Joanne and I were hardly aware of each other, until Heather got involved... For a majority of 2020, Heather would often hang out with me and my former housemate, Steven. Much to the chagrin of Joanne and her housemate, Mary, Heather was always busy "hanging with the boys". Heather didn't enjoy being in the middle and decided it was best to merge both circles. I agreed. Around August, we all started hanging out together regularly. Around late-September/early-October, I realized I really enjoyed being around Joanne, specifically. On Halloween 2020, I ended up celebrating at her house with a small group of our friends. Heather knew I was interested and kept "conveniently" putting us on the same team for the various games we played. When I left, Heather asked Joanne, "What do you think about James?" After answering that I was nice and a good guy, Heather pressed further. "What would you say if he asked you out?" As I was driving away from the house that night, I felt a buzz in my pocket and looked at the text from Heather I was waiting for. "She said she has no reason to say no", it read. "The door is slightly ajar, but it's open", I thought. The next day, I asked her on a date and she said yes! On November 5, we met at Bella Luna at 4:30PM, a time I chose for the simple reason that I wanted as much time with her as possible. We told each other our stories, we talked about our families and our past, we ate some delicious food, and in an instant, it was 8:30! It was like magic! Driving home, I expressed my mood listening to "Butterflies" by Kacey Musgraves, a song that, to this day, describes how I feel about the beautiful woman she is. We continued to go on a few dates, we spent a month in December apart, as she was with her family in Maryland for Christmas and her sister's wedding. That was when she realized she truly did miss me. She came back for New Years Eve, we shared our first kiss, and started dating Jan. 3. Thankfully, our story is still being written...

The most common question after I said yes was, "were you surprised?" The answer was YES. I was completely shocked by the events that happened August 5, 2021. Every year my family goes to Ocean City, New Jersey for our beach vacation. This year everyone knew that this year would be special... everyone but me. It was a typical Thursday and a beautiful day on the beach. James told me he was in meetings all day and wouldn't be able to text much, which, turns out, meant he was taking multiple flights to come and surprise me. Everyone was on board to make sure I was was clueless, wearing a cute outfit and make sure my nails were fixed. (Ask me about the story of the nails) They told me we had reservations at a seafood restaurant. We did go to dinner, just a little later than I was told. My brother invited me to take pictures on the rooftop before dinner and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw James on one knee waiting for me. I said yes before he even had time to ask, I was that sure!