This year, Adriene and David Simon celebrated their 12^th Valentine’s Day as a couple, which is impressive given that Adriene is only 26 and David only 28.

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This Auburn love story started on the Plains the summer before Adriene began her freshman year at Auburn High School in 1999. David, a rare Auburn and Florida football fan, saw Adriene wearing an orange Polo with an alligator on it at a church dinner and assumed she too was a Gator fan.

It was love at first sight. For David, at least.

“I actually had a crush on his friend John,” admitted Adriene. However, after a few months of David’s pursuits, he finally invited Adriene to the Auburn High School Homecoming dance. That night, he asked her to be his girlfriend. It was Oct. 4, 1999.

“I told him he had to wait until the next day,” said Adriene. “I didn’t want us to have the same anniversary as me and my last boyfriend.”

So David waited a day, and on Oct. 5 the couple began to date. An Auburn love story was born.

The young couple’s first Valentine’s Day has been their most memorable.

“We were young and poor so it was very low key but exciting,” said Adriene. “I went to my grandma’s house and her and my mom helped me make a heart-shaped ‘funfetti’ cake.”

David then picked Adriene up from her house, blindfolded her and drove all around Auburn trying to confuse her.

“I had this strange feeling we were going to Shogun for some reason,” said Adriene, “but then he ended up taking me back to his house.”

David had decorated his parent’s newly-built sunroom and cooked her a spaghetti dinner.

“I was pretty impressed,” said Adriene. “He even put olives in it, and he hates olives. Then we had my cake for dessert and exchanged cards.”

“We didn’t exactly have a late night,” joked David. “She was only 14.”

Throughout the years Adriene and David stayed in love and did everything a high school couple does. They went out, drove around and David even snuck into Adriene’s house after curfew.

“She had HBO and I didn’t!” said David. “I had to watch ‘Band of Brothers’ every Sunday, but it was past her curfew!”

The couple stayed together throughout their high school years and both attended Auburn University. David majored in political science with minors in Spanish and philosophy while Adriene studied graphic design with a minor in communication.

In 2005, the couple took a trip that defined their relationship. A month-long tour of Europe solidified it in both Adriene and David’s minds: this was the one.

“We were together for almost a month nonstop and didn’t have any problems except lugging bottles of wine we bought in Italy across Europe,” said Adriene. “When we were able to plan stuff together, travel and be in close quarters and still be in love I decided that this was the guy for me.”

In 2007 while Adriene was in her final year of graphic design school, David had her convinced he wasn’t going to propose before she graduated. However, the day after their eight-year anniversary, David finally popped the question.

“She made me wait a day when I asked her out eight years before,” said David. “So I made her wait a day this time.”

“The funniest thing though,” said Adriene, “is that we ended up marrying on Oct. 4, 2008, what would have been our original anniversary if I didn’t make him wait that day.”

Adriene and David still live in Auburn. Adriene works as the art design specialist for the College of Liberal Arts while David is the manager of classroom support for the Office of Information Technology.

This Valentine’s Day, the Simons, who now are a bit more financially secure than they were 12 years ago, enjoyed a romantic dinner at Zazu Eclectic Eatery in downtown Auburn.

“To be honest, after a while the Valentine’s days all blend together,” David admitted. “But I still always try to make it as special as our first Valentine’s Day 12 years ago.”