It was 2003 when I was at a house party and spotted Tramaine from across the room staring at me, of course her arms were folded. That was a brief introduction between us. A few years later there was another milestone, an encounter between us at a Super Bowl party, this time she acted as if she was not interested. Needless to say, I didn't believe that. The next time I saw her was one Sunday not long after the party. I was leaving church and saw Tramaine at the gas station, of course I pulled in the lot right next to her and rolled down my window to speak..."Hey Tramaine, what's for breakfast?" Quickly and excitedly she responded "Let me go to the store and you can come over and I will cook something!" I knew then that we had something special. We began to spend more time together becoming good friends. I took her on a couple of dates, one in which she does not remember, in between study time because I did not want to be a distraction to her studies. Occasionally she would cook or I would bring food over as we spent time together. Other times I would see her when she called me to kill a bug outside her apartment and I would come save the day. In 2010 she left for residency at Howard University after graduating from Meharry. We continued to keep in contact with phone calls and/or text messages. In 2014 Tramaine returns to Nashville to celebrate Robin's birthday/medical school graduation. Our connection that day was stronger than ever. She leaves again for home, but returns weeks later on vacation. We go on a date, this one she considered our first date. After returning home, we keep in contact more than we had done before in the past. Frequent text messages to daily text messages, to frequent phone calls to daily phone calls. Before I knew it, I was visiting her in cold weather...BRR!! A couple of months later, I wanted to make it official and asked her to exclusively date me. Of course she said yes! For me, that was the official beginning of forever with Tramaine!

The first time Alfred and I met was in 2003 at a friend's house party. The second time, was several years later at a mutual friends Superbowl party. Both meetings were uneventful! Not long after, I stopped to get some gas after church. One minute I am unscrewing my gas cap and the next minute Alfred has pulled up across from me asking me if I was planning on cooking breakfast and what time he should stop by. LOL. Needless to say I went to the grocery store, Alfred came over to my apartment, and we had breakfast and conversation. This was the beginning of our friendship. During this time I was in school and our friendship was maintained with group gatherings, TSU Homecomings, and the occasional need to have insects rerouted out of my apartment. I returned to DC in 2010 for residency but continued to return to Nashville to visit and we continued to keep in contact. In 2014 I was in Nashville for Robin's birthday/medical school graduation and Alfred and I went on our FIRST date for Pizza and Beer and we had a great time. From then on our occasional text messages turned into occasional phone calls, and then daily phone calls. During homecoming that year is when I realized that our friendship was evolving into something special. I knew that things between us had changed when he asked if he could visit me in DC. During his first visit, it turned out to be the same weekend as my grandmother's 85th birthday. We went to a Wizards/Cavs game, dinner, church, and then her party. He met almost half of my family the very first time he came to visit me and it was if he had known them forever. I realized then that he was not like any other guy I had dated in the past. His next visit was for New Year's Eve and he let me know that he wanted us to be exclusive. And that was the beginning of my forever with Alfred!