Once upon a time in a land far far away from her northeast upbringing, a girl with long flowing strawberry locks sought to expand her horizons and venture into a new career at a small start-up company. Her name was Kerri and she had only recently moved to Florida. Although her mother loved that she was her only friend in the area, she was on the lookout for human interaction. Fortunately, the startup where Kerri’s mom worked was looking for a new marketing manager.

Kerri arrived early for her interview and “like bees to honey” was greeted by pretty much every male in the office, except for one that was much too busy working on budgets to pay any attention to the new potential female addition to the office.

After having an extremely interesting and somewhat arguably offensive interview, Kerri was hired on the spot. One week later, she was in training with a ginger fellow as her instructor who just happened to be the only male who didn’t welcome her to the office on her interview day.

She remembered her mother describing this male’s character in glowing terms. His name was William (Bill) Kevin Scott Doyle, but he appeared much younger and attractive than she expected. Finding another individual blessed with red locks is so uncommon, particularly one this attractive. Kerri quickly made a playful sport of making this ginger wildly uncomfortable by innocently flirting with him publicly in the office. Soon the whole office joined in on the fun and many were rooting for the two gingers to become an item.

Like all classic fairy tales, there were obstacles to overcome in their path to happily ever after. The first was that Kerri had a boyfriend, who was well aware of this playful flirting. And the second was that Bill’s boss was Kerri’s mother. The first was soon no longer was an issue after Kerri and her ex parted ways.

With this turn of events, Kerri was concerned that her flirting might feel inappropriate now that she was single and ready to mingle (because that makes perfect sense, right?) So she took a self-imposed break from flirting with Billy Doyle. But, this was no easy task as the flirting between the gingers was already set in the company culture. How could she stop if others were constantly calling her Bill’s gf and promoting what most viewed as their inevitable coupling?

In the end, this flirting break lasted only a few days, then she was back to sending 200 daily heart emojis to Bill on Skype. And Bill was back to spontaneous smiling and chuckling at the receipt of those messages, sometimes awkwardly in the middle of work meetings.

Not long after, Bill learned that Kerri was single when her boss inadvertently let it slip. It was inevitable as good gossip such as this spread quickly in this office environment. Although, he definitely showed increasing interest in this flirting, he was still less responsive than she had hoped. Soon the ginger girl developed a very real crush on this ginger boy, so his seemingly aloof behavior left her feeling deflated. Everyone kept telling her that Bill also liked her, but without any tangible proof, Kerri was still unsure.

At this point in the fairy tale, there would usually be a Ball of some kind to kindle a romantic exchange. And right on cue, Ashley (Kerri’s amazing wing woman, best friend and roomie at the time) provided a fitting venue, a housewarming party.  It was there that Kerri would finally come to know that the ginger of her dreams was interested.

She had stocked up on his favorite local brew that she recalled him once mention in passing. Bill seemed charmed by this thoughtful gesture and they spent the evening entranced in a ginger haze, ignoring all the other party attendees. Their love spell was prematurely broken when his roommates made him leave before even giving Kerri a kiss goodnight (shout out to Roger and Luke.)

Fast forward to a week later to Valentine’s Day. Kerri was hopeful she might receive a telltale gift from Bill but nevertheless felt it was now or never to make her move. So, she got him an adorable Valentine’s day card and a chocolate baseball glove (Bill played baseball in college.) The card was filled with a series of mischievous, marginally scandalous, yet endearing ginger-themed drawings expressing her love.

This was a bold move by Kerri who felt this gesture to be a potentially crushing and risky one though others assured her otherwise. Regardless, she endured the agony of waiting on some form of response but the seemingly mysterious Bill did not immediately respond.

Just as she thought that it might be time to close the book on what she perceived as a one-sided love story, Bill sent her a low resolution clip art drawing of a leprechaun with a heart. There was no message paired with this artwork, so again the ginger girl was cautiously encouraged but also confused.

Luckily, later that evening there was an office happy hour and she employed a new strategy of playing it cool and letting Bill come to her. It seemed to work as Bill sat conveniently across from her and again lost in the ginger haze, it seemed as if they were the only two people in the room. Bill revealed his unexpectedly suave side as he attempted to play footsie which Kerri mistook for kicking him in the leg. Bill smoothly informed her that he meant to do that and Kerri got all giddy.

The office party continued as Bill, Kerri, Ashley, Luke (Bill’s roommate) and a fellow female co-worker who tried in vain to tame the wild Luke, ventured to the ever romantic Buffalo Wild Wings. Kerri and Bill fell under a ginger love trance once again, rudely ignoring the three other co-workers, leaving poor Ashley to be a fifth wheel.

After playing footsie all evening, Kerri asked (well, told because hey, it was time to get this party started already) Bill that he was driving her home. Before Kerri was dropped off, Bill decided it was time to have a well-reasoned discussion about the possible consequences of starting a ginger relation. This conversation lasted way too long for Kerri’s liking (like two hours too long) but all the while Bill lovingly caressed the side of her face. Eventually he said “eff” it and kissed her anyways.

They decided to take things slow but this apparently meant hanging out every day. Two months later, Billy Doyle told Kerri Adams that he was in love with her under the moonlight in the ocean during a night swim on a group outing with friends.

After being in a flourishing ginger relation for a year and half, one-day Bill told Kerri he was in the mood for dinner at his favorite Asian restaurant. This restaurant so happened to be right across the street from the beach where Bill first proclaimed his ginger love for her. Unfortunately, the notion of revisiting that magical moment was dampened by hard falling rain all throughout dinner. But still, Bill insisted that they go for a walk on the beach after dinner. So, the gingers braved the downpour, crossing the street to the beach, navigating around puddles. Kerri was ill prepared for a muddy beach walk, her favorite pair of work flats were worn and in need of repair. With every step, more sand and water seeped into her shoes. Once they reached the beach, Bill pulled out a York Peppermint Pattie which he knew to be Kerri’s favorite treat in a light-hearted but obvious ploy to trick Kerri into thinking he might propose. She even joked that this was probably not the best time to propose considering the wet weather, all the while she was inhaling that York Pattie like a true lady. It had melted, but she didn’t care. She licked it out of the wrapper in her typically classy fashion.

They continued to walk a bit on the beach until Bill suddenly stopped them and Kerri felt his heart beating super-fast. He then got down on one knee in the wet sand and said a series of adorable things that neither of them can accurately remember.

He then asked if she would marry him and before she could say yes, she asked if she could first see the ring since he did not present it with the proposal. Bill had purposely left the ring in his wallet because Kerri’s grandmother had told warned him earlier in the day (when he was asking for her family for her hand because he is gentlemen like that) that the ring could fall in the sand and be lost forever. He carefully took the ring out of his wallet and Kerri, who has always been very particular in her jewelry taste, couldn’t imagine a more perfect ring from a more perfect ginger.

She then said yes and Bill watched with an excited grin on his face as she broke into attractive tribal-like dance in celebration all over the beach.  And that is how this the greatest of ginger love stories began.