Logan and Tyler met at work in 2019 when they moved across the country to South Carolina. Tyler first noticed her with her serious, and somewhat scary, demeanor as she walked with purpose past his cubicle. For a short time at the office, they sat only a few yards from each other, but still had limited interaction. Finally, to liven things up in “the Dungeon” room at TTI, Tyler nailed a Nerf basketball hoop to the wall and their lives changed forever. The ball was passed around from person to person as everyone completely ignored work to shoot hoops for a bit. Then Logan walked in and Tyler tossed her the ball for a shot. With zero hesitation and the fire of a thousand suns in her eyes, Logan confidently snatched the ball out of the air, chucked up a shot, dead swish, then let out wild “Whooo” and threw a fist pump that would bring Tiger Woods to tears. Tyler looked back and forth and all he could think was, “whoa.” Not long after this upon moving to their new building, Logan and Tyler were separated and did not see each other at work, but he never forgot that shot and certainly not the fist pump. Through mutual friends they would see each other and hang out in the group on the weekends, but nothing more. Tyler kept an eye on her, but nothing would materialize for several months. Finally, Tyler started to kick things up a notch. A couple of well placed jokes, a couple light jabs at her, and more direct contact was how things started. Were they dating? No. But was she starting to fall for him? Also no, but the game was afoot, as they say. Fast forward a couple weeks and Tyler was starting to pull out all the stops. The dazzling smile and rapier wit had really caught Logan’s eye, but it was the late night chocolate chip pancakes that really piqued her interest. Some on the outside might say that the only reason the pancakes were so good was that everyone was pretty plastered, but that’s beside the point. The plan was finally working; just before the holiday break not only did Logan agree to meet Tyler for casual drinks (gasp and light applause from the audience), but mere weeks later they met at the Manor 27 River Valley Lane for a New Year’s Kiss (thunderous applause and cheering from the audience)! Tyler was making serious inroads armed only with his sense of humor, stunning looks, a couple drinks, and a good dose of roofies that would bring a bull moose down. Tyler thought everything was going perfectly, and why shouldn’t he? He got a New Year’s kiss and shortly after Logan had agreed to go on an official date. They went to Roost in early January 2020 for what would be remembered as one of the most awkward experiences of their lives. First Tyler inexplicably botched parallel parking, then with a room full of empty two person tables, the hostess sat them at a booth large enough for the Duggers to use, and then worst of all and to the surprise of everyone, Tyler’s wit and quick thinking deserted him (another gasp and calls of “NO” from the audience). The date ended well enough, but in the following weeks Logan’s nerves and perhaps the memory of Tyler trying to park were giving her second thoughts. They were still talking and had dinner another time or two, but something was up and Tyler had to bring his thoughts and concerns to Logan. Then on the morning of Valentines Day, Logan threw caution to the wind (tension builds), took up her phone to reach out (people are on the edge of their seats!), and THEN….. texted Tyler that she doesn’t want a relationship right now (audience erupts in a chorus of Boos).

Frustrated? Of course. But Tyler kept a stiff upper lip and carried on. What had gone so wrong? Was the one parking mistake really that big of a deal? Maybe she grew up in a family of valets? No answers were given, but he remained in contact with Logan and something curious was happening. Maybe the crushing text actually loosened things up a bit, maybe Logan was coming to her senses, but their conversations somehow began to get longer and more in depth. They continued to see each other despite Logan’s cold hearted act of rejection. COVID began to rear its ugly head and people thought there was no way this could continue (audience sighs and nods in agreement), but this turned out to be the catalyst that was needed! The office shut down and work from home was initiated, and with more free time on their hands than ever (TTI was NOT prepared for this), they began to see each other every day to workout at the local track. This continued for months as they continued to see each other every day and with restaurants closed, also began to have dinner together several times a week as well. Things were once again progressing well, but Logan still held back and could still not agree to officially date Tyler (although I don’t know what else you would call spending that much time together and getting dinner with each other all the time). The tipping point was a tv show. Under no other circumstances would Tyler agree to watch this show, but desperate times called for desperate measures and he agreed to watch a FULL season of the Bachelor with Logan. That must have been the straw that broke the camel's back because then in April 2020 they were officially together (audience is back into it clapping once more).

