Hi, it’s me...Rachel. Imagine you’re just heading into your sophomore year of college fresh out of a breakup from a 2 year relationship. You’re thinking “this is my time to break free with the girls & just be single and have fun!” You’re all moved into your new apartment & suddenly the neighbor boys want to come over to meet us and chill. There was one particular guy that brought a single, fresh jalapeño and asked me if I wanted to bite the other end of it ~ lady & the tramp style ~ with him…what a weirdo! Um..no!

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The next day, that weirdo asked me to go get dinner with him. I had JUST told myself I was going to have a fun year without boys…I didn’t want anything to do with dating! I told him I’d see and ended up avoiding him as much as possible after that. Turns out, it’s not an easy thing to do when he’s your neighbor.

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He may have asked me two or three more times to go out and I had an excuse for every time. I remember walking in the door that night to my roommates, Alli and Maddie, waiting for me at the kichen island. I could tell something was up. “Rachel, this guy is trying SO hard to get you to go out with him. He’s so nice, you should just give him a chance. It’s just one date!” Ugh. When they put it that way, I felt like I couldn’t ignore his continuous efforts even after my several poor excuses to avoid any such date. “Fine, you’re right. I’ll give him a chance.” I found him on Facebook a few days later to message about an unrelated issue (his roommate drunk knocking at our door in the middle of the night) & we ended up exchanging numbers. Without boring you about the several in-between “dates” we had when my roommates would tag along (obvi had to make sure he wasn’t a psycho killer or something), we did eventually plan a sushi date for just the two of us at Fuji Steakhouse.

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We went on said date. Turns out he was still a weirdo…but he was sweet, kind & it didn’t take long to learn what a caring, sincere heart he had. It was one of those connections where you felt like you’ve known each other for years and the conversation could go on for hours. And now, here I am, writing this 11 years later to tell you I’m about to marry the jalapeño neighbor boy! What a ride it’s been! xo