As Summer Waters wrestled an unwieldy pile of luggage through the doors of a Holiday Inn in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, she caught sight of a striking young man with dark hair behind the front desk. Her mother, Melissa Waters, noticed him, too.
Ethan Phleger, the employee in question, clocked the two women the moment they stepped into the lobby. How could he not?
“Whenever my mom and I go anywhere, we have at least 20 bags,” Summer tells TODAY.com, noting that on that particular day in August 2023, they were also unintentionally twinning in identical outfits, making them “pretty hard to miss.”
After Summer and Melissa — plus their many suitcases — finally arrived at their room and opened their takeout bags for lunch, they discovered they had forgotten utensils.
Melissa saw it as the perfect opportunity for her daughter to go back downstairs and strike up a conversation with the “most gorgeous guy” Summer had ever seen.
Summer, then a University of Alabama student, was only staying at the hotel while waiting to move into her sorority house. Melissa pointed out if they hit it off, distance wouldn’t be an issue — they were both local. Still, Summer wasn’t optimistic.
“I was like, ‘Nothing is going to come out of this,” she recalls, her words rolling out with the warm, lilting cadence of a thick Southern drawl. At first, Summer thought she was right. Ethan, busy assisting other guests, barely made eye contact when she inquired about forks and simply pointed to where she could find them. Even when she lingered, hoping he might look up, he remained focused elsewhere.
Summer recounted the disappointing interaction to Melissa, who wasn’t the least bit discouraged. She dared Summer to dial the front desk and ask Ethan if he was single. (He was.) And not only that, he was very interested in Summer and gave her his number.
The call was recorded, a moment that would become the centerpiece of a now-viral TikTok chronicling the couple’s whirlwind love story.
“We started texting that night,” Summer says.
What stood out to Summer, beyond the “immediate physical attraction,” was Ethan’s faith. One of his first questions was about where she attended church in Tuscaloosa.
“The fact that he brought that up so early really stood out to me. I’m a Christian and that is super important to me,” Summer says. She remembers feeling a flutter in her chest, and having to steady herself.
“I didn’t want to get too excited, just in case,” she explains.
Summer and Ethan had their first official date the following week, and, ever the Southern gentleman, he arrived with a bouquet of yellow flowers. Over coffee, they skipped the small talk and dove straight into meaningful conversation. They spoke about the glory of God and the kind of relationship they were searching for.
“Neither of us wanted to waste the other person’s time,” Summer says. “I know this sounds crazy because I was so young, but I was ready to find my husband.”
Ethan felt the same. He, too, was looking for something real: a partner, a future, a life built on shared values. Not long after, he presented Summer with a box holding a fork engraved with the date she walked into the Holiday Inn and the words, “Be my girlfriend?”
Three months later, Ethan surprised her again with another box — this one containing a diamond ring.
During their wedding in August 2024, as Ethan recited his vows, he paused to place a fork gently in his bride’s hand. Etched into it were the words: Just married 8/10/24. It’s a match Melissa proudly claims credit for — and Summer agrees.
“If my mom hadn’t encouraged me to shoot my shot, I never would have done it,” Summer says. “I was such a chicken. I never would have even thought about approaching a guy first. But I’m so thankful I did.”
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
