Kaylee's Story

 

Love often meets you when you aren’t looking for it, in a place that’s far from home. For Kaylee, that place was Kansas City. 

 

Last June 2018, Kaylee stopped by KC on her way back home to North Carolina. She was visiting a friend and passing through town, and after miles of endless farmland and freeway construction, she was very thankful for the driving break. 

 

Seeing her friend was amazing as always, and Kansas City is a fun place to visit. Love was the last thing on Kaylee’s radar, but her Tinder account had other plans. She always keeps her radius pretty small, just 15 miles, and she wasn’t checking it for most of the trip, but she keeps her Snapchat in her bio, so she always gets a few requests. She almost never accepts these requests, but the rest of the drive back home was the same monotony: corn stalks, vacant pastures and endless sky—so she did what any other bored person would do: she accepted a few requests.

 

Weeding out the creeps and weirdos is pretty cut and dry. If you don’t use a real name or your username has too many numbers in it, you’re out, and if you use the heart eyes emoji in conversation, good luck getting off her block list. Despite her strict standards of approval, Brandon made the cut.

 

At first, they just had small talk. Well, maybe “small talk” is generous—he would comment on Kaylee’s story, and she’d respond with a “thanks” or a “haha.” So, she wasn’t exactly a conversationalist, but the conversation grew over time. Before she knew it, they were talking every day, and she didn’t even know what he looked like. Kaylee requested a picture, and she liked what she saw.

 

After a month of talking, Kaylee was coming back to Nebraska so Brody could stay with her mom while she went on a cruise. Brandon and Kaylee planned a date the day before she flew out of KC. 

 

It was perfect. Kaylee was nervous that it would be weird because they only ever talked on Snapchat, but it wasn’t. Brandon took her to eat at Pepperjax. (To his defense, it wasn’t his first choice.) Then they went to a Sporting KC game. The game was fun, especially since it was Kaylee’s first soccer game, then they walked back to his truck and had their first kiss. After that they went to Westport and hung out at Harpo’s—of all places!

 

You could say things got serious pretty quickly, but Kaylee was seriously interested. Maybe it was the energy from the soccer game or the unusual way they met, but something clicked on that first date, and she wanted to know more. They talked through her entire cruise, then they hung out again after she got back. They went to a wedding for their second date, and she ended up meeting his whole family. 

 

Meeting his family on the second date? You can say they were moving really fast, but it worked for them. A plane has to pick up speed before it can fly, and pretty soon, their relationship took off. Kaylee and Brandon made the long distance work really well; flights were cheap and she was freelancing, so she was able to see him about once a month. They texted by day and FaceTimed by night. They had their tough moments, but they supported each other through it all.

 

They planned to make the long distance work for a while, but suddenly, they didn’t have to. Four months into their relationship, Kaylee got an email about a potential job in KC. She wasn’t getting her hopes up, of course, because it was so random how perfect the opportunity was. But she applied for the job anyway. Then she had an interview and was hired. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. 

 

In March of this year, seven months into their relationship, Kaylee made the move to KC. She and Brody had their own apartment, she was working full-time, and she and Brandon saw each other every day. They practically lived together, even though he would never leave anything at her place.

 

Three months later, Kaylee moved again—this time into the apartments Brandon manages. Best. Decision. Ever. 

 

Naturally, the next step was for him to propose, and naturally, she kept teasing him about it until he got the hint. It was an ongoing joke that he would never propose, that he was satisfied with just being boyfriend and girlfriend forever, but Kaylee knew what she wanted. They looked at rings, she gave him a little heat (after all, they met on Tinder), and then she waited, having set the ball in motion. She didn’t know when or how he would propose, but Kaylee was very good at coming up with scenarios—on the river, at a football game, etc.—and she was very bad at ignoring those thoughts.

 

He ended up taking her to Pierpont’s at Union Station. It was a lot fancier than they were used to, but he called it a “pre-celebration” for their anniversary. He played it completely cool the entire night; she honestly didn’t suspect a thing. A photographer even came out at one point and was taking pictures of each table, telling them they were marketing photos, which Kaylee completely believed as a photographer herself. 

 

They left the restaurant after wayyyy overspending on dinner, and Brandon said he had one more thing planned. He took her down to Grand Hall, and there was a table with a book and a white rose. That’s when Kaylee knew what was going to happen. She read the book of all the things he loves about her, and on the last page, he popped the question. They both immediately broke into tears and he got down on one knee and asked. Of course, she said yes! Kaylee’s mom and Brody were there the whole time, and so were his parents. The “marketing photographer” from the restaurant was the woman who captured the whole moment.

 

It was everything Kaylee ever hoped it would be. She’s so happy she found her person.