How We Met
#TinderSuccessStory. Yep, we are one of those! You know how it goes, we swiped right at the right time and the right place. Both full-time workers, doing the formal date and meet-up in the daytime or evening that comes with high expectations and anxiety was not an option for us. So, one cold December morning, at 7:30 a.m., we met bleary-eyed and hungry on the corner of a street central to where we both lived at the time. Without any fuss, we immediately headed to Lee’s favourite coffeehouse, MIIT Coffee in Riga, Latvia and sat down to a sandwich, coffee and a conversation that would change our lives. We had to head to work and walked with the morning sunrise in our eyes that cast long shadows behind us (Latvia has long nights in winter). We don’t know what or how it happened but since that morning, we never parted from each other. We made a habit of meeting for breakfast every morning, then added every lunch and soon after, we added evenings. To the evenings, we added forever…
how they asked
The proposal from Lee was completely unexpected! It was warm on June 16th, my birthday morning, and it started as usual with coffee, breakfast and our usual phrase as he leaves for work: “Text me, call me, don’t forget about me” and we both went into our daily routes. At least, that’s what I thought. As I said, it was my birthday morning, so I needed to run last minute errands before my party. I went grocery shopping while I assumed Lee went to work. After shopping, I came home to have a little bit of relaxing time. Around my “let’s take a nap on a couch” time, I got a text message from Lee, asking to put a link in the design app, Adobe XD, he installed the same morning. So I did. And that’s when the fun part started.
I opened the app and it read “LuverZ”. As creative as he is, in his spare time, he had been designing an application in XD that mimicked how Tinder works. The L and the Z referred to our names and this app would take me back through the memories of the first morning we met.
LuverZ obviously came with the ability to swipe left and swipe right. My first potential matches? Donald Trump and Rick Astley – yes, he “Rick-rolled me.” Lee then showed up in the app and of course I pressed the heart. “It’s a match!” I was then asked to go to the corner of the street where we first met. At first, I thought it was a joke, but a quick call to Lee would confirm that I needed to head out. It would be the last time I spoke to Lee as his girlfriend and embarked on a beautiful journey through those memories of how we met. I expected him to be there, but to my surprise he wasn’t.
Back in the app, I received such a lovely message from Lee saying how much he loves me and will always love me, so I stood there with tears in my eyes and felt as happy as ever. The app then told me to go to the next spot, MIIT Coffee, where we had our first morning date. I felt that this was such a nice birthday present and he was going to meet me there for a lovely birthday date. To my surprise (again) he wasn’t there. How could I be so naive multiple times in one day? How could my boyfriend stand me up twice on my birthday?
Still, I was happy when I received full-on pampering with free cake and coffee, still waiting for him to show up and yet I was so full of joy and happiness. That was when I opened app to read the next message…. I cried again. I cried from happiness and from all that he had done that day. All of this was a perfect birthday gift for me. All of this was enough already to make me to feel such joy and love. When I finally got my coffee and cake, I sent a photo to Lee, but to my surprise (I know, again!) he asked me to hurry and come home. I assumed that all of this was planned so he could get me out of the house to decorate it for my birthday party later in evening. As quickly as a 9-months pregnant lady can, I rushed back to apartment so I could see him before he needed to get back to work.
I opened the doors and there he was – standing with a bouquet of flowers in his hands, looking amazingly hot in his suit, and with tears in his eyes. I still had no idea what was going to happen next. I just hugged him and cried from happiness and appreciation over his shoulder – all of this was so overwhelming yet wonderful. I had the best birthday present: he gave me a relaxed morning, many loving messages and now (I thought) that he had taken a day off from work to spend it with me. What could be better? How naive I had been this whole time!
“I have one more thing I want to ask you,” he said and I could not contain my excitement. As high as a 9-months pregnant lady can, I jumped up and down. He attempted to get down on one knee but mine were so high up in the air that there was the potential for a knee to the face! He calmed me down quickly, got down on one knee and with tears and laughter pouring all over the room, he asked me to be his wife. I let out a huge “YEEEEEEEEEEES!” that I would have said 1000x more but I will keep the next one, special, for our wedding day.
