Mackenzie & Joshua
May 21, 2027
It turns out our story started long before we ever met.
In May 2021, Mackenzie moved back home and started a new job where Tori was her coworker. And when we say they worked together, in their line of work, we mean together for hours upon hours, day after day. Naturally, they got to know each other pretty well.
Apparently, well enough for Tori to decide she already knew who Mackenzie should marry.
Enter: her cousin, Josh.
For nearly two years, Tori would casually mention this cousin of hers who was supposedly the male version of Mackenzie: outgoing, a little crazy, always ready for a good time, everyone's best friend, and capable of striking up a conversation with just about anyone. Tori had recently gotten married herself, so Mackenzie was shown plenty of pictures of this mysterious Josh from the wedding.
Every once in a while, his name would come up again.
There was just one tiny problem: they were both in long-term relationships.
So Mackenzie did what she does best when someone tries to tell her what to do... completely ignored the idea.
Fast-forward to June 2023.
Mackenzie had been single since the previous October and was very happily living her best single life. She wasn't looking for a relationship, she certainly wasn't looking to settle down, and she had absolutely no intention of meeting her future husband.
Meanwhile, after years of impeccable timing, Josh was finally single too.
One night during one of Mackenzie and Tori's wine nights, Tori brought up her cousin again. Except this time, she came with new information: Josh was single, she'd already mentioned Mackenzie to him months earlier, and apparently his response was, "Set me up!"
Tori and her husband, Matt, had plans to arrange a "blind" surprise meeting between the two of them, but it never quite happened.Maybe they were taking too long.
Maybe Mackenzie was impatient.
Maybe it was the Cabernet.
Whatever the reason, Mackenzie decided to take matters into her own hands.
She found this infamous cousin Josh on Facebook and, in true Mackenzie fashion, went for it.There wasn't some grand romantic intention behind that first message. The plan was simple for her: meet a nice guy, have some fun, and, at the very least, finally go on a date with Tori's cousin so she could say she'd done it.
As Mackenzie so eloquently put it at the end of their first Facebook conversation: "Let's give the people what they want."
And, well... here we are.
They talked for a couple of weeks, somehow didn't scare each other off, and eventually made plans for their first date on June 24, 2023.
Josh learned something important about Mackenzie before the date even technically began: punctuality is not one of her spiritual gifts.
To his credit, she'd warned him.
To his credit again, he caught on quickly and told her to be ready 30 minutes earlier than he actually planned to arrive.
Unfortunately for Josh, he underestimated his opponent.
Mackenzie was still 30 minutes late.
So Josh's very first in-person memory of his future wife is sitting in his truck outside her Heights townhome... waiting.
And waiting.
Maybe not the most romantic beginning, but it did introduce Mackenzie to something she'd come to love about Josh pretty quickly: the man has patience.
As for the actual first date? That's a story all its own.
It was chaotic, unexpected, ridiculously fun, and neither of them really wanted it to end.
Was it love at first sight?
Not exactly.
Mackenzie was still convinced she was just going out with Tori's cousin and enjoying her newfound freedom. Josh, meanwhile, had quickly determined that this girl was a hot mess.
Hot? Sure.
A mess? Absolutely.
But there was something there neither of them could ignore: they had so much fun together.
It was the kind of date where you somehow feel like you've known someone much longer than you actually have. Conversation came easily. The laughs didn't stop. And when the night finally ended, neither of them was quite ready to be done with the other.
So they weren't.
From that first date on, we became pretty much inseparable.
There have been a million moments since, funny coincidences that still make us wonder how we didn't meet sooner, adventures we never could have planned, a few roller coasters, plenty of growing up together, and more stories than we could ever fit on this website.But our favorite might always be the beginning.
Because somewhere between Tori talking about her cousin for two years, a bottle of Cabernet, one very direct Facebook message, and Josh waiting patiently outside a townhome in the Heights, the person neither of us was looking for became the person neither of us wanted to be without.
And now, on May 21, 2027, Tori finally gets the Mexico wedding she started planning before the bride and groom had even met.
I guess we really did give the people what they wanted.
May 21
2027
Mackenzie & Josh
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