Although I knew of Selwyn 10 years ago, we never really interacted until years later. It wasn’t until a 2017 wedding in Florida that we even interacted, if you call it that... It was during the DJ / open dance floor at the end of the night when I noticed someone booty bumped me and then disappeared into a crowd of 100+ people dancing away. I ignored the bump, assuming someone just bumped into me, until it happened a third time within a minute. That’s when I saw a poof of air in the shape of Selwyn running away, in the opposite direction. After the DJ was over, a Lot of us went out. I noticed Selwyn trying to talk to me but mean, horrible me ignored him! :( Poor guy got the point & backed off. A couple weeks later, one of Selwyn’s cousins Taniya, messaged me on facebook, suggesting Selwyn is the best guy ever & tried to get me to talk to him but I brushed it off. She was one of many people who suggested Selwyn. Fast forward another few months, my cousin Asha, asks me to be a plus one to her friend Jessica's wedding in Houston, I originally had said no but after a couple asks, I thought sure, why not! The first person I see when I walk into the wedding pre party, aka mylanchi is Selwyn. For those of you that don’t know me, my first mission when I get to any party is to ignore everyone & head straight to the food, so I do that. This is where one of Selwyn's best friends and old roomie Tobin, asks me what I think of Selwyn, & that I should give him a chance. In (to the convo) walks Selwyn. We talk, I accidentally wander off somewhere, mylanchi ends, we all go back to our hotel rooms. Selwyn facebook messaged me from his uncle’s house, asking if I’m going out. I said yes, so Selwyn left to come out. But then I got too comfy in my pjs and fell asleep in my hotel room…

I walk into the wedding the next day, and the first person I see is Selwyn. He says hi, asks me if he can get me a drink. We talk, until I say, I gotta peee. He offers to hold my drink while I get Lost in this extravagant bathroom with a whole Living room set in it! There I am for the next FIFTEEN minutes talking away, to aLL the random people I meet in the bathroom, completely forgetting that Selwyn is outside waiting for me. I casually walk out of the bathroom to find Selwyn, stiLL standing there, alone, holding my drink in one hand and his in the other. That was the moment I was Like omg, I gotta give this sweet guy a chance. I invite him to sit with me on my wedding table if there's room, in which he responds: hell yes. We talk the rest of the night, he asked if we can hang once we both Land back home to Chicago the next day, I said yes, & we exchanged numbers. I did play hard to get even after Landing back in Chicago and gave Selwyn a 6-month dating period before he could even ask me to be his girlfriend. Poor guy listened to my 6-month rule and the day it hit 6 months of dating later, he asked me to be his girlfriend, and of course I said yes!

Selwyn is thee most caring, loving, sweet, humble, hardworking, guy I have ever met. Although we spend every waking moment of every single day, in each other’s presence, somehow, it’s still not enough! I am soo happy he came into my Life & I could not imagine Life with anyone else. I can’t believe how many times I missed the clear signs of talking to him, but I am so super grateful for his persistence. He has been the best boyfriend a girl could ever ask for & now, an even better fiancé (how does he do it?!). My best friend and favorite 93-year-old matron of honor grandma, who lives with me is pretty forgetfuL of people. She even forgets some family members, but not Selwyn! Every day around 5:30 pm she gets aLL excited, and you would think all the excitement is for me, aka her favorite granddaughter, duh. But nope. It’s for her new favorite grandson Selwyn coming home from work! I could brag on & on about Selwyn, but this story would never end if I started. Spending every day for the past couple years with him has been amazing & I cannot wait to marry my best friend!

All endings to a story cannot always be predicted from the beginning. Love can be such a mysterious and wonderful journey. That journey began for me in the summer of August 2017. During this time my cousin, Taniya and my friend, Tobin had casually mentioned to me about Jaimie. They said that she was really nice, and I should talk to her to get to know her. I didn’t know much about her at this time even though we had grown up in the same city our whole lives. I happened to be going to my cousin Anoop’s wedding in Florida and it happened to be that this dashing young lady, was also going to be there. I had seen her around before but had never officially met her or even talked to her. While I was there, I happened to run into her while walking to the beach and I said hello to her but was nervous for some reason. I don’t know why I was nervous to say hi even, maybe because I didn’t know anything about her. The wedding festivities and events continued throughout the weekend. The wedding reception came around which is always a good time and the weekend was coming to a close. I was just thinking I talked to her briefly but didn’t’ really make an effort to actually talk. At this time, I thought why not make a playful way of saying hi by being friendly but respectful. The DJ was starting up and I was like why not do a friendly, ‘I want to get to know you’ sign. I thought why not give a small booty bump and just run away. I was trying to be friendly, and joke around as well. I did it a few times and low and behold it did not go as planned. Jaimie was looking around all baffled and confused like someone is pulling a prank on her. The last time she barely saw, so I just smiled but she seemed busy with her friends.

