Taylor grew up spending her summers at Saybrook Point Marina in Old Saybrook, CT, where her family’s boat,
Reel Therapy, is docked. Chris grew up down the Connecticut coastline in Greenwich.
On August 29, 2020, a day that started off much like
The Perfect Storm, Chris and the infamous Waesche brothers decided to venture west down Long Island Sound to Saybrook Point for a round of golf.
By the time Chris and his crew pulled into the marina, onlookers assumed their 27' Edgewater had sought refuge from the approaching storm. The four friends stepped off the boat, golf bags in tow, ready for an adventure in the middle of the hurricane. Since Taylor had grown up on that dock, everyone there felt like family. One of Taylor's dad’s best friends, Mike, was on the dock with his wife, Lucy, when they spotted the group. Lucy, being the matchmaker she is, immediately noticed Chris. She sent Mike over to get Chris’s number for Taylor, who had no idea what was going on. Chris was caught off guard when Mike asked for his number. He hesitated until Mike mentioned it was for "that girl over there." Chris gladly gave it, and he anticipated hearing from Taylor that day.
Meanwhile, after realizing that Mike had, in fact, taken down the
wrong number, Taylor spent the afternoon boating on the Connecticut River with two of her best college friends, Kalli and Cam, catching blue crabs for her dad to make linguine and crab sauce for dinner.
Hours later, after the sun had set and many beers had been consumed, Chris and the Waesche brothers strolled back down the dock and joined a lively dock party. Taylor’s dad called out, inviting them to dinner, and they were soon enjoying linguine and crab sauce. Chris teased Taylor for not texting him, mentioning that he’d given Mike his number for her, but promised they’d hang out later that night. The two parted ways, with Taylor, Kalli, and Cam enjoying the fire pits on one side of the dock, while Chris and the Waesche brothers knocked back espresso martinis at dinner before deciding to check out the fire pits.
Once again, Chris and Taylor reconnected. At one point, Chris noticed that Taylor had stopped drinking and offered her another High Noon from her cooler. Taylor explained she was taking a break because she had a 10-mile run planned for the morning. Without hesitation, Chris said, “I’ll run 10 miles with you.” Impressed, Taylor offered him a bed on her boat for the night.
At 6:30 the next morning, as Taylor quietly laced up her sneakers to sneak past the sleeping Chris on the futon, he suddenly popped up and said, “Are we going?! Let’s go!”
True to his word, Chris ran the full 10 miles with her, all while enduring questions from her running partner and one of her and her dad’s other best friends, Craig, who grilled him about his five-year plan. Craig wasn’t sold on Chris until he watched him sprint the final two miles, finishing the run with the kind of effort only a Nocek brother could muster.
After all that, Chris treated Taylor, Kalli, and Cam to breakfast, where he agreed to share a chocolate chip pancake with Taylor.
To this day, they always split a chocolate chip pancake at breakfast.