part 1
Real Love Story: S + T
In honor of Valentine's Day, we've decided to share our own love stories. Its not always rainbows and butterflies, but these are the real stories behind our relationships.
The Long Story
I met Thomas because he took Natalie on a date. Thank God for that because without their initial connection, I probably would have never found Thomas. From the start, I knew that Thomas was special. I definitely didn't have the foresight to know that we would one day be partners-4-lyfe, but I did know that I wanted to keep him in my life (even if it were just as friends). SO we were friends. I would see him when I came home from college over the holidays. We spent summers wake-boarding in the Atchafalaya Basin and winters sitting by fires. My parents thought of Thomas as the "son they never had" and Thomas tagged along on all of our family beach vacations. We would counsel each other on relationship problems. I met his girlfriends and he met my boyfriends.
The chemistry was there and became harder to ignore. One summer Tuesday night out, we found ourselves drunkenly kissing on the dance floor of a fine establishment named, The Keg (if the name doesn't tell you, its not fine, its actually quite dirty and the floors kind of stick when you walk). Anyway, we announced this weirdness to my family the next morning. My dad accused me of "making out with my brother." BUT note— he isn't my brother.
During those college years, circumstances did not allow for us to explore any kind of real romantic relationship. We were going to school across the country from each other and a long-distance relationship was not a good idea. I had pretty bad track record of failed long-distance relationships. I don't think either of us wanted to risk ruining our connection with unrealistic expectations of monogamy and commitment. But by our senior year, we were "in love." We somehow made it through a trepidatious year of long-distance and then another year of post-grad misery trying to find jobs in a shit economy. 2010 was a great year to enter the workforce... Not. All the while, I maintained that we needed to live in the same city ASAP so that we could make sure we actually like each other and aren't wasting each other's time.
I ended up in Dallas after graduating from college in 2010 because my parents were here at the time. Thomas got a job and moved here in 2011.
Marriage was never really a part of my plan. I honestly thought I'd spend my life being a perpetual bachelorette in and out of long-term relationships. Thomas, on the other hand, expressed pretty early on that he would like to get married. After 3 years of living life together in Dallas, I was sure that I wanted to be Thomas' partner forever. SO I figured if marriage was important to him, we could do that! So we did.
We now live together in Dallas with our dog, Jeffrey Campbell, and my sister, Natalie also lives with us. 😂
