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A woman has told how her boyfriend flew 650 miles for their first date – after she commented on TikTok to say she fancied him.
Matt Bannon, 26, went viral when he posted a video of him racing his brother in the swimming pool, as part of a gender reveal stunt for his pregnant sister.
Hundreds of women – including an Olympian athlete – posted admiring comments, so Taylor Bier, 25, joined in the fun and added a flirty message.
She typed “Ooo 25, single, saw there was an Olympic athlete on board – I might not beat that.”
CT Scan technologist Taylor was then left shocked when event manager Matt replied back – and the pair hit it off immediately via Facetime calls and messages.
After just two weeks of chatting, Matt booked flights from Dallas, Texas, to Omaha, Nebraska – and they met at the airport just six weeks after Taylor’s cheeky message.
After a whirlwind romance, they became boyfriend and girlfriend, and have visited each other every month since.
Taylor said: “Meeting in person was so much better than I could’ve ever expected.
“It’s super crazy how things work out.”
Event manager and consultant Matt added: “Thank God for TikTok right?”
Matt and his brother John went viral in a video racing against each other in the pool, each representing blue and pink for sister Lindsay’s baby gender reveal.
The video popped up on Taylor’s feed and she saw that a Canadian Olympic ice skater had already shot her shot for the man in the video in the comments.
Taylor’s comment on 10 May 2021 said: “Ooo 25, single, saw there was an Olympic athlete on board – I might not beat that.”
Matt replied and Taylor said their messages were “super easy” and added: “Every conversation sparked a new conversation.”
She asked him to Facetime to check he wasn’t a catfish – and Taylor pulled into a Target car park for what she thought was a ten minute chat.
“I sat in the Target parking lot for two hours and didn’t even ever go in,” she said.
“He was way more handsome than I ever thought he was going to be.
“We both half jokingly, half seriously, mentioned that after the first time we met in person, we were kind of hoping we’d feel like more friends than anything more.
“That would make everything easier, but, clearly that wasn’t the case.”
After two weeks of speaking to one another over FaceTime, Matt surprised her with plane tickets to visit her in Omaha, Nebraska, on 24 May.
“He booked it a month out, so we still had a full month to get to know each other before he actually came here for the first time,” Taylor said.
At the airport, Matt said he shouted, “Oh my god, you’re real and not a catfish.”
It wasn’t until they were sitting side by side in her car she realised how weird it was to see him not through her phone.
“She’s the sweetest, nicest person ever,” Matt said.
Taylor added, “He would pinch me and be like, ‘sorry, never thought I would see you.’ It really didn’t feel real.”
They spent their time together attending the College World Series, and Taylor introduced him to her family.
The happy couple have seen each other three times since, as she flew out to Matt’s hometown a few weeks after, and they attended a wedding in Denver together last weekend (08/08-08/08).
She said: “We are taking things one month at a time, we both know we really like each other and that we’re not interested in meeting anyone else.
“Matt jokes that this season of the TikTok Bachelor is over.
“It really does not feel like it’s only been three times of seeing each other in person, just because of how often we FaceTime.
“We are away more than we are together, but we look at it as those three or four days together as so worth all the missing each other in between.”
They have already scheduled to visit each other one weekend of every month for the remainder of this year in different holiday spots.
Taylor said: “Typically, I am not the person who would comment on a strangers video, much less follow the random guy in the video for the mere chance he follows me back and messages me.
“But in this instance, I don’t know what got into me, but I did both of those things.
“This was indeed a chance encounter, but because of the way things are panning out, I now more than ever, have full faith in the fact that everything does happen for a reason.
“I am so grateful for this darn app and for Lindsay and her sweet quarantine baby, because without any of that, Matt and I would still not know the other existed.”
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