Meet Cutes

You know a meet cute when you see one. They are those classic Rom-Com scenes where two people meet for the first time under unusual, funny, or embarrassing circumstances. The two people – whether they immediately feel drawn to one another or take ages to connect – ultimately fall in love and live happily ever after. In this story, you’ll learn that meet cutes aren’t just things of movies. They are part of many of our neighbors’ lives. Here are the stories of four Buzz couples whose meet cutes were made for the big screen. 

Adam Morales was at Home Depot with his dad when his phone rang. 

“Adam, it’s Misty from anatomy lab,” a voice on the other side said. “I’m stuck on the beach, and I need to get out of here.” It was cold and rainy, and Misty’s friends had planned to camp on the beach. Misty was miserable. 

Adam, a native of Corpus Christi, knew this was his opportunity to impress Misty Menger, who he had met in anatomy lab two months earlier. The two were juniors at Texas A&M University, and Adam felt that he had gotten lucky when he was assigned to partner with Misty. You never know who you’re going to get paired with, and Misty – a cute brunette with sharp, purple-rimmed glasses – had caught Adam’s eye. 

Even better, the two complemented each other perfectly. While Adam took control of the scalpel, Misty was happy to skip dissecting and read Adam the instructions. It was in anatomy lab that Misty discovered she was not cut out to do surgery. 

Now, Misty was calling Adam asking for help. Misty was camping on the beach in Corpus for Spring Break. Adam had figured it was a bad idea – it’s typically cold in the South Texas beach town in March – so he offered to help if she needed anything while in his hometown. He secretly hoped she would. 

Adam dashed out of Home Depot and came to Misty’s rescue. He took her to his favorite surf club downtown and then dropped her off at the airport, leaving Misty impressed and grateful. 

“After that, I started paying more attention to him,” said Misty, who grew up in Houston. “I remember thinking he went out of his way to help me.”

Adam and Misty enjoy watching basketball games together. Here they’re pictured outside the Toyota Center for a Rockets game in 2003.

That summer, Misty and Adam found themselves together again on campus. Both were biochemistry majors and had decided to take microbiology during the summer. They signed up for the same lab – on purpose – and soon became inseparable. Adam would stop by the Mexican restaurant where Misty waitressed, and she’d save him breakfast tacos. During class, they’d stealthily work on crossword puzzles together. Afterwards, they’d go swimming, play volleyball, go for runs, or study together in the library. 

“Once we kind of hooked onto each other, we never really left,” Misty said. 

The two Aggies shared a commitment to school and learning. Both were hardworking and preferred quiet nights in over club nights out. In the fall, Adam applied to medical school and Misty accompanied him across Texas for all of his interviews. 

After graduation in 2003, Adam started medical school at UT Houston and Misty went to Rice University to study Spanish. She wanted to teach Spanish before going to law school to ensure her Spanish language skills would stick. Today, she runs her own law practice.

Three years after they started dating and one day before Adam was scheduled to take a competitive medical exam, Adam popped the question at the Four Seasons Downtown. Misty was shocked that he would propose the day before a pivotal exam. But Adam simply couldn’t wait any longer. 

“I remember thinking, what am I waiting for?” Adam said. “Am I really going to delay my future with this woman that I love? And then it just dawned on me. I need to propose.” 

The happy couple has been married nearly 18 years and lives together in Memorial with their three daughters: Meadow, Milan, and Monet. 

Cody and Caroline Plummer attended the same college, but they didn’t formally meet until they happened to be on the same flight. They’ve been together ever since. (Photo: lawellphoto.com)

In the terminal at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Cody Plummer spotted a cute girl who looked familiar. He’d seen her around campus at Louisiana State University, where he had graduated from two years prior and was currently completing a master’s degree. And the girl had been on his flight from Baton Rouge to Houston two days earlier. On that flight, she sat next to a guy who could’ve been her boyfriend. This time, Cody noticed she was flying solo. 

With a two-hour flight delay, Cody knew this was his window to make a move. He mustered the courage to strike up a conversation and introduced himself to Caroline Geiger. The two began chatting about Greek life at LSU, and they quickly realized they shared a mutual close friend. The easy conversation made time fly, and soon it was time to board the plane. 

