at a little sandwich shop called Beach Hut Deli.

I was working at Beach Hut making food on the sandwich line. The bell signaled a customer had walked in and I looked over and saw what I can only describe as a longhaired, tattooed, brick house with a nose piercing. Immediately, I knew I needed to take his order. I beelined to the register and was caught by another girl working who clearly wanted to take this man’s order as well. This was no time for manners, so I abruptly cut her off, and with a smile, I said, “Hi welcome to Beach Hut Deli, my name is Gracie. Can I help you with the menu?” It was then that I noticed this redheaded Rapunzel was standing beside another very hairy man, although his beard was whiter than the Swiss cheese that had fallen on my shoes. It wasn’t a leap to guess that they were related.

I took my time to give them more recommendations than they asked for and they finally settled on their choice of sandwich and beer, I asked them for their names. I didn’t fully listen for White Beard’s name, but now know that it is Eric. The man with the long, red hair said “My name is Hunter.” I thought it was a sign from above and said “My dog's name is Hunter!” I left out the part that my dog hadn’t been alive for a few years, but I thought that was better than saying he had the same name as my dead dog. Anyway, the interaction went perfectly.

The men decided to sit at the bar directly in front of the sandwich prep area. It was when I noticed they had also come in with a beautiful lady as well. She introduced herself as Chelsea.

I used all of my training and concentration to pour them the best beer from the tap possible and handed the drinks off to my customers. Now, I pride myself on my customer service but there was something about this family that made my head scream “Talk to them!” So I switched gears to making their sandwiches. My coworkers had taken note that I was not acting normal since I had been cutting into other people’s stations and essentially taking this family’s order over entirely, which was not protocol. The girl I stampeded to take the order and the manager called me into the back to ask me what was going on with me. Then they reminded me that I have a (long-distance) boyfriend. I couldn’t explain it, brushed off their concerns and thoughts about my then-boyfriend, and went back out to make the best sandwiches I’ve ever made.

Making sure to add extra meats and cheeses to ensure success, I fulfilled their orders and delivered my creations to Hunter, Eric, and Chelsea.

As they ate, they told me that they used to live in California, and Beach Hut was one of their favorite places to eat. This made my heart sing because this Beach Hut was the first and only one in Texas, so it meant that I had myself a family of repeat customers, and more importantly, I would get to see Hunter again.

After their sandwiches and a few pints of beer, they had finished their meal, and I was enamored. Although Eric had done most of the talking, I knew I had at least secured a place in Hunter’s mind, even if it was just as a sandwich girl who was too friendly and gave away some free beer. The mission was a success.

After that day, every time the door opened, my heart would leap as I hoped it was Hunter. For days, weeks, and months I held hope that he would return.

As life went on, I moved to a new job at a country club and would only go to Beach Hut every so often to help out or eat. I ended up breaking up with my boyfriend, and like it was meant to be, received an Instagram message from Hunter the same day. I knew he had no way of knowing my last name, so it made me smile to think he had to put a little time into online stalking me. He said he had been in and out of Beach Hut multiple times and he was very disappointed that he hadn’t seen me. He asked me on a date and I accepted. I was absolutely giddy.

Our first date was at a record store and then a bar for Spin Your Own Records Night. He chose Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon” and I chose The Scorpion’s “Rock You Like a Hurricane.” I knew I was in love.

On the second date, I stubbed my toe and Hunter playfully kissed it to make me feel better. Not one to hide my feelings, I blurted out “I love you.” He smiled and then said, “I’ve been feeling the same way.”

From then on it was a whirlwind of love and laughter. Hunter starred in all of my art projects and became a dad to my dog Hannah. We decided to get a puppy to be Hannah’s buddy when Covid happened, and that’s how we got Stevie. We became a family. Hannah has since passed on to her Heavenly home, but I know she is looking at her little family with love in her heart and tennis balls in her mouth.

I used to work out of town on the road a lot, and one weekend when I was coming home from a job, my dad and I were on the phone talking, and he mentioned this sandwich shop that had just opened up down the street, Beach Hut Deli. Its original store is in Roseville, where he and Chelsea had been from/lived for a long time, so they knew how good it was and were excited to have one so close to the house. They went in the weekend before and confirmed it was just as good as they remembered, so we planned on going in on Saturday for a sandwich and a beer.

