HOW NICK & I MET!

hi everyone! happy tuesday! i hope you all had a great long weekend! today's post is highly anticipated - i cannot tell you how many of you ask how nick and i met! i decided to save this post for our 2 year anniversary (today!) and i'm really excited to share our story with you :-). i'm going to begin this post by sharing my perspective of how we met, and this post will end with nick's perspective of how we met! should be interesting to see both sides! lol.

lauren:

ok so let me begin by saying before i met nick i had been in a pretty toxic relationship for 6 years. we broke up in december, around christmastime, and i was convinced that i didn't want a boyfriend again for a long time. you guys can read more about my past relationships here (it'll help make more sense of this story!).

so me and this boyfriend of 6 years broke up in december and one night in february, my friends and i went out to a bar in milford that we'd never been to before. i ended up talking to this guy and he asked for my number at the end of the night and i gave it to him. i was going on vacation with my mom the next day so i didn't expect to hear from him.

i ended up sending him a text first and then we proceeded to chat via text message and we got to know each other a bit better. when i got home from vacation, we went on our first date. long story short, this guy and i went on a bunch of dates throughout the month of march. in the end there was no spark or attraction, really. to me it was more of a friendship (we only kissed once after like 12 dates!!!) this guy was older than me and he was suuuper nice but there just wasn't much more than a friendship there.

i do have to say that when i met this guy, he was wearing a hat, and he wore a hat on EVERY SINGLE DATE that we went on. after doing some facebook stalking (with help from my sister! lol) we realized that in every single picture, he was wearing a hat, too. a bit fishy, right? let's continue...

now let's get on to the good stuff - meeting nick. my mom noticed how many dates i had been going on with this guy so she was like i think it's time i meet him. so we planned to go to dinner (my mom, this guy, and me). my mom and i got to dinner earlier than the guy and we had to wait for a table so we ended up sitting at the bar. this is when i first set my eyes on nick - he was our bartender, and let me tell ya, he was (and still is) seriously good looking :-).

anyway, my mom and i were sitting at the bar and the guy who i had been going on dates with walked into the bar. he walked into the bar with no hat on and you guys, he was COMPLETELY BALD. i was shook to say the least. disclaimer: NOTHING against bald people, i've met a few attractive bald people in my life, but IMO, you gotta embrace it! we had kind of guessed that he was bald because he was constantly wearing hats, but still, i was definitely surprised!

back to the bartender (nick) - at this point the bar was super busy and crowded but nick made us some "chocolate cake shots" and offered them to us. i denied the shot because i don't typically take shots so i told nick to take it for me lol. my mom, the other guy, and nick took the chocolate cake shot together. our table was eventually ready and the three of us went upstairs to eat.

throughout the whole dinner, it was basically my mom and the guy talking because at this point, all i could think about was nick and how much more into him i was. by the end of dinner, the guy wanted to continue to drink and go to a bar. we ended up staying at the restaurant bar and at that point it wasn't very busy at all. it was just me and this guy sitting at the bar with nick as our bartender. i do have to add that right when my mom left, this guy went out to his car and grabbed his hat to put it back on. this to me was just a bit strange. but anyway, another reason why i knew this wasn't going to work out is because the guy ordered dessert and tried to make me eat it even after i told him like 3 times i didn't want anything (and he ordered something i told him i didn't like! lol).

so it was after this night, that i knew i needed to get to know nick better. my plan of action was to go into the restaurant he worked at like almost everyday (no joke!) and hope that he noticed me. i would literally convince all my friends, cousins, whoever, to come in to the restaurant with me because i wasn't confident to go in there and sit alone at the bar haha. i'd walk into the restaurant hoping he'd be the one at the bar and hoping to have some sort of conversation with him that night. i thought i had given him multiple chances to ask for my number so when he never did, i assumed he wasn't interested.

there was one night where i was there with my mom and her friend and nick was our server and he introduced himself to us. i remember getting in the car with them after dinner and telling them how cute i thought nick was. they pretty much convinced me that he probably had a girlfriend or something. but i didn't give up and i kept going into the restaurant. it finally came to a point where my best friend (heyyyy liz) came in with me and she obv knew how into him i was so she decided to make the move for me. she asked nick what he was doing after work and she told him that he should come meet us out. so he handed us his phone and said one of us could put our number in his phone (of course, that would be me! haha).

so that was the first night that we actually hung out. both of us told each other that we weren't looking for a boyfriend or girlfriend and that we wanted to just "go with the flow." we ended up hanging out quite often and he officially asked me to be his girlfriend on may 28th and that's what we consider our anniversary!

since we met, we've grown so much together. we've learned to better adjust to each other's needs. nick needs a lot of alone time and in the beginning i would be super offended by that. by now, i've learned that's just who he is and it's nothing against me. of course we have arguments, but we've learned how to respect each other's needs and how to get through those arguments without making them worse. nick has been nothing but supportive of my blog and he's usually more than willing to help out in any way possible.

neither of us were looking for what we have now, but i couldn't be happier than nick came into my life when he did. he's kind, loving, sensitive, and supportive and i consider myself extremely lucky that he's been in my life for the past two years.

also nick told me last weekend that he booked a trip for us for our anniversary for after school ends! i literally cried happy tears because that's the most thoughtful thing anyone has ever done for me!

happy anniversary nick :-) i love you!

nick:

Okay so I guess it’s a bit strange that Lauren and I have completely different memories of how we first met, but I would definitely take her side over mine in whatever the differences are because my memory is not the best haha!

