Madelyn never thought that the weird girl she met the summer before seventh grade would end up (unintentionally) leading her to meet her soul mate -- and that that girl would end up one day becoming her best friend and niece. One of the first times that Madelyn visited Stephanie (A.K.A. Stephano) to play some video games, she decided to finally say hi to Stephanie's quiet bruncle (uncle/practically brother), who was a year ahead of her in school. He surprised Madelyn with how much he could talk, despite his very reserved demeanor, and he surprised her even more with how much they had in common and how easy it was to talk to one another. A shy friendship developed, one that was nourished over the next 7-8 years by random, unplanned, deep and intellectually stimulating conversations that felt so easy to have and harbored no awkwardness, no matter how long it had been since the previous one. In August 2012, Oscar gathered the courage to tell Madelyn what he'd always felt for her: love. Somehow, despite never being aware of it in the previous seven years, that moment made Madelyn realize that she felt the exact same way, probably since that initial conversation in that dark study that first afternoon. A much-too long year of soul-searching and demon-battling followed, until the evening of Sunday, September 15, 2013, when Oscar decided to send Madelyn the text that would forevermore change their lives. With a nervous, pounding heart while sipping on her strawberry raspa, Madelyn accepted, thus beginning a love story that makes all who hear it puke every time.

*spanish words*

Madelyn and Oscar always dreamed of going to London one day, so when it came time to propose to her, Oscar decided that it would be the perfect place to ask her to spend eternity with him. It wasn't a complete surprise to Madelyn. She and Oscar and been talking about getting engaged for a good part of that year, and she'd been expecting a proposal since her birthday. Then came their two-year anniversary. She felt like that would be a perfect time to do it and felt pretty sure that it was going to happen, especially once they finished dinner and went outside to exchange gifts. After opening one of the two cards that Oscar had bought for her, she realized that he wasn't proposing that night but now knew where he would be doing it: in London, the city she'd forever dreamt of visiting one day. Fast forward to that Friday in December when they were walking through the Harry Potter Studio Tour near London. Both were nervous, Oscar because of what he was planning, and Madelyn because she kept wondering when and where he was going to do it. They were visiting the sets where they filmed the movies based on her favorite books ever -- could there be a more perfect place to propose at? Finally, just before they left the last part of the tour -- and just as Madelyn began wondering if she'd been wrong about her gut feeling -- Oscar stopped her and asked one of the tour guides to take a picture of them. Then, in front of the snow-covered, scale model of Hogwarts that had been used in the films, Oscar knelt down on one knee, smiled nervously up at Madelyn, made a short speech, and asked her if she would like to spend forever with him. She nodded, the only gesture she could manage as happy tears rolled down her cheeks and her breath and voice caught in her throat, because even though she'd expected it, the actual act of being proposed to moved her as if it had been a total surprise.

*cries of joy in spanish*