We finally caught on! He asked & I said Yes #RickGotKaraedAway

We’ve known each other since middle school, but didn’t really become good good friends until high school. I remember wanting to hang out with the guys so much that I became a trainer so I could be with them on the football field! I spent my whole summer learning CPR and how to make sure that when the guys were hurt, I knew how to flip them over and hold their C-spine. Meanwhile, they just hung out and had a good time all summer. During the school year, I ended up running track and becoming the student trainer on the football team. As our time together grew, we began trying to plan our classes together! All of us will never forget our 12th grade English class with Mrs. Flanagan. People would skip their class to come to her class because we had so much fun in there. We would get in trouble almost every day because of all the laughing and joking around we did there. These are memories that we will never forget. We did everything together from then on; homecoming, prom and even the epic grad night! We have always been inseparable. I moved to Tampa for college; life brought Rick there too. When he left Tampa, he'd consantly make road trips back and forth all of the time to visit me. When I went to Miami for fashion week, we spent the whole time together getting into all kinds of trouble - we even almost burnt the house in Sherman Circle down, hahaha! We would always end up with broken or lost phones. One time, he even ripped my mom's mailbox up out of the ground! Hahaha!!!! At the end of the day, Rick was there for me whenever I needed him and I knew I could count on him for any and everything. Over a decade ago, we even promised each other that if we were both single at 40 we would marry each other. We’ve never dated, he was just my best friend. We are now getting married!

We've always knew each other, but we didn't KNOW each other. I would see her in the hallways, throw her a smile, a head nod and kept it pushing. At the time I wasn't quite skilled with my gab. It would take 1500 hours on AOL's chatrooms for me to sharpen my tongue (Thanks AOL). Our hallway relations stayed the same for a pretty long time. It wasn’t until Carrita Cooley and Gabriella Vanegas came along and they became like the 3 musketeers...thats when I started speaking to her even more...because Carrita was dating my good friend!!! We had a few classes together and we would converse about all of our relationships. I would listen and take mental notes about what to do and what not to do. We continued our friendship all through out high school. I then started my studies in emergency rescue and fire academy. Kara was always by my side as a true friend should be. We always respected each other's relationships and gave each other advice. When I would go on my more than often disappearing acts, she was there. When I had to skedaddle and get back in my right mind, she was there. Time after time, again and again, Kara was there...

Months ago, I was asked to be the maid of honor in a wedding and I asked Rick to be my plus one. He made sure that he didn’t have to go back to work until after Thanksgiving so that he could be my plus one even though I was the maid of honor. He sat through all the FaceTime calls and text messages for months as I waited for The bride to pick the color and style of my dress. He would always say, “man hurry up! I need to know already, so I can get my tux ready!” In the midst of it all, we lost his twin brother. After what felt like forever, I made it to South Florida and I finally saw him and was able to give him the longest, deepest hug ever! I was so happy to see him. I just wanted to be there for him in every way possible. Yet, I never saw him as anything else then my best friend. All week that week, everyone would ask, “When you’re y’all getting married?” or they would say, “Oh my gosh, you guys are so cute, how long have you been married!?” We would both look at each other dying with laughter and say this is my best friend. After the wedding, he told me to pull over at the pier, I was like why?!? My feet hurt, I’m tired, and I’m in my socks! He said, “Do you trust me, just do it.” So I did. I pulled over and got out the car - in my socks - and walked down the pier. His excuse was, “I just want to take pictures because we’re dressed so nice and we’re matching so well. You were so busy being a maid of honor, we didn’t get to take pictures outside at the beach together.” As we arrived at the pier, he asked a random family that was already there to take what I thought were pictures, but then he got on one knee! He said to me, “I had to do this before you left. I know we always said we would wait till 40 but I don’t wanna wait that long. We deserve this.” I started crying immediately! He made sure to call my mom and get her blessings, call my dad and get his blessings and then spoke to each one of my kids individually. The rest is history!

In all actuality, this has been the plan for quite some time now. The only thing that was on my mind was place, location and time. See, the time was very important for the simple fact that I travel a lot for work. One week I'm in Wisconsin, and in a blink of an eye, I’m in California (I work for the C.I.A). I got a call from Kara early September 2019 asking me to accompany her at Nikki and Andres wedding in November 2019. I agreed since I was planning on coming home for the holidays anyways. While on assignment in Maryland, I got a call that would tear a hole in my heart - my little cousin Necy passed away. I got back home as quickly as possible to be with the family and while at home, I decided to stay til Turkey day and catch up with family and friends since I wasn't ready mentality to return to work. Just as I started to get my mind back into the swing of things, I get a call from Kara that would once again tear another hole in my heart and change the way I viewed life - my twin brother Nick was called home. At this point, I couldn't believe what was happening or why. I just knew I had to be strong, although I couldn't make sense of anything. Only a few people knew what I was truly going through internally and Kara was one of them. When she finally touched down and I met up with her, most of that pain started to melt away and fill up with joy. That's when I knew this was no mistake and I had to make my move. Equipped with the rock at the wedding, I nervously waited for my shot. I didn't want to ask her during the wedding and spoil Nikki's night, so I waited til the end and asked her to follow me.......