It was my buddy, Rich's, birthday and a bunch of us went out to dinner to celebrate. Afterwards, we made our way to downtown Melbourne for some post-dinner drinks. We went to Mainstreet Pub, a favorite among us all, and walked out back to the tiki bar. The second we walk in, a bunch of my friends see some girls standing over by the heater. It was a chilly Florida night (50-60 degrees). All my friends proclaim, "Sharlea!" I'm dumbstruck, thinking to myself who is this good looking girl all my friends know about but I have never met. Soon, I'm introduced and we get to talking and find out that Sharlea knows everyone from Trivia Night at the local World of Beer. My buddy, Brian, is a good wingman and stands with me. I would later find out, since Brian already knew Sharlea, that she thought he was being her wingman. Eventually, I ask Sharlea if I can buy her a drink and she hesitates and tells me, "I have this coupon I really want to use." Now, I don't give up that easy and eventually convince her to let me buy her a drink. I still have that coupon. Eventually the night starts to wind down and I ask Sharlea if she's planning to go to Trivia Night the following week, she said she is and I make the bold decision not to ask for her phone number, banking on the fact she knows a bunch of my friends already and she will be at trivia the following week. That risk worked out, we saw each other again the following week at trivia and I got her number.

My friend from work Chantell and I decided that we wanted to go out to Downtown Melbourne one night. Her boyfriend was out of town so she was going to be DD and I was going to spend the night at her place. I also knew that some of my friends from WOB were going downtown for my friend Haris' going away party so I figured we could meet up. When we got to Mainstreet all of my friends called my name and said hello. There was a guy that was with them that I had never met before. I figured he was a new guy at Harris. I started to talk to him and Brian while we huddled by the heaters. I thought it was really nice of Brian to be my wingman. I later found out that Brian knew Ben way longer than he knew me. Ben asked to get me a drink but I was being crazy and wanted to use my coupon before it expired. Chantell gave me a look like, "take the drink crazy lady." He got me a drink and we had a good laugh over me wanting to use the coupon. I was slightly bummed when Ben didn't get my number that night but I knew by all his probing that he was going to be at WOB the next week. The next week came around and my cat passed away. I almost didn't go to WOB that night but I had a really good feeling about the cute guy that I met at Mainstreet. I'm so glad that I did.

Our first date was two days after our trivia night get together with friends. I asked Sharlea how Dos Amigos sounded for dinner. She said great and we set 7:30 PM as our time to meet there. As I'm leaving the house, I ripped my jeans all the way across the leg on my workbench in the garage. Knowing I couldn't wear the torn jeans, I went back in to change them. Quickly, I made my way beachside to Dos Amigos and I got there, texted Sharlea, she said she was there but I didn't see her. Her next text said, "You're at Little Dos Amigos, right?" Nope, I went to Cantina Dos Amigos up the road. I texted her back that I would be there in just a few minutes - at least I had a good excuse to be late now. We enjoyed a great meal had incredible conversation the entire time. After dinner, we walked over to A1A, held hands and jogged across A1A to go to the beach. Little did either of us know at the time, we would return to that beach access location exactly two years later.

Ben ended up getting my number the next Wednesday at WOB and we ended up texting immediately. We ended up hitting it off and finding out we had a lot in common. We set up a date for Dos Amigos. I remember being super excited to have such a nice low key first date. Dos Amigos is one of my favorite local restaurants. I pulled up to Dos Amigos and was wondering where he was since I was a little late. I texted him that I was there and he said that he was as well. I then realized with dread that we hadn't clarified which Dos. I asked him if he meant Little Dos. He said no and I was really bummed. But he quickly responded that he was on his way. I was so impressed that he came and didn't make me drive to the other one. We enjoyed dinner and drinks outside and I spilled some of my drink on me. He made me laugh saying he would spill some of his drink on himself if I wanted. We went to the beach after dinner and huddled close to stay warm. He still makes me laugh and keeps me warm to this day. I can't wait for all of the laughter and love to come.

There were a few ideas I had for the proposal. The first, and one which I had for about a year, was to recreate the our first date at Little Dos. When we decided to go to Paris for a day during our trip to London, the idea cropped into my head to propose at the Eiffel Tower. Eventually, I decided on the first date recreation and I'm very happy I did. The proposal was not only a recreation of our first date but was exactly two years to the day of that date. I had been dropping hints the entire week about anniversaries of important dates to us, like the day we met and the day we exchanged phone numbers. The morning of the proposal, I asked Sharlea if she wanted to go to Little Dos and she at first said, maybe, but quickly saw how much I wanted to go. I discreetly put the ring in my pocket before we left for dinner. While we ate, I suggested we go for a walk after, at the same location we went after our first date. Once we got there, the wind was blowing so hard and it was chilly so I didn't waste anytime. When I was getting down on one knee and opening the ring box, I could see Sharlea smiling from ear to ear, barely able to contain her excitement. She said yes immediately.