Connect How did your love story begin?

A bookstore — gay, I know. I was new. She swaggered up on my first shift and the very first thing she said was "don't lean on the counters" — then leaned her entire body against one. I accidentally told her my entire life story by the end of that shift. Two shifts later, I invited her to a party. When it ended and I didn't want it to, I convinced her to let me come back to her dorm. And I kind of never left.

What is your favorite memory you've shared as a couple?

The night I told her I loved her. We'd been giggling so loud, and then I just got quiet and stared at her — told her I wanted to say something I probably shouldn't say yet. She smiled and said she thought she knew. So I said it. She agreed instantly. What I didn't know was that earlier that same day, she'd been texting her friends asking how to ask me out. We'd been falling at the exact same time without knowing it.

What would you do with $20,000?

This money would be the first brick in the life we're building together. We'd split it into dedicated savings accounts — one for our wedding, one for IVF as we work toward our son Luka Clancy Matthew and our daughter Luna Cadence Mae, and one toward our future home in California. We don't just have dreams. We have names, plans, and a "Forever and Always" that we intend to fund.