From there they didn’t look back, continuing to spend most days together and even starting to go on vacations together. They visited San Diego, Colorado (Logan said “I Love You” first, accidentally. LOL idiot), Pidgeon Forge, Tybee Island, Charleston, and spent Christmas Vacation in both California and Colorado. Things were getting SERIOUS. They even survived meeting each other’s families, and some serious questioning from Tyler’s mother, and continued on to 2021. Life and work began to get back to normal from COVID that year, but they continued spending all their time together. They both moved to the same apartment complex in May that year and were closer than ever, but unfortunately the true test was about to hit. On the way to the Kropfelder wedding later that year, Logan’s complete pile of garbage, waste of space, couldn’t trade it in for a pet rock Dodge Dart broke down in BF nowhere. In a three stoplight town, they literally rolled into the lot of an Advanced Auto parts with an alternator issue. “Need a new Alternator” the man behind the counter said. What a pain, but alright. “Don’t have any for your car in stock”, he then added. That was an issue, but they went to the Oreilly’s across the street to try their luck there, only to be met with, “Nah we ain’t got none of those, but we can get one by tomorra.” With no other options, they ordered the part and began to search for a way to the wedding two hours away. Little did they know, the other guests were already at the rehearsal dinner and too drunk to drive, plus the town of Emporia, Virginia would not learn about Uber or Lyft for several years. Hotels were all a couple mile’s walk away, but Logan found a sketchy sounding taxi service in town with a picture of a beaten down front lawn on the Google page. Much to their surprise, the man answered, said he could take us all the way to the wedding in Virginia Beach, and even asked if we needed the full shuttle bus for our bags. Logan told him we didn’t, so naturally he showed up with the shuttle bus. Keeping an eye on their Google Maps the whole way to make sure they weren’t getting driven into the wilderness to be murdered, they rode the “taxi” all the way to the wedding. On the way back, the alternator had arrived and Tyler swapped it out in the parking lot in a sweltering heat. Even with the new part, there was still an issue with the car and the battery wasn’t charging correctly, but at least it was running so they white knuckled it all the way home. It was a wild and stressful experience, but they agreed that if they can make it through that and solve the issues together calmly, they could make it through almost anything.

Tyler and Logan moved deeper into 2022 with more serious matters on the mind. Not only was a proposal on the table, but they needed to get out of District West apartments. The housing market was continuing to soar, making it hard to find anything reasonable. They perused Zillow whenever they had a chance, but could not seem to agree on anything the other liked. Not only that, but each time something good showed up on the market, all-cash offers swooped in right away and stole it (thanks New York hippies moving south). Finally, one Friday Tyler noticed a nice house right by downtown that had just popped up that day. Logan loved it also, so they sprang into action. They reached out to their real estate consiglieri Michele and toured the house that night. She found out that there were already other offers, but that the couple selling wanted to make a decision quickly. They wrote a letter to the sellers and worked up an offer with Michele the very next day. There were close to 10 offers that weekend so they threw the kitchen sink at the sellers; over asking, escalation clause, free Ryobi tools, beers on me, Logan will walk their dog, they can stay there an extra month for free, and Logan and Tyler would even do their taxes for them. It paid off and after only one weekend, their offer was accepted. With keys about to be passed over, only one big move needed to be made.

Tyler had a ring picked out and was running through scenarios in his head, but when could he actually propose? There were a couple decent options, but nothing great earlier in the year. Should he push it to the limit and save it till New Year’s Eve? Logan’s head might explode from waiting. Should he do it in Hawaii just before her brother’s wedding? Impolite to try and take their spotlight, and he’s nothing if not polite. He decided to save it until her family visited in November. There were several near breakdowns from Logan leading up to the moment, but only one trip to the looney bin as she got too into her own head about it. He still wasn’t giving anything away. Before Tyler knew it, her family was there and it was the moment of no return. They all toured Greenville, seeing all the sights and dropping into a few of the good restaurants. Logan seemed to think Tyler was acting a bit distant and strange. He kept checking his phone, but at the same time how did she expect him to act when they kept dropping into different shops and boutiques? “Want to stop in Anthropology?!” Hell no he doesn’t. “Ooh those are nice dresses!” Yeah I’m sure they are. “Do we need another candle?” There is FOOTBALL on! He powered through and steered the group, with the help of Taylor, through the city to the bottom of Falls Park. Taylor set up for pictures and Tyler pulled out the ring to pop the question. “Logan will you…. Uh, will you…” He was struggling to get his speech out after seeing the look on Logan’s face. He looked at her with nothing but love in his eyes, but the look he got back from her seemed to say, “whatchu lookin at, bozo?” He recovered and pushed through the speech slightly flustered, but she said yes and the park was alive with applause. It was a happy moment and just as they were getting a few more pictures, a chain reaction seemed to have started. Just behind them another man had dropped to his knee and the park exploded once more with applause and cheering. What a wild coincidence, two people proposing at the same time in the same place, but what’s that? You guessed it, a THIRD guy drops to his knee and proposes. Good thing Tyler got through it first, eh? They celebrated all afternoon and night, soon joined by their Greenville friends for champagne and toasts. Logan wasted no time in starting the wedding planning, even trying to book a venue just three days later. Tyler jumped in to restrain her, pointing out that everyone’s car would likely be stolen before the ceremony finished based on the surrounding neighborhood. They settled on the venue here in Monument and everything began to fall into place. The hard part was over, they were ready to live happily ever after. What could possibly go wrong from here?