LOVE IS IN THE AIR Cody Plummer met now-wife Caroline Plummer on a flight from Houston to Baton Rouge. They both attended Louisiana State University but had never formally met before the flight. Cody and Caroline enjoy a walk through the streets of New Orleans in January 2020.

Caroline took her assigned seat near the front of the plane in Economy Plus, and Cody begrudgingly took his middle seat in the rear.

Wanting to continue the conversation with Caroline, Cody asked a flight attendant if he could move up. “I was like, I was just talking to this really cute girl in the terminal, and I’m pretty sure there’s an empty seat next to her. Do you mind if I sit next to her?” 

The flight attendant proved to be a good wingman and let Cody move to the front. 

Caroline was immediately taken by Cody’s confidence, intelligence, and charm. “I remember being impressed by him,” Caroline said. “There was an instant connection.” 

Caroline and Cody attend an LSU football game at Tiger Stadium in 2019.

When the flight landed in Baton Rouge, Cody was supposed to get picked up at the airport by his roommate. As luck would have it, the roommate failed to answer his phone, and Caroline offered Cody a ride home. That gave Cody the perfect opportunity to ask for Caroline’s number – and to ask her on a date. 

At the time, Caroline had her sights set on graduation. She wanted to move back to Houston and had sworn off dating. She didn’t want to start a new relationship in Louisiana only to have to cut it off in May. But she said yes to Cody anyway, and within a month, the two were seriously dating. 

“It’s kind of funny how the universe works,” Cody said. “As soon as you stop looking for something or wanting it and trying to make it happen, things just fall into your lap.” 

Caroline and Cody both moved to Houston after graduating in 2017, and they got an apartment together in 2020. They made it through the Covid-19 pandemic together, with Cody – who works as a consultant – taking his work calls from the master closet and Caroline, a manager at CenterPoint Energy, setting up shop at a Rubbermaid table in the living room. 

Caroline and Cody have been together since 2016 and now live in the Bellaire area, near where Cody grew up. (Photo: lawellphoto.com)

On New Year’s Eve of 2020, Cody proposed to Caroline in Costa Rica – a fitting move for a couple who met on an airplane. 

“I was sitting on this ring for months trying to find the right opportunity to propose, and the stars kind of aligned because Covid restrictions finally were lifted,” Cody said. “It was the perfect time.” 

Shelly and Chris deZevallos met in an airport hangar. The two bonded over their shared love of flying, dogs, and the outdoors. (Photo: Clark Lara Photography)

The first time Shelly Lesikar saw Chris deZevallos she accused him of stealing her water. 

Shelly’s family owns West Houston Airport, where Chris was storing his small airplane, and Shelly noticed that he was using a garden hose from her airplane hangar to wash his plane. 

“She’s driving past me and says, ‘do you always use my water to clean your plane?’” Chris recalled. “‘Because I have a wash rack on the other side where you can wash your plane.’”

FOREVER COPILOTS Shelly and Chris deZevallos met at West Houston Airport, which Shelly's family owns and where Chris was storing his airplane. Chris and Shelly met about two decades ago and have been married since 2006. (Photo: Clark Lara Photography)

Chris said he wouldn’t do it again and made it his mission to get Shelly’s phone number. “Obviously, I had to get the name and phone number of the good-looking woman with a dog who lives in an airplane hangar.” 

Chris called the airport, and Shelly’s dad gave his daughter’s home and cell phone number – and offered to pay for the first date.

Shelly was 34 years old at the time and had no intention of getting married. She was happy with her dog, two cars, airplane and hangar. At age 30, she had even bought herself a “single and happy” ring. So when her dad heard a fellow pilot was interested in his daughter, he was excited. Maybe this would be a match. 

Chris and Shelly dispute when their first date happened. Chris says it’s when he asked Shelly to fly with him one night. Chris flew Shelly to Austin to go to dinner at one of his favorite restaurants called Guero’s. 

“When a guy asks you out for dinner and flies you there in an airplane, most people would consider that a date,” Chris says. 

Flying brought Shelly and Chris together, and they still love being copilots together.

But Shelly argues that it doesn’t count. 

“I’m a little old fashioned, and you ask somebody two or three days in advance to go on a date,” Shelly said. “This was a ‘hey, you want to go fly with me tonight?’” 

Shelly thought Chris was simply asking for a co-pilot because it was nighttime, and Shelly had significantly more flying hours than Chris. Chris works as a real estate developer but had recently learned to fly and purchased an airplane.  

