How We Met

TL;DR: Rachel and Karmo met while out with their friends in Baltimore City

From Rachel's POV: It was a Thursday in February, February 15th, 2018, to be exact. Rachel was heavily invested in a highly competitive Skee-ball league and needing to blow off steam after an intense match. At the time, Rachel was commuting to her office 5 days a week and typically would have gone home after. But as fate would later have it, she had already decided to take Friday off so she could indulge in some adult beverages, responsibly. Obviously, the bar of choice was Claddaghs. After some time, Rachel and her friends got hungry and decided to go next door to get a pretzel from none other than the Canton Pretzel Store. Things get a little blurry for Rachel here, but something was said to get her attention (see Karmo's POV for a slightly more lucid retelling of this part) and next thing she knows she's deep in conversation with a tall, dark and handsome man. She would later wake up to a text from a mystery number reading "Karmo! I may or may not remember you!"

Rachel likes to say that Karmo is lucky his name isn't Michael or Patrick, because it made it very easy to find him on Facebook. She found comfort in the fact that they had a couple of normal mutual friends and decided to text mystery number that now had an attractive face behind it back. It would be a week until they got to go on their first date at Baltimore staple, Brewer's Art. That's her story and she's sticking to it!

From Karmo's POV: I still remember that late Thursday night like it was yesterday. My friend Jeter and I had decided to grab a drink at Claddagh in Canton Square, a rare treat before my work trip the next day. As we sipped our drinks, we planned to grab a late-night bite before heading home. The Canton Pretzel Store was our go-to spot, but the line was long. While waiting, Jeter randomly asked, "Is anyone in here Jewish?" I chuckled, thinking it was just another one of his quirky moments. But then, I heard a soft yet confident voice say, "I'm Jewish." My eyes locked onto Rachel, and I felt an instant connection. I left my spot in line and walked up to her, striking up a conversation. We talked for what felt like hours, but it was probably just minutes. Before parting ways, I asked for her number, feeling a bit uncertain if she'd actually respond. I sent her a text, trying to play it cool: "Hi Rachel if that’s your real name, hope you make it home safely", though, in reality, I was a bit more charming, or so I thought (see Rachel’s POV for the actual text). The anticipation was killing me as I waited for her response. The next morning, my phone buzzed, and I saw Rachel's name pop up. My heart skipped a beat as I read her response. We texted that weekend, planned our first date the following week at Brewers Art in Mount Vernon, and the rest, as they say, is history.