Our Story
“If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live a day without you.” Thank you, Pooh, for perfectly summing up our Love.
Serendipity in Memphis
IF the definition of serendipity is “the occurrence and development of events in a HAPPY way”, THEN the story of how we met is TRULY serendipitous! :)
It was Friday night August 14th, 2015…
Philip was visiting his lifelong friend, David Tucker – who had just moved to Memphis for work – and they decided to take a break from decorating David’s apartment and head out for some refreshing adult-beverages and a bite of dinner with friends. After all, it was August in Memphis…you truly do need to stay “hydrated”! LOL (and yes, David Tucker is is one of those names where you always say the first & last name)
The first stop of the night was a popular Friday night hangout for all the gays in Memphis. There aren’t very many gay bars in this town, however this bar hosted a Happy Hour every week and it was usually crowded in the summer. Well…it just so happened that Nathan and his friends had made the same decision that night - they had also decided to stop at this popular watering hole to get their night started - it was FriGAY, afterall!
Across the crowded room, Philip saw Nathan for the first time, and he was very intrigued. Turns out Nathan had also seen Philip and when Philip went to the restroom, Nathan made his way across the room to get closer to the action. When Philip got back to his friends – he saw that Nathan had moved closer, so he took the opportunity to introduce himself and the sparks started flying! Before we knew it, digits were being exchanged and plans were being made to meet up again later that night for an after-dinner drink! SCORE!
As we went our separate ways for dinner, neither of us could stop thinking about the other person. We texted several times during dinner and couldn’t wait for that night cap! With any first date scenario there’s always a certain fear that you might get ghosted, or the other person might be a flake – but for some strange reason neither of us feared that might happen. This just felt different…and sure enough – we met back at the scene of the crime and quickly knew this was going to be a very long “first date”! ;)
As it turns out, Nathan ended up spending the ENTIRE weekend with Philip and we had a blast hunting for furniture, antiques, throw pillows (gay!), and artwork for David’s new apartment. In fact, when Sunday afternoon rolled around, and Philip had to head to the airport for his flight back to Chicago – we both felt so sad because we were sick to our stomachs and sad because we didn’t want this weekend’s happiness to end! As Nathan left the airport from dropping me off – he literally started sobbing…out of fear that we might not ever see each other again (as you know he has a flair for the dramatic! HA!). You can’t help saying to yourself – self, you just met this guy! WTF??? LOL!
And then (it gets better…), Philip called Nathan at the airport when he was about to take off and said to Nathan… “I always call someone in my life that I care about before I fly away on a plane and so I wanted to call you…”!! That was a power play on my part, right?! HAHAHA!
Memphis & Chicago
Nathan visited Philip in Chicago 2 weeks after the big weekend and honestly, we both went into this visit with very open hearts and minds - maybe the feelings won’t be the same, maybe there weren’t as many sparks as we thought? But as fate would have it, we still could not get enough of each other! It was an absolutely gorgeous summer weekend in Chicago and we soaked up every second with dates, adult beverages, great conversation, and love.
There were a few other visits…one meet-up midway between Memphis and Chicago in St. Louis, and lots of flying back and forth…both of us trying not to overthink things and telling each other - if it’s meant to be, it will BE!
So yes, we did the long-distance thing for a few months, but it just wasn’t enough. Go figure…lol!
So with a prayer and a lot of love, Nathan applied to some teaching jobs in Chicago and BOOM - landed a position for that same winter. I know what you’re thinking…this is FAST and yes it was! Why waste time when the rest of your life is right in front of you, friends? Haha
Uh…NO, we decided that Nathan was NOT going to move in with Philip right away. BUT he did…ha! The thing is - rent in Chicago is horrific and we knew that Philip would be at Nathan’s (or Nathan would be at Philip’s) - let’s just be honest here - we couldn’t imagine being apart from each other for more than 5 minutes! Our philosophy was - we’re both adults here and we’ll figure it out.
