In 2015, Katie invited Jess to come meet her in Seattle, where she would be attending PAX with her good friend, Andy, and his little brother, Tim. After arriving in Seattle, Jess (and her then-boyfriend) walked in on a game of Ticket-to-Ride moments away from starting. Katie, being of the mind, the more, the merrier, invited the two new faces to join. Tim, being of the mind, rules are rules, spoke up to say, “we’ll have too many people.” Nice, Tim. Real nice.

Years (or something like that) passed, and Katie was to get married. At the rehearsal, crucial members of the wedding party were missing, and Jess didn’t have a groomsman to walk her down the aisle behind the other bridesmaids. So she called over Tim, who later revealed he shook like a leaf as they walked arm in arm all the way to the altar (practice, if you will). Later, a now single (and not sober) Jess revealed to her extremely not sober friend, Eric, that she thought Tim was cute…oooOOOOoooooo!

Now here is where the story gets a little fuzzy (hmm, I wonder why…). The extremely not sober Eric and his brother, Lucas, found Tim and told him that Jess thought he was cute (yes, we were all in our 30s) — and according to the brothers, Tim replied, “Jess? She thinks I’M cute??” Then did nothing about it. Night over. Everyone goes home. Except…

Tim says that Eric and Lucas actually stumbled over to him and said, “a girl here thinks you’re cute,” without revealing who that said girl was and presumably stumbling away. Either way, the night ended the same. A match was not made despite the efforts of 2 very drunk brothers.

Unbeknownst to Jess, as the years went on, Tim became a distant fan. He cheered for her beet Reubens one year at the annual beet cooking competition, the Beet Off, and later recreated her recipe. He saw on social media her post a picture of her wall of silly coffee cups that she displayed in her kitchen, and he threw out all his matching mugs and made his own wall of silly coffee cups. He thought, “she’s cool,” and that was that.

Until he moved.

Thanks again to the friendship cultivated between Andy and Katie, Andy, and his little brother, Tim, moved to Portland in the summer of 2020. Jess started to get to know Tim as a friend. He attended most of the get-togethers (unless it was a raid night), and despite the poor first impression and the subsequent missed connections, Jess warmed up to him.

One night, Jess, Tim, Katie, and Andy went out and had drinks. Jess and Katie swear Tim was flirting with Jess that night (but Tim will deny it). Regardless, something felt exciting.

But it wasn’t until a (long) month later, after everyone went home from Jess’s Halloween party, where she and Tim definitely flirted all night, did she decide it was time to ask him out. Seeing as Tim was content to silently admire her from afar and never planned to make the first move for fear of jeopardizing the friendship, someone had to! And it’s a good thing she made that move because Jess has never gotten a text back quicker.

Now, dont ask about the engagement. Jess can be impulsive and impatient and didnt realize people would want to hear that story over and over again so now we all have to live with the fact that Jess handed Tim a box while he was in the middle of a Teams meeting. We are going to chalk it up excitement and the aversion to extremely public displays shared by the couple...yes, we know that’s what a wedding is...Tim and Jess are enigmas.

And the rest is love.

Cant wait to see you all!