It was the early-mid-2010's. Cara and Erin were in their late-mid-20's. They met at a house party their friends Ash and Alyssa put together. We suspect this was a set up.

Oh wait! Rewind to approximately 2005. Erin is a summer camp counselor and Cara is a parks maintenance worker, both for the City of Olympia. Cara and Ash and Ira are busy driving pickup trucks around to all the parks, wearing Carhartts and avoiding eye contact thanks to their baseball hats being pulled down low.

Erin spots Cara from across the park at Garfield Elementary while setting up a very official government-sanctioned water balloon fight for children. Erin is beside herself and sure that Cara is too cool to even acknowledge her.

Cara does not know this and has no memory of Erin diligently ignore-flirting with her for several years.

Back to the 2010's. It's the first time they've ever actually talked. Cara asks to drive Erin home from the party. This works out because Erin doesn't drive. Cara played Heart on a cassette tape in the car. They bonded over loving Heart's cheesy 80's era.

Fast forward a bit, and our characters dated for a month. The timing wasn't right. They decided to stay friends for the time being, but secretly pined over one another for the next 5-6 business years.

Cara lived her life and was incredibly busy being cool and having a dog. She was also dealing with health challenges. Erin lived her life and continued to ignore-flirt with Cara whenever she saw her work truck parked at Ralph's grocery store. Cara claims not to have noticed.

Five years pass. Erin returns to Olympia after a year of backpacking and being a general vagabond. She sees Cara on Facebook talking about getting a crossbow.

Erin writes to her, "I'm surprised you don't already have one." Moments pass. Cara responds. They have not talked in years. Erin asks Cara out for coffee. Cara says yes. Erin wears a vintage Heart tour t-shirt.

Thus begins a year of coffee dates at the old Batdorf cafe downtown. Every weekend, they spend hours and hours laughing over one single cup of coffee each. Erin insists on calling Cara dude. Cara insists that they remain just buddies as Erin is a drifter without a job, home, or car. Erin works hard to get a job, home, and car and put down roots again.

The year passes and now they're such good friends they're afraid to share their feelings. Erin finally makes enough money to afford more than a cup of coffee on their not-date-dates.

Erin confesses to Cara that she has a huge crush on her. Cara says "Me too! I had no idea! Then why do you keep calling me 'dude'?"

And then they started officially dating. They were very brave and very scared and managed to be kind and patient as they figured out how to date again as more seasoned adults. They learned being vulnerable and honest and staying true to yourself is at first more scary, and then more safe with someone you want to be with forever.

This summer will be 10 years since they started talking again, and 9 years since they started dating. Cara proposed to Erin on a lake in Moran State Park on Orcas Island. They were in a canoe and tried not to fall over when they saw a Bigfoot on a paddle board coming towards them. The Bigfoot waved and paddled past. Erin said yes.

Cara told Erin recently "There's no one else I want to figure life out with forever. And it'll probably take us forever to figure it all out."