I (Bessem) met Tabot in 2016 when he moved to the United States as a fellow of the International Exchange program, Atlas Corps. We got introduced to each other by my cousin, at a gathering of our tribesmen and women in Maryland which takes place on the last Saturday of every month. At this juncture, I must say that ours wasn't "love at first sight" and neither did this first meeting come accompanied by bells and whistles. In fact, we didn't even exchange numbers or anything. We spoke for a bit, had a few drinks with a few others present and went our separate ways. The next day he came over for a visit at my aunt's place, together with my cousin and spent some time with the rest of my family. Again no numbers, Instagram handles, or whatever were exchanged and we barely even spoke to each other. About a week later, he called my cousin on the phone who happened to be at my house that day and in the course of their conversation, he asked my cousin to pass the phone over to me so that he could say hi (smart guy). That "Hi" turned into 30mins, 1 hour, 2 hours and when my cousin was about to leave and needed to get his phone back, he then asked for my number so that we could continue the conversation. He got the number, called back immediately and we spoke till about 3 am that day. That was the beginning of an unending stream of calls, text messages, and outings.

This one was a bit tricky because I (Tabot) didn't have a car and thus had to rely on the metro and bus in order to plan our first date. But being the hopeless romantic that I am, I wanted to make sure that she had a memorable first date experience with me. I researched restaurants around Virginia and found one at Old Town Alexandria, the Vermillion restaurant where Obama had taken Michelle to for their Valentine's day dinner celebration in 2012 (wink wink). It sounded like the perfect spot for me and so I went there a day before to see the place. Upon arriving, it started to rain and I was drenched but nothing was going to stop me from executing on my plan. I won't lie though that at that moment I was grumbling and asking myself that, "what if after all this effort she came and didn't like it?" but a soldier trudged through the lingering doubts. The plan for the day was to bring her there for the Potomac River cruise and then do dinner at the famed restaurant. I had them customize a four-course dinner menu for her and the menu was going to come with her name written on it. So much for love! Brothers, hope you are taking notes (wink wink). Needless to say that it went as I had anticipated and by the time dinner was over, her emotions had gotten the best of her.

Fast forward to May 2018. He (Tabot) had received an offer to move to Mauritius Island for work after his program in the United States was over and took it. Before leaving in November 2017, we had planned that I (Bessem) was going to come over to the island and spend my two-week vacation in May 2018. Little did I know that he had something cooking. He worked with my MOH in the background to get my ring size as well as my ideal ring type. I arrived on the island May 5th, and the next day he took me out for a beautiful catamaran cruise. It was an amazing experience and I loved every bit of it. We visited different islands and were served good food and wine on the boat. Before I could have the time to savor day one, day two was upon us and we moved into one of the best resorts on the island. From the reception to our Beach Front suite were all shades of beauty and splendor. We checked-in, had dinner and spent the rest of the evening basking in the beauty of the island. The soothing sound of waves crashing onto the gentle shores, swaying coconut trees set against a blue sky, and clear warm colored blue turquoise water. I was blown away. But there was more to come...

The next day I (Tabot) arranged for a private dinner by the beach and got a photographer and videographer to come in five minutes earlier and stay out of sight. Once we arrived, we were given the menu and a bottle of Rosé. By the time the main course was served, I began feeling a bit nervous. According to my plan, the proposal was going to be the next thing to follow. She (Bessem) noticed that I was a little uneasy and asked me if everything was alright and I responded that I was perfectly fine. As I began delivering my fervid speech, the waiter served the ring on a platter and I went down on one knee. The photographer and videographer came out of hiding, the drone was released to hover over us for the aerial shots. Surprises, tears, emotions, everything. She said, “Yes!” and the rest is history.