Believe it or not, Anthony and I have known each other since Elementary School. While we were always friends with the same people, we never really connected other than being acquaintances. Senior year of high school, we started to develop a friendship that lead to a little more, but Anthony was clearly not ready to settle down. Flash forward to that following December. It was New Year's Eve and we were at a high school friend's house. We reconnected and stayed up all night talking. A week later we went on a first date, (that he was casually 2 hours late to, typical Anthony fashion) and then from that point on we were inseparable.

It was June 2018. We had been together for 6 years and at this point, and I am desperately waiting for a ring. We decided to plan a trip to Wilmington, North Carolina- a town I'd always wanted to visit. We booked a cheap motel and were off to the beach the week school let out. That cheap motel, called Captain's Cove, had decent reviews, so we didn't think it could be that bad. We were wrong- we pulled up, thought maybe the rooms will look better than the outside, got our keys to the room, and walked in to our room. Anthony turned the light on, which flickered about 10 times before dimly staying on, and we were welcomed with the intense smell of smoke and stained carpets. I cried, and wanted to leave so bad. He promised me he had something better for us as a surprise, but we had to get through the night here. We went to dinner, stopped at Walmart to get fresh sheets, and then left very early the next morning. We spent the day exploring downtown Wilmington, and then sat on Kure Beach and waited for our dinner reservation. Upon arriving to dinner, I could tell Anthony was acting weird. He went to go pay for parking and couldn't find the spot to put his credit card in the machine, even though it was right in front of his face. During dinner, he mentioned that his dad's friend had an ocean front house just a mile down the beach, and his dad wanted us to go check it out. I remembered him telling me this a few weeks back, so I said "sure, why not!" and we headed down the beach. I can't really recall our conversations down that beach, but we finally arrived at this gorgeous property right on the shores of Carolina Beach. We walked up the steps and suddenly he grabbed my hand and said "Do you remember at dinner when I asked you what you wanted out of life?" and I replied with "Are you doing what I think you are doing?" and he said "no..." but then got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.