By Liana Jacob
MEET THE couple who formed a POLYAMOROUS relationship with their BEST FRIEND after a game of TRUTH OR DARE – and now the three of them are MARRIED and expecting a BABY.
In 2014, professional dog trainer, Brandon Tidd (34) from Oregon, USA, was doing his advanced training as a soldier in the military when he locked eyes with a female soldier, Elizabeth (23) from Wisconsin, USA, while they were both lined up in formation. They began talking and instantly became close friends.
Their friendship and mutual attraction quickly developed, and they began dating; it was Valentine’s Day of 2015 when their relationship got serious and within a few months, he moved across the country to be with her after the distance between them became difficult.
Two years later, they got married and bought their first home together. They both run a Harry Potter role play website, with 10 active writers involved, they formed a close friendship with one of the writers, resident assistant, Shannon (30) from Ohio, USA, after Brandon began messaging her on the website.
Their friendship online grew even more and after meeting up a few times, as she was living with her parents, Brandon and Elizabeth agreed to help her become independent, so they invited her to live with them until she found her own place.
One day, the three of them were playing Truth or Dare and after some time, getting drunk, Elizabeth and Shannon ended up kissing. Elizabeth was surprised to find that she enjoyed it and it reoccurred the next day. Elizabeth fell for Shannon and over time with the three of them spending more time together romantically, Brandon found himself falling for Shannon too and that was the beginning of their polyamorous relationship.
In 2018, both Brandon and Elizabeth proposed to Shannon using a heartfelt letter penning down their feelings for her and took her to a paper lantern festival, which has been on her bucket list of things to do. In March 2019, Elizabeth fell pregnant with their first child and they got married in October 2019. Their baby is due this December.
“When I was twenty-five, I was going through some intense life changes; I wasn’t happy where I was at all and wasn’t happy doing what I was doing,” Brandon said.
“I decided to complete a lifelong dream and join the military. With my background as a firefighter and EMT, I was perfectly suited.
“Not even a year later and I found myself in training. After completing basic, I went to advanced training and was lining up for formation when this young girl stood next to me called Elizabeth. I was almost twenty-seven, she was clearly younger than I was and very attractive.
“We joked a bit but couldn’t say much as we were getting another boring brief. That banter became fairly regular as I found she kept lining up near me every time we had formations.
“We began talking more and more and before I knew it; she had become a really good friend. That tends to happen in the military; you spend a lot of time together.
“It didn’t take long before the combination of our friendship plus a mutual attraction led to a relationship. We had gone off base a couple times during weekend leaves and went on dates.
“Everything culminated on a Valentine’s Day date when we got serious; fast forward to the end of training and we both went back home.
“It didn’t take long before the distance got to us and I moved across the country to be with her. About two years later, we were married, buying our first home, and getting a few dogs to play with and join our family.
“One of our shared pastimes is writing. We run a Harry Potter role play website where you make a student or adult and write out their stories with other writers.
“The site has about ten writers who were active and a character I had made started to fall in love with another character. So, I messaged the writer and started talking to the other person, Shannon.
“As time went on our friendship online grew and she became a regular topic of conversation between Elizabeth and me.
“Elizabeth had started messaging her and we decided that we would help her get on her feet and start helping her get independent of her parents. One trip from Wisconsin to Ohio and we had acquired a roommate and a new best friend.
“One day, after a little bit to drink; a game of Truth or Dare turned interestingly fun and it had them kissing. Elizabeth was raised extremely Lutheran, so she had never done that before with a girl and was surprised she enjoyed it.
“The next day, it happened again, but it went much further. That was the beginning of Elizabeth falling for Shannon and it grew from there. Friendship combining attraction.”
They have since got married and are expecting their first child together. Brandon says that while there was some jealousy in the beginning, the love and trust between them defused any negative feelings.
“This life means that we communicate more than a normal couple. If one of us is off, we have two people to lean on. If two of us are fighting, we always have a referee. We remain equal and we all have a say,” he said.
“We make sure jealousy is not allowed in and if there is an issue we stop and do a throuple ‘check in’. Usually led by me unless I am really upset.
“We would ask each person how they are doing on a scale of one to ten, what is upsetting them, what is making them happy and we say three positive things about each person.
“We just happen to all be people that fell in love with two people instead of just one. None of us were looking to be in a ‘throuple’ it kind of just developed that way naturally like with any couple.
“I would say overall, including Shannon in our relationship has strengthened it; it takes a lot of trust between the two of us to fully love each other and fully love another person and like any couple the three of us have our arguments but I feel very strong in the relationship.
“It’s funny because people think living with two girls must be harder because of all the emotions, but with the way our dynamic works, all the of us haven’t fought about anything.
“Current plans include moving to Oregon and going on lots of adventures with our daughter and our dogs and each other of course.
“Elizabeth is now expecting a baby girl who is due on December 8, 2019, and she will be raised with two mummies and a daddy.”
