Swiping through photos, I stopped at hers. She was not only beautiful but had great teeth too! After a few texts, she went radio silent. What happened, I thought to myself. I decided to send one more text. "Did I lose you?" I saw the three dots and was relieved knowing she was was replying. It seemed forever, but after a few moments her text came back. She was chaperoning her niece's 16th birthday party and was tied up for a bit. I didn't lose her!

Our first date was at Catch 23-a local nearby restaurant. Katrina got there first and saved me a seat. Feeling bold, I walked up behind her, tapped her on the shoulder, and planted a kiss when she turned around (I'm glad I didn't get slapped but was willing to take the chance). Even though it was Friday the 13th and a full moon, the first date went off without a hitch!

As our love story continued to unfold, Dave and I decided to merge homes (I was living with him 99% of the time anyway). This was a big step for us and boy was it work. Dave decided we needed to treat ourselves with a weekend getaway to Clearwater Beach to relax and just chill for a weekend. I agreed it was much needed and couldn't wait to just spend the weekend enjoying each other. Dave booked a beautiful room at Opal Sands and the view was magnificent. We enjoyed sunshine and pool time on Saturday during the day and that evening, December 12th, Dave was rushing me to get down to watch the sunset (in FL that is 5:30pm and I was still putting on my makeup). Dave never rushes to really get anywhere so I started to get a little suspicious. "Hmmm, could he have planned this weekend to propose? Nah, I thought, when would he have gotten the ring and how would I not have found it in our home?" So we continued down to the beach and walked along the sand and all of the sudden, Dave stops, gets down on one knee and asks me to be his forever love. The timing couldn't have been more perfect with the gorgeous skyline of colors behind us. My handsome Clark Kent was down on one knee in front of me and with the overwhelming feelings of love and happiness in my heart, I said YES! Luckily there was a photography student there who started taking pictures of us from afar and approached us to take more pictures of our special moment. She captured it beautifully with the picture you see here. We look forward to sharing these beautiful sunsets here on Clearwater Beach with you on our special day 11.18.2022!