Our story starts like so many others... at a bar. I (Maia) was at Sharkey's in downtown Blacksburg with my friends Claudia and Dan in May 2019. Dan told me he had invited one of his friends that he had worked with the previous summer. He told me he was pretty positive we were going to get along really well. Enter Thomas- a sweet smile on his face and a bit out of his comfort zone, but happy to go with the flow of the night and meet some new people. As we drank and played darts through Blacksburg's bar scene, I couldn't help but to steal glances at Thomas and whisper to Claudia that he is *SO CUTE.* I remember being in awe of how interesting he is and how passionate he was about everything he talked about. I tried my absolute best to flirt with him, and at the end of the night, tipsy and giddy, I called Dan to excitedly rave over my new crush and request he send me Thomas' phone number. Dan failed to give me a heads up that I was on speaker phone, and that he was still with Thomas.

The following few months were a blur- Thomas and I saw each other one more time before our first date, and this time, with the help of some liquid courage, he made me feel pretty confident that he was also interested. Nervously, I finally asked him on a proper date. Our first date was on a Wednesday... our second was on Thursday... our third, Friday... and fourth, Saturday. We knew time was precious. Thomas had to move to Northern Virginia for an internship, and I was about to move to Arkansas for grad school. We spent our weekends traveling back and forth to see each other as much as possible before I had to leave. Once I left, we spent hours a day on the phone and on FaceTime. Shortly after Thomas visited me for a week in Arkansas, I got a significant sense of clarity. My future husband was waiting for me back home, and I had two options- either stay in Arkansas for the next five years to pursue something I wasn't in love with, or move home to something I was.

I moved back in with my parents in December 2019. At the time, Thomas was completing his senior year of college. With COVID turning all classes remote, Thomas was able to stay with me at the Huntington household. Every day my dad would come home and he and Thomas would go play disc golf together in our backyard, and come spring time, he and my mom would mushroom hunt. In my mom's words, those few months living at our house 'made [them] fall in love with Thomas too.' We've been inseparable ever since. Thomas moved to Roanoke full time in May 2020 with me in tow. We are now very happy in our home with our cats, Bandit, Bennie, and KB, and our dog, Ellie. I feel so incredibly lucky to have found someone who fits so seamlessly into my family and whose family makes me feel at home. Thomas brings laughter and love into my life every day. We're so excited to get married and become the Huntington-Schuberts.