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One day in May 2020, I was on Hinge and saw a picture of Derrick (my now fiancé) posing at one of my favorite Art Walks in Richmond. I “liked” it, because I thought it can’t get any worse in the dating pool (he thought the same thing LOL). We ended up “matching” and started chatting. A few weeks after matching, we went on our first date at Drive Shack (just like Top Golf). We had the best conversations and I couldn’t stop smiling and laughing. I felt so much like myself around him, I wasn’t even shy about how embarrassing my score was (I was clearly losing BADLY). The Saturday after our first date, we had decided to do takeout and a picnic at the local museum sculpture garden. We went to grab Thai food (our favorite food even now), we drank club soda (because we both were active on our fitness goals), and played various card games (UNO CHAMP!) until it was too dark to see. It just felt so natural and easy with him, and we had the best time. In less than a few weeks, we had both cancelled any other dates we had set up because we liked each other so much — and the rest is history!

We took a cruise to Mexico in February as a late Valentine’s Getaway with Carnival. On the departure day, Derrick was so quiet and seemed nervous. I was thinking maybe he was too excited for the trip from the night before and unable to sleep. As we sailed away, it was a bit cooler than we anticipated so we sipped some drinks by the pool and watched the sunset on the Lido Deck during the welcome party. We made dinner reservations at the onboard Steakhouse to use some dining credits we had earned from a previous trip. We began getting ready for dinner and Derrick asked me to dress nice. I was oblivious and thought he meant due to the Steakhouse being more upscale than the rest of the onboard restaurants. I had no idea at this point what was happening, but Derrick kept making trips to the ‘bathroom’ but he was really coordinating the cruise photographer for his proposal. ( I found this out later). In light of not knowing what was happening, I kept asking Derrick if he felt okay. He reassured me he was fine and after dinner the photographer entered the restaurant and snapped some photos of the nearby couples and restauranteurs. When the photographer approached our table Derrick began to stand. He asked me to join him on my feet, I was surprised and asked him “what for?” He begged me to stand again, just as I began to stand, Derrick got down on one knee. I was startled and asked him “What are you doing babe?” A ring box magically appeared in his hand & he opened the box. Shakily he asked ‘Babe, will you marry me?” I gasped and said ‘Of Course!’