After the DJ most of the people were planning on going out to a bar nearby where the afterparty would be with the bride and groom. As I was walking, I could see Jaimie looked dashing in her saree she was wearing but I couldn’t say anything because she was with so many of her cousins, walking and talking with them. Once we got to the bar, everyone was just hanging out and talking to each other. I kept trying to come up and talk to Jaimie, but she always seemed busy talking. I even tried to go hang out by the group of people she was around, but nothing seemed to be working. She wouldn’t even give the day light of time to talk. I decided that I had tried my best and she was just not interested to even talk. I felt foolish for even trying so hard to talk to her.

Fast forward a couple months later to my cousin Jessica’s wedding in Houston. At this time I was just hanging out and had come to visit my grandma before the wedding. I was excited for the wedding but knew that most likely there would be a lot of the people from Chicago at this wedding. As I was going to the mylanchi (pre wedding party) I noticed Jaimie again at this wedding. I was kind of surprised because I hadn’t seen her since the last wedding. I was a little shocked and taken back because I didn’t expect to see her. Something inside kept attracting me toward her like a magnet. I couldn’t explain it, something kept pulling me towards her like a connection, like a key to a lock. At this point in time, I was like I will see what happens. She did look good in her pink churidar (outfit). I had a feeling she had saw me looking and saw her whip her hair back like a hair model. I casually went over and was talking to her with a group of people. This was the first time I had genuinely talked to her. I can’t really remember what we talked about, but I was mesmerized. It was time to get food and I could see Jaimie was so excited like a kid going into a candy shop. I didn’t know if she just liked what she saw, or she had just been starving herself for a few days. I really could see how much she cares about her family and her grandma. I started to see more beyond her beauty and started to see what really matters the most, her personality.

I soon remembered that I needed to pick up my sister from the airport and would have to leave the mylanchi. I was upset because this was the first time that I actually got time to talk to Jaimie. I didn’t want to leave and ruin a chance to get to know more about this mysterious yet intriguing girl from Chicago. I didn’t get to say bye to Jaimie at the mylanchi, so after I picked up my sister and went home that night to my uncle’s Houston house, I facebook messaged her asking her if she was planning on going out that night before the wedding in the morning. Jaimie responded that she would be going out, so I got excited and got ready, and left to meet Jaimie out and hopefully hangout with her. After a little while I got a message from her saying that she got too comfy in her pjs and would not be coming because she was falling asleep. I was disappointed that she would not be coming out. I tried not to make a big deal about it and went on to look forward to the wedding the next day.

The next day at the wedding I was just playing it cool. I didn’t want to get my hopes up and was thinking that Jaimie probably was not interested and was just being nice. I was at the reception at this time and just casually walking around glancing and taking in the whole environment, waiting for Jaimie to walk in at any moment. I then noticed her walk into the venue like a wrecking ball. She walked into the cocktail hour party like she owned it with an extra glow shining off of her. I was once again taken back. I couldn’t believe it, she really looked amazing in the gown she was wearing. I always liked giving people the benefit of the doubt in cases. I clearly once again felt this connection like something I didn’t feel before. She really lit up my world and I couldn’t believe what was going on. I went up to her and struck up a conversation again, but she was quickly whisked away by her cousins. Once again, I was not able to even have a full conversation with her. I next went on to offer to get us drinks in hopes that she would be able to talk longer. There came a point in the night when cocktail hour was ending and they were waving everyone down to go into the reception hall to start the reception.

At this time, Jaimie had gone to the bathroom, and I offered to hold her drink while she went to the bathroom. I was standing there with our drinks for about 20 minutes and I couldn’t believe what was happening. I first thought that she must be having stomach problems, or something was going on. She finally came out and I was a little shocked that it took her that long, but I would have waited however long it took. It is at this moment that she insisted that I come and sit with her at her assigned table during the wedding reception. I got super excited she invited me to sit with her and said that I would come sit at the table as long as there was an opening. I later went to the bathroom, during the reception, and came back to Jaimie eating my meal because she got so hungry. That is when I knew Jaimie was a foody. We continued to keep talking throughout the night and I really appreciated her genuineness and kindness. It was not something you saw regularly and especially in many people. People of our generation did not value these things like I did. After the wedding I dropped her back to the hotel and asked for her phone number so that maybe we could hang out possibly once back in Chicago. Once again, I did not want to get my hopes up because I did not know where she stood. I know that I was mesmerized and could not wait to find out more about her. I knew that her kindness meant much more than anything else in the world. After coming back to Chicago, we started hanging out more often and she warned me that she’d want to date someone for at least 6 months before making anything official. Six months of exclusively dating her later, on the dot, I asked her to be my girlfriend and she said yes! The rest was history, I say every day it was fate that brought us together. I am lucky to have a loving, caring, beautiful, and amazing fiancé. I thank God for his blessing and his works in order to bring us together.