We walked in together and immediately I saw the cutest girl I had ever seen in my life. We made eye contact as I saw her walk over to the counter to take our orders. That’s when panic set in. I became nervous and all of a sudden, English felt like a second language. She was so cute, and so sweet, giving us recommendations on the food and beer. She asked us our names and where we were from. I remember thinking that either this place has insanely good customer service, or she thought one of us was cute, and I was pretty confident she was feeling that for me (no offense Pops). My dad was trying to tell me what he’s had and what he likes, but I was tuning him out and just trying to be cool and look cool for this beautiful woman who was going to take my order. Eventually, we made a decision and placed our order. When we got to the table, Chelsea and my dad immediately dove into how cute the girl who took our order was, and they could see it in my eyes that I was thinking that as well. They also knew my dating history, which was nonexistent, so they were clearly trying to hype me up so I could have the confidence to talk with her some more. She brought us our food and beer from behind the counter. She was still having conversations with us as best she could while also doing her job. I remember her bringing me a refill for my beer and spilling a bit of it on me and going “Oh f***”, which I thought was great cause it made me think she might’ve been as nervous as I was. When we left Beach Hut, I knew that that was my new go-to spot. Any time I was back in town, I was going to go there. The food was great! But Gracie was easily my favorite part.

Every few weeks or months, I’d come back into town and go in there and see her working. I’m horrible with names so all I remembered about her was her dog's name, because it’s my name too. My buddy Danny moved out to Austin to work with me and we got an apartment together, I was telling him about this place telling him how bomb the food was, but also that there was this insanely cute girl that worked there that I was trying to get to know better. We’d go in and see her, and everything was going great, until one trip when she was sitting at a table with another guy and I could tell it was her boyfriend. This sucked. But I knew I’d keep coming back, hoping one day it’d be different.

Eventually, Danny and I would go and we stopped seeing her. This happened a few times and I thought that I had missed out on someone great. Then one visit we go in and see her, but this time she’s not in her Beach Hut uniform. She was wearing a pink golf shirt with an athletic skirt and a name tag for River Place Country Club. She let me know that she left Beach Hut a few weeks ago and had gotten a job at the country club but still came into Beach Hut from time to time to see friends and help out. Now I knew damn well I couldn’t afford a country club membership, so I figured I’d just keep coming back with hopes that she’d be there.

About a year went by from our first interaction and I couldn’t get her out of my head. I was done traveling for work and living in Austin full-time, and still had no luck with dating. One day I decided I was going to look her up on Instagram to see her and see what she was doing. I had to go on the Beach Hut Instagram page and search through their followers to find her because I didn’t know her last name. I sent her a follower request and waited for her to accept it and follow me back. I’m not sure how quickly that happened, but I got the follow back and went on her page and saw her with another guy in some photos, so I figured they were still together. I’m not sure what came over me, but I decided to send her a message on Instagram to strike up a conversation. She responded and we got to chatting a little bit, all surface-level stuff, until I got this wave of confidence to ask her, “Do you have a boyfriend?”. She told me they were on a break, which led me to ask, “Like a Ross and Rachel from Friends break?”. To which she responded, “Depends on who you side with, Ross or Rachel”. I panicked again. I spent hours trying to decide what to say because I didn’t want to blow this. She explained to me some of what was going on and I ended up getting her phone number so we could stop using Instagram to chat.

After one day of texting, I finally found the courage to ask her out on a date. This was on a Monday and we scheduled the date for Thursday. I spent three days trying to figure out how to have the best first date possible. I picked her up and we went to a record shop and picked out some records, and then went to a bar/concert venue because every Thursday it's “Bring your own vinyl” day where you bring a record and they show you how to spin the record. We had some drinks, spun some records, and talked for hours and I could tell it was going really well. So much so that we already were planning date number two for the upcoming Sunday. I drove her home and dropped her off in front of her apartment. I knew right away that I had found someone who was so special and so perfect. I finally felt like I had the opportunity to fall in love, and I was so happy it was with her.

After just a few weeks, we went from seeing each other every few days, to every single day. I couldn’t spend enough time with her, and her darling puppy Hannah. All my free time was with them. After just 7 months of being together, I went and bought an engagement ring because I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her.