As someone who worked in public relations, Elise Audie Nikolaisen was amazed by Bailey Wright Carlin’s “ability to make things go viral,” she said, on the social media platform then known as Twitter.
Celebrities like Chrissy Teigen would comment on his posts. The website Delish even reported on a fruit-throwing debate that he began online.
So Ms. Nikolaisen, who was working for a public relations and marketing firm in St. Louis at the time, sent him a direct message on May 13, 2020, seeking some professional advice on viral posts. He said that he would be available for a call two days later.
He called her during an 11-hour drive from New York City to Mooresville, N.C., to visit his parents. The call lasted for three hours. “It was very sweet and great timing,” Mr. Carlin said. “I told my parents in North Carolina that I just talked to someone incredible.”
When Ms. Nikolaisen got off the phone, she said she remembers thinking, “he was exactly the kind of person I wanted to marry — completely himself.”
A short time later, Ms. Nikolaisen sent Mr. Carlin a text with her Instagram handle. She explained that she was mostly a “lurker” on Twitter, now known as X, and that it would be better if they communicated via text or Instagram.