I actually first met Lauren’s mother coming into Parker and taking care of her when I was first a server there. Always got along great, learned that she lived close by and wanted to make Parker her usual spot. Then I became a bartender and didn’t get to take care of them all the time, until one day they came in pretty early and the server wasn’t there yet so I took the table. Her mom was there with her usual friend sitting at their usual table and then about 5-10 mins later this other, younger, beautiful, girl walks in. IMMEDIATELY my coworkers come by and start to chat it up about how hot this girl is that just came in. I walk up to the table and her mom is smiling and starts talking to me as usual, then introduces her daughter, Lauren. Her back was turned to me during that time so I didn’t get to make any eye contact or anything walking up, but anyway she quickly glances up from her phone with her hand in the air, with a quick hello, then BAM. Looks right back down at her phone. At the time I didn’t know what to think because I’m all excited I get to serve the table with a hot girl, and it seemed like I just got snubbed, no interest. Back I go over to the boys to relay what her name is, and one of my other coworkers comes by and actually knows her from high school. We keep chatting until I go get the apps that they ordered and back I go to the table hopeful for another chance to talk to this new girl Lauren. I drop everything off and ask if everyone is okay, giving one last look to see if Lauren is looking…Lauren still staring down at her phone so off I go to treat this table like any other table.

Fast forward a couple more times of her being in Parker and me not serving that table, she finally comes in again with a guy. Nowwwww I get it, she wasn’t showing interest because she has a boyfriend. All makes sense now, haha just kidding. Anyway they all eat outside with the family. Night comes to an end but Lauren and her guy come up to the bar for another drink while everyone else goes home. He asks if she wanted any dessert, Lauren kindly says no and he asks a couple more times like most people would with their girl so they don’t eat all your food when you order. He ends up ordering the carrot cake and I see Lauren make this face like it’s gross haha so immediately I laughed to myself because I’m a super picky eater and I know the feeling. So I give them space at first because they were on a date at this point, but when I work the bar I can basically hear everything because it’s not super big. I see that they aren’t really vibing or having a good time so there was my queue to be the entertainment for the night, as I usually do when I’m working the bar. I go over and ask them a bunch of questions, keeping the conversation flowing. While I’m doing this I notice that Lauren and I actually have a lot of similarities, and I started to like her even more. The night ends and off she goes.

So at this point, it’s pretty clear to me that Lauren has no interest in me, so I’ll be there as a friend for her and her bartender. She comes in about a night or two later after being on a date with this guy, except this time she comes with her friend. They start by getting drinks, I get introduced to the friend, I serve them as I would anyone else that comes in. At one point that night I overheard them talking about her date so I made a joke saying that her and her boyfriend seemed off that night. She replies with a chuckle and says, “that wasn’t my boyfriend”. Just like that I’m thrown off again so I inquire more about this date night. I end up with the information that she is single and she is 2-3 years older than me. I got a bit intimidated by how beautiful she is and how she is older than me so she’s probably way out of my league, so again I go to the mindset of being a bartender to her and nothing more. She keeps coming into Parker, sitting at the bar with her friends and like I said in the beginning, it was her usual hangout spot.

She comes in one night with another friend and as the night came to an end for them, the friend ends up asking what myself and a coworker were doing after work tonight. We said not a thing per usual since I just go right home after work. Then her friend states that I should get one of their numbers so we could meet up after work. Again I’m all confused because now I start to think the friend wanted my number and not Lauren, so I hesitate and say yeah that’s a good idea and put my hand out right in the middle of the both of them and say lemme get your phone. Then the friend says, “go ahead Lauren” and a big sigh of relief for your boy! I finally got Lauren’s number! Then after a fun night of drinking we just started texting and hanging out and finally decided to date before I bounced to Colorado!

After talking about everything after it happened, I realize now why Lauren was on her phone so intently that night. I realize now that she was coming into Parker all those nights just for me. I realize now that I was so silly for being intimidated by someone I thought was so much better than me. I realize now how lucky I am to have Lauren walk into my life.

I’m so thankful to have such a fortunate series of events leading up to Lauren and I dating. I already connected with and got along with her mom before even meeting her, so I felt super confident when meeting all of the family. Everyone has embraced me with open arms and they couldn’t have done a better job making me feel home when I’m with them. It has been a whole two years of ups and downs for Lauren and me, but I’d rather no other scenario because it has brought me to where I am today, with Lauren. I only hope to be as good to her as she is to me, and to shower her with kindness, as she does to me. The rest of the sappy stuff will be in her card so you all don’t have to suffer through it haha 😉 I love you Lauren and Happy Anniversary!

here are some questions that you guys asked on my IG stories:

q: do the both of you want to start a family?

lauren & nick: yes! we both want to start a family. we're in no rush, though! enjoying our time being together and growing with each other before we make the next step :-).

q: did you guys ever break up during your 2 years of being together?

lauren: nope! we've definitely had our fights and our arguments but thankfully we've worked through them and they usually make our relationship even stronger.

q: what is your favorite thing about each other?

lauren: my favorite thing about nick is his sense of humor. he is probably the funniest person i know and constantly makes me laugh. he is also incredibly supportive and pushes me to be better and i'm thankful for that!

nick: my favorite thing about lauren is that she makes me a better person.

*a huge thank you to nick for contributing to this post and for always supporting me and my goals & dreams!

thanks for reading!

xo, lauren (and nick!)