We're getting married

Justin and I shared a mutual friend, my best friend from college, Andrea Moore. It started with him liking old pictures of mine on Instagram and messaging me in Facebook, but I was in Maryland and he was in North Carolina so I didn't pay him much attention. After a while of not talking, a whole year if he were telling the story, he came back around and we exchanged numbers and started talking on a regular basis. He had a basketball tournament in NYC and he stopped to see me on the way back to North Carolina. From there things got a little serious so I went to see him for his birthday. We started meeting half way, in Richmond, and doing the long distance relationship thing so we had a deal, whoever got a job first would move. After I was the first to receive a job offer in Durham I moved and the rest was history.

I had a high school friend (Andrea Moore) that told me of a friend, Christine, that I might be interested in. Being that I was single and looking for someone to get to know and spend time with, I was all for it. Once she gave me a way to contact her, I reached out to her via Facebook and tried to know a little more about her. However, once Christine told me that she “was too busy working”, I stopped contacting her for a few months……and those few months turned into a year LOL! Once I reached back out to her, I made sure to ask “Do you have a little more free time now?” Luckily, she did and she drove to North Carolina to spend time with me for my birthday. I felt that was one of the kindest things she could’ve done being that we were still getting to know each other. We began to spend more time together, and eventually I let Christine know how I truly felt about her.

I knew when I would propose to Christine, I just wasn’t sure how. While we were in quarantine, I would shop for rings while we worked at the dinner table, as well as contact people in her family and mine to get ideas. Being that we spent Christmas together for the last few years, Christine was a little disappointed when she thought I wouldn’t be able to travel with her to Maryland to spend time with her family. Once she left and hit the road, I began to piece together the proposal, getting the ring that night. The next day, my brother and I drove up to Maryland in the craziest thunderstorm. I thought this was a sign to hold off on this proposal and try another day, but I was determined to make this happen. 5 hours later, we finally made it. Meanwhile, Christine called me about 5 times, trying to see what I was up to. Once I got her off the phone, I began to make my way to her parents home. One thing she asked for Christmas was a robe, and surprisingly the gift that was to be exchanged between her family was a customized robe. I ended up buying a robe that says “BRIDE” on the back, and asked her mom to put that robe under the customized robe. She opened the robe confused, thinking she was given that by mistake. That's when I came from the basement and surprised her with the proposal she deserved.