Picture this: two teenagers in matching amusement park polos, sweating it out at Delgrosso's in Tipton, PA. Abbi was 15, Brad was 16, and Abbi's first impression was that he was a total goober. (Reader, she stands by this. It's also exactly why she fell for him. A guy who can make her laugh? Instant weakness.)

There was a crush. A real one. And then, because he was a teenage boy in every sense of the word, Brad promptly ghosted her. A truly iconic era for both of them.

Fast forward a few years. October 2019: Brad slides into Abbi's Twitter DMs out of nowhere. The very next day, they're on their first official date at Gardner's Candies, sharing ice cream and trying very hard to act like they weren't both nervous wrecks. (They were. Extremely.)

On March 17, 2020, they made it official, right as the world shut down. A few months later, Abbi moved in with Brad, which is to say she moved in with Brad and his mom, because nothing tests a new relationship quite like meeting your future mother-in-law over breakfast every morning. Reader, she passed the test.

From there, they weathered lockdown together and made it through the rest of college. In 2024, things really started coming together: they welcomed Winnie and Basil into the family, and in November, they survived the joint decision-making Olympics that is buying a car, which, if you've ever picked out a car with your partner, you know is its own relationship test.

Along the way, they realized how much they actually have in common. They're both ambitious, both willing to put themselves out there instead of settling for the status quo, and both fully committed to making each other laugh at any cost (still very much goober behavior on both sides). Abbi has also successfully raised Brad's spice tolerance several levels, which, in this relationship, basically counts as a love language.

It's fitting that their first date was over ice cream, because these days, food (and finding every good hole-in-the-wall restaurant within driving distance) is still one of their favorite things to do together.

They haven't looked back since, proof that sometimes the goober really is the one worth waiting for.