I was visiting Maurissa in Portales. when she asked if we could spend the evening in Roswell because it was her brother's birthday. I had only met her mom and sister so I was very nervous but said yes. So we went to Roswell.  We were hanging out at her sister, Beth's, house and I hear the front door open. I turned to see who is coming in and immediately my mind went "WHOA!" I turned back around and told myself, "No, ma'am. That is your best friend's brother."  At that time Mauricio came around the couch and introduced himself to me. I introduced myself and told him "Happy Birthday." Then, I got really nervous because I was worried that I had said happy birthday to the wrong brother. Thankfully, it was his birthday.  The rest of the night, I kept trying to subtly get his attention or join conversations he was in. It was hard, though, because I'm not good at that stuff. It was such a good time, though, and at the end of the night I knew I had a new friend.  A few days later, I was going to Mountainair and Maurissa asked if I would drop her off in Albuquerque because her family was there. I said yes and was invited to the weekend's events (dinner and movie). I took every opportunity I could to talk to or be near Mauricio.   After the movie, we went back to their hotel room and hung out. When it was time to leave, Maurissa and Mauricio walked me out to the car. It was late and Maurissa said to call her if I needed help staying awake. Then she said, "Or you can call Mo. You both like conspiracy theories and could talk about those." So, I drove home and gushed to one of my other friends how I had a HUGE crush. When I got home, I sent Mauricio a message asking him his thoughts on a certain conspiracy theory.  Our friendship grew from there. After a few months of trying to resist feelings, I asked Maurissa if it was okay that I pursued her brother and she said yes. Then, Mauricio and I had a conversation about it. A month and a half later, we officially began dating.

I had just worked all day on my birthday. It had been a good day, but a long one. The vault was out of balance and I had to stay late. When I got off, I was super excited to be with my family. I pulled up to Beth's house and walked in. I saw Carol sitting on the couch, she was playing with Zoe. I couldn't see her face until she looked back at me really quickly. I thought to myself, "Oh, someone I don't know is here." Zoe came and gave me a big ol' hug and then I introduced myself to Carol. She seemed nice but I didn't think anything else of her, yet. I went into the kitchen to get something and when I came back in the living room Carol and Zoe were playing again. I thought, "Dang, that is so cool! I don't know who this girl is, but I'm kind of digging the way she is being sweet to my niece." But then, I thought, "Nope can't go there. She is Maurissa's friend." So I spent the rest of the night being goofy with my family and was trying to make everyone laugh, but especially Carol. I don't remember getting a whole lot of response from her, so I was like "Ok, I guess she is not into it." I remember taking everyone's picture with that old age app. I looked at Carol's and thought, "Dang, age isn't even gonna touch her." Carol and Rissa left and I thought that she was cool but that I would probably never see her again, but to my surprise we would actually meet up again. Carol joined us in ABQ for a movie. I thought she was cool, but also quickly dismissed it. But, as God would have it, Maurissa said something that seemed to be an ok by her for us to be friends (or maybe more). She sent me a message that night and it was the beginning of our friendship. We talked for 2 weeks straight. I was uncertain at some point but there were also points where I felt I had gained a really good friend.

We talked more and more. I was starting to catch some real feelings for Carol. We would text or snapchat all night, sending song recommendations back and forth. Eventually, we began talking on the phone for hours. We would look through old pictures on Facebook while on the phone. It was one of our things to do and I had some of the best nights in a long time with her. We were doing this regularly and people were starting to ask questions. Sunday especially - he was rooting for us since day 0. Carol then told me about a conversation she had with Rissa. She had asked what was going on with us. At first, I wanted to shy away from it. However, through sermons I had heard, I knew that wasn't the right call. I also knew that even though we were good friends, we were also more than that. So I decided to say, "We should probably talk about that ourselves." I told Carol that the next time she came through that we could talk about it in person. To my surprise, she said she could be down that weekend. I was down for that, though nervous. We had a great time and conversation when she came. We decided we would court ("Super Friends" - our goofy term but one I still cherish). We also decided we would be intentional getting to know each other and not do that with anyone else. That lead to about two months of courting. In the early time of that, I was still really trying to feel her out; but, once I was sure I fell so quickly. It was so crazy how much I loved Carol and was on the verge of being in love with her. We grew so close and shared hurts and secrets with one another that we had only told a few others. In the end, we still looked at the other person with love and optimism. I think it's what really made me fall for her the way I did. I started thinking about when to ask Carol to be my girlfriend officially. I ended up doing it with the people who meant the most to me there to witness it. And most importantly, she said yes to BEEing my girl.

