We're Getting Married

Let us set the scene...The year is 2020, and the COVID lockdowns are well passed 2 weeks. Both Karina and Tommy resort to dating apps to escape quarantine and deployment. While Tommy is deployed in the UAE, his location on the dating app was still San Clemente, CA, which places him in Karina's dating "radius". Shortly after, Karina and Tommy match! The excitement really ends there, they did not talk much on this app. At that time, Tommy explains that he is deployed and Karina loses some interest since there is no chance they could even meet at this point. The good news was Tommy would come back eventually, so Karina ends the short conversation on this app and adds Tommy on Instagram, @tommyfreshwater. (Like most people, Karina thought his last name was Freshwater until she eventually saw “Bardenwerper” on his Marine-issued backpack on their first date). Things went quiet for a while. It wasn't until months later, Tommy posts an Instagram story of 2 scorpions fighting in the desert while on deployment, Karina makes the first move and slides in his DM. After a couple simple messages, Tommy told Karina he would be coming home in 2 weeks. While she was excited for the chance to possibly have a date with him, she was keeping her distance. She doesn't really know Tommy and she never dated anyone in the military before, she was hesitant. Tommy returns home to the US to something called quarantine- things are definitely different. While the rest of CA was locked down, Orange County had enough and life was getting back to normal. Karina and Tommy didn't really talk much when he returned. It seems they were both trying to play it really cool. He had plans to go to AZ for Fourth of July but because of COVID they were cancelled. So instead, he invites Karina to hang out with him and his friends in Newport Beach. For anyone that knows, the Fourth is a BIG deal in Newport. It's one big day-party, and after everyone being locked inside for months, people were ready to party. Karina already had pre-game plans but she agreed to meet Tommy later on so she could finally meet him in person and see what this guy was all about. All of Karina's friends gather at her house in Costa Mesa and head to this party. When Karina arrives, she sees Tommy is already there! They were both invited to the same party...small world. They immediately hit it off. A couple weeks later, Tommy noticed that Karina picked up hiking while in quarantine and asked her on a casual 16-mile hike up Mount San Jacinto to kick off this romance. Tommy thrived and Karina barely survived. Despite that, Karina still enjoyed her time with Tommy so she invited him to church & lunch the next day, and the rest is history.