Most couples have a big “how we met” story, but honestly, I don’t remember my first time meeting Scott. He attended Orangewood Christian School from kindergarten through senior year, so when I started in August 2013—our freshman year of high school—I was completely overwhelmed by the sea of new faces. I’d attended a different school for K-8, so I was mainly focused on making new friends. I vaguely remember seeing the Morell twins on a few occasions since their lockers were close to mine, but shamefully, I’ll admit I did not know which twin was Scott and which was Chase for far too long a time.

Fast-forward to 2016: It’s fall of senior year, and me and Scott are seated just a few desks apart in AP Literature. The class was small, with five guys and two girls, so we had the opportunity to get to know one another in a low-stakes environment. We were given an assignment to make a slideshow about an American Gothic short story, and on Halloween, we were to present them to the whole class. Scott’s was “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe, and he opened his presentation by playing “Yeah!” by Usher over the speakers. Yeah by Usher is my favorite song. I think this is where the crush developed.

I kept my crush pretty quiet for most of the fall and winter, but by January, Scott and I had individually noticed our undeniable chemistry in class and moved our conversations outside of school to Snapchat (cringe, but true). We nursed a respectable streak for most of the spring and had several nights of staying up till one or two a.m. just bantering back and forth.

One time, we got into a great conversation right before seventh period. I remember that Scott offered to “walk me to class” so we could finish our conversation (the school was the size of a thumbtack; we probably walked a tenth of a mile). As we stood chatting outside of the door to my science class, we lost track of time until Mrs. Wallis opened the door and saw us standing there, flirting and grinning stupidly. “Are you coming in or not?” she asked, hustling me into the class. I took a seat at my desk and looked up to see Scott standing at the window, waving goodbye, before taking off to his free period. Scott’s characteristic tenderness had me fully smitten, but I was too afraid to act on it at the time, knowing that we were soon to be going our separate ways for college.

With a six-hundred-mile distance in store, we bid one another farewell at a friend’s grad party and assumed we’d probably never see each other again. This thought made both of us sad, but neither one of us would admit it to one another (or even ourselves).

We kept infrequent contact during our first two years of college. Characteristically, I kept myself very busy, but sometimes in moments of quiet I would remember Scott’s gentle humility and witty sense of humor and find myself missing him.

The summer after sophomore year, I was working as a counselor at Camp Greystone, the all-girls’ camp I worked at each summer during college. It was 2019, and I hadn’t spoken to Scott other than a casual happy birthday or hope you’re doing well. Even though my days were incredibly busy, packed with lively campers, costume parties, and teaching Zumba (true story) I found my mind wandering to Scott with abnormal frequency. I let myself fully wonder how he was doing and what he was up to. So, I told myself that if I was still thinking of him by the time I went back to school for the fall, I would reach out.

September 2019 rolled around and, sure enough, Scott continued to pop back up in my mind. The onset of Hurricane Dorian presented the perfect opportunity for me to reach out, feigning concern about his impending evacuation from Miami (I’m a born-and-raised Floridian; I knew he was going to be fine).

He responded, and what first began as lighthearted, surface-level conversation grew into deep, monthslong, daily conversations. I found myself texting him good morning and goodnight, with all the details of my day sandwiched in between, as if we were dating.

Here, I must give credit to one of my best friends and bridesmaids, Hannah Jo Groves, who has been invested since the day I realized I had a crush on Scott in 2016. She came to my house one night in January 2020 and spent hours convincing me I should ask Scott if he had feelings for me. I was afraid to ask him such a seemingly overt question, but Hannah’s encouragement allowed Scott and I to have a very honest conversation about our depth of affection for one another, something we had both been reserved about until that point.

The physical distance between us was a challenging obstacle, as we didn’t know when or if we’d ever live in the same city. In February 2020, I suggested that we take a pause from talking until “we were both in the same place for an extended period of time” so that we could reevaluate the possibility of a relationship in-person. Less than a month after this “pause” was initiated, an unexpected global crisis paved the path for us to reconnect in-person: COVID-19.

When the pandemic hit, we both spent months quarantining in our respective parents’ homes, finishing up our spring semesters. Once June rolled around, and school was finished, we finally met up for breakfast at First Watch in Maitland to try and decide where the relationship might go from there.

After this breakfast, we decided it was worth a shot at going on a few dates. Scott went on to plan a spectacular first date at Prato on Park Avenue, and when he picked me up from my parents’ house, I was too nervous to let him greet me at the door. I saw his car pull up and darted out before he even got the chance to knock on the door and introduce himself to my parents (lol, I feel bad about this now).

Scott asked me to be his girlfriend on August 9, 2020, on a bench under a live oak tree by Lake Davis, and we’ve been madly in love ever since. We dated through five years of long-distance, four moves, three years of law school for Scott, and two years of grad school for Eva with one shared goal: marriage.

After five and a half years together, on March 28, 2026, Scott asked me to be his wife at a beautiful hillside overlook at Southall Inn & Resort in Franklin, TN. After the surprise proposal, Scott had one more surprise in store: back at the hotel, all our friends and family were waiting to congratulate us. We spent the night sharing a meal with everyone, dreaming about the future ahead.