I had been planning on asking Carol to marry me for quite awhile before I actually did. I had been asking about what she wanted in a ring and some other things about it in a general sense. So she definitely knew it was coming. She just didn't know exactly when. What she also didn't know, was that I had been in the process of getting that ring I had asked her about. It took a couple months, and a buddy in the jewelry business. But we finally made one that really told the story of Carol and I. It was a three stone ring with two imperfect small stones on the sides. And one larger one that was a flawless stone. I wanted it like this to show how two imperfect people could only be brought and kept together by Jesus the only perfect person that ever walked the earth. The real journey towards engagement started in late February or early March. Carol knew it was coming so she asked about it quite a bit (she has a smal issue with not knowing things). My nieces had also blown every other Surprise I had tried to give her up until that point lol. So I tried my best to keep this one super under wraps lol. It came to be July and I know she had been expecting it at several times. But none probably more than July 4th. She really loves July 4th. But again I wanted it to be more of a surprise than that. So I waited. I asked her if I could take her on a date the weekend after. She said yes. I think she may have suspected still, but shout out to her momma for telling her it probably wasn't it. I had planned to take her to a tea shop first and then to the Tram afterwards. We had a good time at the shop sampling teas. When it was time to go to the Tram I asked her to close her eyes cause I had one more surprise. Little did I know this girl knows Albuquerque. Even with her eyes closed she guessed where we were going. But she might not have known what was happening. The part that probably gave it away was that my family got caught as we were walking up the stairs to ride the Tram.

They were supposed to be there about 30 mins early to meet our photographer. As my family often is, they were late. I grabbed her hand and asked her to come back down the stairs with me (thankfully she hadn't seen anyone). I think at this moment she knew something was up for sure. But she played along graciously. We rode the tram up and were planning one getting dinner at the restaurant at the top of the mountain. But first, I had my sisters pick up a dessert and had them leave it at a certain spot with the ring! I asked Carol if she would take one more walk with me along the trail. When we got to the spot with the ring, my sisters and the photographer were hiding nearby. I bent down and picked up what she probably thought was someone elses trash. I told her that I had someone deliver some desert to us. I handed her the box of dessert and I had the box with ring. I knelt down leaving her with her hands full because I was so nervous. I popped out the ring box opening it. I told her that she was my best friend and that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. I then asked her if she would marry me. She said yes!!! I jumped up so excited to kiss her and put the ring on her hand. But like I said, I had left her with her hands full. I quickly grabbed the dessert and put it down. I kissed my future bride and placed her ring on her hand. Then just to wrap it up had our photographer come out of hiding for a couple of photos. We then went to dinner with both of our families to celebrate!

It was the 4th of July 2020 and we were relaxing outside. Mo turned to me and asked, "Can I take you on a date on Wednesday?" and I said yes. I was slightly suspicious because about a week before I had seen (and purposefully ignored) a receipt from the jeweler in his car. I told my mom and sisters what I thought was happening and they were so excited. Ermelinda went to Belen the next day and while she was there, she bought me a beautiful white dress. The dress didn't quite fit so my mom stayed up really late to fix it. We planned my hair and makeup. I was so nervous but also so excited. I was trying so hard not to let on that I knew. Finally, Wednesday came and I began to think that maybe I had jumped to conclusions. My mom was helping me get ready and I told her, "I don't think this is what I thought it was." She told me, "I don't think so either, but just go and have a good time and enjoy a nice date." And that's what I did. We drove to Albuquerque and stopped at a lovely tea shop. We looked around, bought some tea, and bought tea to drink. We both had forgotten our masks in Mountainair, so we ran next door to Target to buy some. Equipped with our new masks, we headed to dinner. Mauricio had me close my eyes so it would be a surprise, but I knew where we were at and I asked him if we were going to the tram. He said yes, that we were going to eat at the restaurant up top, and let me open our eyes. We got to the tram and parked and started heading to the boarding area. At this point, I was still thinking this was a normal date. We started walking up the stairs to the boarding area and I hear a voice that sounded like Mo's mom, Nancy, but figured that it must be someone else with a similar voice.

At the same moment, Mo grabbed my arm and started pulling me down the stairs frantically saying, "We can't go up yet! We can't go up yet!" I asked him why and he said "Because we have to wait for her to go up." I asked, "Who's she?" And he said, "The photographer..." I just looked at him and then I said I needed the bathroom. In the bathroom, I sent my mom a text but she didn't answer (they were on their way and didn't have service). I also texted Maurissa and she played it off like she didn't know what was going on. I started getting nervous. I left the bathroom and went back to Mo. We waited a few minutes and then went up on the tram. We walked around when we got to the top. I was expecting him to drop to one knee and pull out a ring at every moment. Finally, we were sitting at the lookout and he asks, "Will you go on another walk with me?" I said yes and we walked to a beautiful lookout. I knew that this was it. I looked to my right and saw that someone had left some takeout boxes. Mo went and picked them up and I thought to myself, "I love that he's doing that but now is NOT the time for him to pick up other people's trash." I followed him over and he said, "I had them bring food here. I got us tiramisu." He opened a box and showed me tiramisu. I was hoping the other box had real food in it because I was so hungry. He opened the second box and pulled out a ring box. He handed me the food boxes and got down on one knee. He told me how much he loves me and some other beautiful things. He asked me if I would marry him and I said yes! I was still holding the food boxes and interrupted Mo and laughingly asked, "Where do I put these?" He laughed and sat them down on a rock and then turned and kissed me. The photographer then came out of them bushes and we did a mini shoot. We went back to the lookout and his family was there. I had heard Nancy! We met with them and talked for a bit. I called my parents to tell them. It turns out they were on their way but had accidentally went up the wrong side of the mountain and would be there soon. Mo and I decided that instead of eating at the tram restaurant, that we would go celebrate with our family at Olive Garden. It was such a wonderful night and I officially became the future Mrs. Torres-Muñoz.