At first glance, Jake and Dani are a very unlikely couple. They each hail from different ends of the earth – Dani from Saudi Arabia and Jake from Montana. They each have very different backgrounds – Dani an international woman of mystery (but, importantly, not a spy) and Jacob, a small-town lawyer from Billings. But somehow these two disparate persons not only managed to meet but fall in love. This is their story.

Jake likes to joke that Dani getting stuck in Billings was the only good thing to come out of COVID. After years of living and working overseas, Dani came to Billings for the holidays in 2021 and (because of a lockdown in London) she never left. After a 3 month hiatus in Billings, Dani realized that the outdoor Montana life was exactly what she wanted. She fell in with a social group of outgoing 30 and 40-somethings (aka the “Struggle Bus”) and soon found herself adventuring across the state. Always afraid of missing out, Dani took up rock-climbing, white-water rafting, backcountry skiing, and slew of other wild activities that only Big Sky County could provide.

Even though her life was full of adventure, something was still missing – romance. Undeterred by Billings’ shallow dating pool, Dani took to the internet. And, one fateful day in December of 2022, she stumbled across the profile of a man with a fish – and was immediately hooked. Just kidding . . . it was the picture of Jake in a suit, Dani couldn’t resist (and still can’t). Jake’s biography consisted of one sentence: “Here’s my pitch: Suspend disbelief and allow yourself to be surprised.” Intrigued, Dani swiped right.

At that same moment, Jake was obsessing about meeting his billable hour requirement when he learned he had a match. After moving back home from law school, Jake was also acquainted with the joys of online dating. Those years were pretty rough – they were filled with awkward (and unflattering) moments and a healthy dose of disappointment. Nonetheless, he persisted. And, when Dani’s face popped up on his phone, Jake eagerly reviewed every picture and read every line. Needless to say, Jake was sold. Here was a woman that clearly loved adventure and dogs and, weirdly, “outer space.” But she also had a good sense of humor – as Dani put it on the top of her profile, she was “Just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking to please not send her [expletive] pics.” Jake laughed, swiped right, and the connection was made.

Some have observed that Jake and Dani can talk about anything with each other. That fact was immediately apparent in their first few messages on the dating app. Their conversations quickly shifted from simple observations about the weather, to their shared love of the mountains, their families, and their desire to travel the world. Once Jake finally worked up the courage to ask for her number, they were finally able to have these conversations the way god intended – by text. Eventually, however, they knew they had to set a date to meet in person.

On their first date, Jake and Dani took the trivia world by storm and placed 3rd at Thirsty Street’s weekly trivia night. Their outstanding performance was driven in large part by Dani’s encyclopedic knowledge of Taylor Swift lyrics – Jake’s uncanny ability to remember facts that are literally only useful in the trivia context also helped. Their good showing aside, the fact that Jake and Dani continued to talk to one another until everyone else had left revealed the two had a spark. (Unfortunately, Dani was momentarily deterred when, spark aside, Jake said “ok bye!” at the end of the night and swiftly strode away.)

On their second date, Jake wowed Dani with his physical prowess – scaling a rock wall with the agility of a cat. Okay, maybe a cat like Garfield, but still, it was impressive. Afterall, Jake never climbed a rock wall before – a fact that he (conveniently) neglected to mention to Dani. They capped off the night with a visit to the wine bar, during which Dani, clearly frustrated with Jake’s good manners (and with the directness of an airport marshaller guiding a taxiing plane) asked him pointedly if he was ever going to kiss her. Seeing the obvious opportunity, Jake quickly obliged.

Their third date happened the next day. Perhaps it was the prior night’s wine or Jake’s desire to spend more time with Dani, either way, Jake committed himself to learning how to ski – on Red Lodge Mountain’s largest powder day of the year. Little did he know that the next morning Dani would be on her way to the mountain with his best wingman ever, Sam Hensler, who, after listening to Dani talk for a few minutes about how Jake was so fun but “not really her type,” exclaimed “Dani, going after your type really hasn’t worked that well so far, so maybe give the nice guy a chance!” And so, Jake went to his lesson, as Dani shredded the pow with a newly opened mind and looked forward to meeting the nice guy for lunch. After two hours of forcing his aging snow instructor to dig him out of snowbanks, Jake finally stumbled into The Bierstube looking like he had gone to war the elements – and lost, epically. But Dani seemed to appreciate the effort. As the two stole loving glances over steaming Alpines and hot burgers and fries, Jake and Dani continued to bond (let it be known Dani gave up two hours on a powder day to hang out with Jake in the lodge – clearly, she was smitten). By the end of their third date, Jake new he had found someone special and, by the end of their fourth, he knew he was never letting Dani go.

And so, the two continued to build their relationship on the joint love of the outdoors (even the odd incidents requiring emergency rescue) and the tiny fishbowl that is Billings. In a funny twist of Billings fate, when Dani finally introduced Jake to her friends, she realized that her Maid of Honor Karie already knew him – her father-in-law Dale was best friends with Jake’s dad, and Jake grew up with her husband, Jared (Billings never fails to deliver no more than 2 degrees of separation).

Before long, they moved in together and immediately added a small lemon of a dog, Dora, to their tiny family. After living together for a year, they realized they were best friends and had no intention of splitting up. And so, on Dani’s 38th birthday, Jake (in perfect nerd fashion) hid a letter containing his proposal to Dani in the final clue of an escape room. Realizing she got to spend the rest of her life with the man of her dreams, Dani immediately burst into tears and, of course, said yes (this last sentence is very true, but was obviously written by Jake).

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