Like all great millenial love stories, this one starts with a match--on Bumble, to be precise. Just 2 people, swiping right. IYKYK.
They instantly connected over their shared love of food. By Adam's second message, he was asking Linda out to dinner for Arizona Restaurant Week.
Also, all great stories have an arbitrary time skip where nothing about what happened during that time is explained.
Adam and Linda reconnected during the pandemic for their Quarandating (Quarantine Dating) arc. During this period, they grew closer over virtual board game, cooking, and watch party dates, even meeting each others' friends over Zoom and Discord.
As the world began to reopen, so did their sights on international travel. Together, they traveled to some of Linda's favorite destinations, like Paris and Tokyo, and visited new and unfamiliar places, like Mexico City.
Also during this time, Adam bought a house in Gilbert, AZ, where Linda went to high school--right down the street from that school, in fact, much to her dismay. Still, she would give up her city apartment and move in with Adam and his dog, Minnie, soon after. Together, they have been remodeling, slowly turning the house into "home."
One major perk of living in the suburbs was having the space to host game nights and pizza parties at their home. They also had the space to add another pup, Archie, to the household.
When not traveling the world, working on house projects, hosting their friends, or spending time with their dogs, Adam and Linda enjoy seeing shows at Gammage, playing pickleball with their friends, and hanging out at home, watching competitive reality television.
When it came time to ask Linda to marry him, Adam knew it had to be planned perfectly. He wasn't good at planning, but he buckled down and got to work.
In addition to traveling the world, playing board games, and spending time with their two adorable dogs, Adam and Linda also enjoy watching competition reality shows, like Masterchef, Survivor, and the Bachelor (which is totally a competition show). Inspired by one of their favorite shows, The Amazing Race, Adam began planning "The (Hopefully) Amazing Proposal."
Preparations were set; Adam had strategically manuevered through changes in plans and coordinated with Linda's friends to assist.
The proposal day began like any other. Linda had the day off, so Adam hopped out of bed bright and early at 6am and absconded with the dogs to his best man's house. It was there that he setup his command center for the day.
Firstly, Adam needed Linda to get up early on her day off. He devised a setup to remotely blast The Amazing Race's opening on their bedroom TV and strategically placed cameras to monitor her race progress. Unfortunately, Linda was a non-starter, refusing to leave the bed after assuming the TV was glitching and figuring out how to turn it off from her phone. With some quick thinking, Adam pivoted and played The Amazing Race's opening on the living room TV, feeling sure that she would have to finally get up then.
Success! Out of concern that the noise from the living room would disrupt Adam's work (not knowing he was long gone), Linda finally got out of bed and made her way into the hallway, running right to her first clue. Instantly, she knew Adam had something special planned, so she abruptly cancelled her many plans for the day...only to find that her first clue led her right back to the plans she had just cancelled! First stop: pickleball with some friends and coworkers.
The pickleball courts were where she would pick up her first clue. After winning a game with her friend, she was handed her next clue, which directed her to the next stop: back home? Meanwhile, while she was dominating on the pickleball courts, Adam had snuck back into the house to set up the next clue.
Linda returned home to her favorite dress hanging up along with the third clue, which directed her to get ready and head out to lunch at a specified location. However, Adam underestimated how long a woman who had just played pickleball in the grueling Arizona sun would need to get ready, especially for a day that she suspected she would want to look nice for. Already feeling stressed for time, Linda called upon two of her best friends to help her get ready. Unbeknownst to her, they already had been tasked with the important jobs of keeping her on schedule. They arrived to a very not-ready Linda and ushered her to her next task: lunch.
After lunch, she was awarded the fourth clue, which was a detour (or in Amazing Race terms, a choice between two tasks). But wait! She had also been U-turned by an enemy team--the scoundrels Minnie and Archie--and was forced to complete both tasks. Luckily, those tasks were to get her hair and nails done at appointments set up by her friends. At this point, the purpose of the race was obvious.
Linda completed her 2 tasks (and a bonus makeup appointment task courtesy of her friends), changed into the outfit Adam had prepared in a mall bathroom, and was given her fifth and final clue: enter through a marked gate in the middle of an older (and somewhat rundown) neighborhood, while fully glammed-up. Not sketchy at all.
When she arrived, she found that Adam had set up a scene worthy of "The Bachelor" at a beautiful outdoor venue with a photographer in tow. The proposal story ends here, but if you're reading this, you already know the outcome.
