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Derek and Loren met in their first week of classes at the University of Colorado, Boulder in Calculus. It started with Derek slowly moving to desks closer to Loren and turned into late-night gym lifts and study dates. They were fast friends with a definite flirtatious energy.

Loren was hopeful that it would turn into something more and thought things were moving in the right direction when Derek invited her to a football game and dinner with his parents (Cynthia and Eddie). As we all know boys are oblivious. After Calculus Loren and Derek went their separate ways.

Fast forward 7 years, Loren is living in Denver and Derek is in San Diego. In the height of COVID, Loren decides to slide into her Calculus crush’s DMs. She was planning to visit SD with a friend and wanted to see if he was available for a coffee catch-up. Derek agreed!

The night before the scheduled coffee date, Derek went to LA to have some fun with friends and planned to return in time for the date. However, events at a winery threatened his ability to make it home but enhanced his creative problem-solving. Derek’s offer to Loren was a 3-hour Uber from San Diego to Los Angeles. After the first two drivers cancelled, the third didn’t look at the destination and delivered Loren to LA (after she shared her location with friends and family).

The two had a fabulous evening and even more incredible drive back to San Diego. Thus, the long-distance relationship began. After traversing 4 cross -country moves, 5 career changes, 1 cancer diagnosis, and 12 chemotherapy treatments Derek popped the question in their new hometown of Colorado Springs.