Past Perfect or Past Simple

I want to understand if we need to keep using past perfect in a long sentence. (in speaking and writing english)

For example,

"I want to tell you a story that happened to me in summer. I started to hang out with a girl in July, we had been friends for about 3 years at that point, we had even dated once in 2017"

or

"I want to tell you a story that happened to me in summer. I started to hang out with a girl in July, we had been friends for about 3 years at that point, we even dated once in 2017"