe we should be?). That’s right, folks. Jeffrey paid a human matchmaker to sort through piles and piles of suitors. And Sam? Sam was scrolling through Instagram one day and got an ad that said she could toss an application into Tawkify’s dating pool for free. Jeffrey endured a few perilous dates, but with each bad match, he provided feedback to the matchmaker. It was then that the matchmaker came across Sam’s profile. On Thursday, September 17, 2020, Sam and Jeffrey hopped onto a blind Zoom first date. The date lasted nearly five hours and, as they say, the rest was history!

As we all know, Jeffrey’s (second to Sam) true love in life is cars—specifically, his Honda S2000. Over the past few years, he’s been meticulously ordering parts to track prep the car. This means boxes and boxes and boxes AND BOXES from a performance parts manufacturer called Spoon. Why is this relevant? Just wait… On a beautiful Summer evening, Sam and Jeffrey decided to take the S2000 for a joyride. They packed the trunk with a picnic blanket, a bottle of champagne, and hit the road. Sam had been hoping Jeffrey would propose, but she noticed he didn’t have the signatory “ring box bump” in his pocket, nor did he sneak away to “grab something” while they were packing the car. Jeffrey was still keeping their destination a surprise, so they hopped in the car and zoomed away for what seemed to be a romantic but NOT proposal date night. A hundred miles of convertible driving later (and with Jeffrey, racing is a better descriptor), they made it to the secret destination: the idyllic mountain lookout over Diablo Lake in the North Cascades. Jeffrey grabbed the picnic blanket, Sam grabbed the champagne. As Sam admired the view and attempted to open the champagne, Jeffrey stopped her and exclaimed, “Look! I accidentally brought a Spoon box.” Sam had seen the Spoon box in the car trunk and thought nothing of it—after all, they were near omnipresent. “Silly boy,” Sam said, rolling her eyes. “You and your bajillion Spoon boxes.” She turned away, only to hear Jeffrey say, “It’s not my Spoon box. It’s yours.” And there he was: knee bent, Spoon box open, engagement ring glimmering in the light of the setting sun. Sam never said yes… it was more of a laughing, “Really?!” Jeffrey forgot to put the ring on her finger. The wind was howling around them. And yet? Everything could not be more perfect.