Neither one of us were prepared to meet a best friend or the love of our life on that quiet, otherwise ordinary, drizzly Saturday in November. I was chiseling my way through a mountain of homework and he was recovering from a tenacious illness. Yet, there we were - two strangers meeting over coffee in an empty cafe in Girdwood and realizing very quickly we never wanted the conversation between us to end. So, we didn't let it. We walked around Girdwood...the conversation continued. We stopped walking to have lunch...the conversation continued. We walked around Girdwood some more...the conversation continued. We stopped walking again to have dinner...you get the picture. We were both jaded, not looking for a relationship, and laying all of our feelings bare for the other to understand the roads we had struggled to walk for so long. I told him that first day we met that I would never marry again...he told me he understood my hurt perfectly given his past relationships. We made a not-so-silent pact we would allow whatever we were becoming to each other that not-so-ordinary day to have the freedom to breathe and grow into whatever it could become. Both of us knew we had stumbled onto something big with no idea what we were going to do about it. So, we just let it be and kept walking and talking our way into each other's hearts.

We got engaged walking along the beach on the Homer Spit on a beautiful sunny, blue-sky fall morning - coffee in one hand and each other's hand in the other. We were busy planning our future and how we were going to accomplish our dreams. I turned to Dusty and asked him if I could read him a letter I had written him. I proceeded to remind him of the promise he made me at one time that he would never ask me to marry him because he wanted to ease my mind and let my heart choose him without any fear of ultimatums. I told him he became my hero in that moment, as strange as it may sound to others. Then, I asked him if he remembered the deal he made me that day...he had told me if my heart ever changed on the idea of marriage and it became something I wanted - I would have to ask him! Then, I told him I have fallen more and more in love with him as my fears and doubts melted away and I asked him to be my forever. Dusty's response? "Heck yeah, let's do it!" True to our style, we got engaged with an engraved pocket knife and necklace instead of the traditional engagement ring. The rest is history...we get to marry our best friend and the love of our life on the anniversary of the first day we met.