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Mike and Casey first met in fourth grade when the Riletts moved to Lincoln, Nebraska. Though they had similar interests, they were mortal enemies throughout school due to academic and social pressures. After spending their college careers primarily apart (they do recall once bumping into each other at The Bar in 2016) they were reunited when Casey started working at Spreetail, where Mike had been a developer for the previous two years. Mike graciously invited Casey to a ‘team lunch’ (they didn’t have any coworkers in common, and they’re still not sure whose ‘team’ this was). Shortly after, Mike moved to Austin, TX. Around the same time, Casey enrolled in Graduate school. From the surface, a seemingly horrible time to begin a long-distance relationship, but Casey was tasked to request weekly system payment processing updates from Mike at work and things evolved as they will when kismet takes hold.

In 2019 Mike returned to Lincoln to visit Casey, and Casey took her first trip to stay with Mike in Austin. The long-distance pattern began and continued throughout the next two years: one week in Austin, the next month - one week in Lincoln, the next month - one week meeting up somewhere new, and the next month - restart the cycle in Austin.

2021 was an amazing year - in January, they welcomed their ‘baby’, Cannoli the tuxeo cat. In May, Casey graduated with her Masters, and in October, Casey’s office transfer to Austin was approved! To finally be in the same city was an incredible blessing; the couple have loved building their community of amazing friends in Austin.

In early October 2024, the two returned to the first spot they had gone backpacking together, and Mike surprised Casey by proposing in the early sunset hours on the South Rim of the Chisos Mountain. They’ve cherished their time as fiancés and love referring to each other as such - as sad as they are to see the titles go - they're ready to make it official!