Regardless, the couple’s shared love of flying, dogs, and the outdoors brought them closer together. Their early days were filled with hikes around Austin, weekend trips in the plane and other outdoor adventures. 

Shelly and Chris have twin girls Katharine (left) and Sarah (right), who are now 14. The family enjoys flying together.

Eighteen months after they met, Chris asked Shelly to dinner, and they again flew to Austin to go to Guero’s. This time, it was undoubtedly a date. On the flight over, Chris asked Shelly to marry him. 

The couple had their wedding reception in the airport hangar, with the couple taxiing in on an airplane. And they even lived in the airport hangar until 2019. 

Now the couple lives in Memorial but continues to fly on the weekends – they’ve been to Washington, Maine, California, the Bahamas. And they often travel with their twin, 14-year-old daughters, Sarah and Katharine. Shelly hopes one of them will become a pilot.  

“It’s amazing how small the country is when you get to fly in a small plane,” she said. 

COLLEGE SWEETHEARTS Teddy and Emily Niedermeyer met while volunteering as youth soccer coaches as students at Colby College. Teddy and Emily enjoy time together at the Colby Student Union.

The first time Teddy Niedermayer made a move on Emily Boyce, during his sophomore year at Colby College, he was rejected. Plain and simple. Teddy asked Emily to dance at a party, and Emily said no – she was on her way out, headed to an off-campus fraternity party. 

“I just gave up,” Teddy said. “Emily wanted to go live her fun college days and shot down the nice guy who was chasing after her.” 

But Teddy wouldn’t actually give up so easily. About a month earlier, in the fall of 2012, Teddy had met Emily when the two signed up to volunteer coaching youth soccer in Waterville, Maine. Teddy went out of his way to spend time with Emily and one of her friends, hitching rides with them instead of with his guy friends. 

“I was like, here are two cute freshmen girls. I’m going to make excuses to hang out with them,” Teddy said. 

In the spring, after the dust had settled from Teddy’s rejection, Emily and Teddy once again found themselves in the same place at the same time. Emily – who sang in choir while she was a student at St. John's School in Houston – joined an a cappella group, and Teddy was part of another singing group. The community was small and close-knit. 

Teddy and Emily went to Chile for their honeymoon in December 2023. Here, they're pictured in Valparaíso.

Emily and Teddy started eating lunch together a few times a week. And Teddy, wanting to spend more time with Emily, made up clever excuses to see more of Emily. He accepted an internship at a Latin American company in the summer and asked Emily, who was studying Spanish, if she could help him translate the HR documents and tutor him in Spanish. Teddy did not mention that he was already fluent in Spanish. 

“I just kept finding these little opportunities to go bother Emily,” Teddy said. 

The friendship turned into a romance over the summer when the two found that they were texting each other incessantly. Emily, a native Houstonian, visited Teddy in Miami, and the two spent so long on the beach that Teddy got the worst sunburn of his life. It was so bad he had to skip work the next day. 

By then, Emily was falling for Teddy, too. 

“He says exactly what he’s thinking, so there’s no guessing, and that’s really refreshing,” Emily said. “That is still something I like about him.” And, lucky for Teddy, Emily’s parents liked him too. They had met when they visited from Houston one weekend and offered to take all of Emily’s friends out to lunch. 

“Emily’s dad and I got along really well because we had a mutual love of airplanes,” Teddy said. “So even before we were dating, I knew I got along pretty well with her parents.”

Emily and Teddy on their wedding day in October 2023 in Portland, Maine. (Photo: Kendra Engel Photography)

After Teddy graduated, the two lived in different states. Emily was still at Colby, but Teddy visited often. He was on campus so much that underclassmen were in disbelief when they found out he wasn’t a current student. 

The couple then spent three years in NYC together – Emily as a teacher and Teddy working for JetBlue, before they moved to New Hampshire where Teddy started business school at Dartmouth and Emily found a new teaching job. After the pandemic, the two were on a trip to France together, where Teddy planned to pop the question. He had had a ring for nearly a year, but hadn’t found the right opportunity to propose. 

On the second to last day of the trip, Emily and Teddy sat in a park and Emily confided that all of her friends were getting married, and she was ready to plan a wedding too. Teddy chuckled to himself and proposed the very next day. 

They now live in Philadelphia with their dog, Azula.