To be fair, I didn´t know him. I started working with him at a bar in 2017. Our first interactions were brief and I asked him for a bar rag- which he never brought. Strike one. He appeared to be friends with the GM (who is a less than pleasant) therefore, making him guilty by association. Strike two. Austin worked in a separate part of the bar than I did, and also kept to himself, which I took to mean that he thought he was too good to speak to me. Strike three. Fast forward 2.5 years... He started working behind the bar with me. I thought... ¨well, now he´s on my turf and he might be uncomfortable, so I should probably try to be welcoming.¨ I asked him how it was going and he responded with a friendly demeanor. That had me thinking that *maybe* he wasn´t too good to speak to me, maybe he was just reserved. Somewhere between that first conversation and many more small pleasantries, I developed a crush. For anyone that really knows me, when I like someone, I forget how to exist normally. All thoughts just cease, and I get really nervous. So after weeks of unsuccessfully trying to get Austin to telepathically pick up on the fact that I liked him, Kat, my friend and coworker intervened. She threatened to tell him that I liked him (like 3rd graders do) if I didn´t ask him to hang out. I couldn´t have that. At our next work outing, I nervously approached him, starting a conversation about virtually nothing (stalling), while Kat watched from across the bar. After multiple texts and threatening facial expressions thrown my way, Austin asked why Kat was looking at me like that. I thought, ¨now or never¨... Side note: I said we were at a bar, but really, it was a VERY loud nightclub. So I lean in and say ¨Kat is looking at me like that because she knows that I want to ask you to hang out, but that I´m being shy.¨ To which he responded, ¨I´m not gonna lie, I didn´t hear a word you said.¨ *I died a little inside* and then repeated myself. He continued to look at me with a blank stare and I thought, ¨Oh no, I´m going to have to repeat this a third time¨, as I was losing the will to go on. It turns out, Austin did hear me, but he was in shock that I wanted to hang out with him. He collected my phone number, and while the shock was still wearing off he asked, ¨really? You want to hang out with me?¨ I obviously said ¨yes¨, to which he replied ¨that makes me so happy!¨ (Cutest response ever) We proceeded to talk nonstop until the bar closed, and then he walked me home. We went on our [perfect] first date four days later. The rest is history :)