"It's about time!"- all y'all.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.. oh wait. Nevermind, it was high school, so it was mainly the worst of times. However fate, destiny, or whoever put Chasity (Sévérine) and Mark (Laurent) in French class together. They got to choose their French names. Chasity chose one that sounded pretty. Mark chose one because a character in Twilight had that name. Already a good start. Chasity and Mark had been riding the same bus to school for a while. In fact they were only one stop apart, but they never spoke. Mark is always half asleep and Chasity would wear headphones to prepare for eight hours of nonsense. One day in French class, Sévérine and Laurent had to pair up for practicing something that they 100% did not stay on task for. Instead of learning how to say, "I would like pizza", they talked about how Chasity liked his blue eyes and probably something about realizing they rode the same bus. From then on, the friendship between Sévérine and Laurent turned into the friendship of Chasity and Mark. They became best friends quickly. After a few relationships on both ends failed, the hopeful Mark asked, "So I doubt this will work, but do you want to be my girlfriend" over the phone. (To be fair, this was his third time asking over the span of the friendship). He got back a long pause then, "sure". Neither of them knew that the relationship would end up surviving 2 years of long distance only to be met with Mark moving to Savannah while Chasity finished her undergrad degree there. After getting sick of living there, the two decided to get out of Savannah and got their first apartment together in Stone Mountain. By this time, they already knew that they were each other's "person" and knew that they had gotten lucky... Like that one song by an artist that isn't relevant says, "Lucky I'm in love with my best friend." Who knew that a small French assignment would then lead to two dummies falling in love more and more each day.

Hey gang, Mark here to tell you all the story of how I popped the question. For starters, it took me several months to find a ring that I thought would be perfect for Chas. I wanted something floral, with leaves and such, but with mossanite instead of diamond due to the ecology and morality being overall more sustainable. After much searching I stumbled upon the ring that Chas had actually used as an example of what she wanted, and decided to spring for it. I ordered it from Etsy and it was hand crafted to order, which took about 3 weeks, meaning I had about that much time to decide on a plan for my proposal. Many who know Chas will know that she can often be difficult to surprise, so that was my main objective, to get her with her guard down and surprise her. After considering the notion of proposing in a place that she'd hate (such as a skating rink or mini-golf), I realized that the arrival of the ring lined up nearly perfectly with the release of the Animal Crossing themed Switch. I decided with some input from friends that hiding the ring inside a box for the gaming system would be the best route. However, I didn't preorder one! So i began calling every GameStop nearly daily asking if they were getting extra Switches, and I lucked out with the one nearest my house. I was informed that the 2 extra systems were first come first serve and I'd just have to be first in line in order to get my hands on one of them. Fortunately, when the day came, I was there first so I could get my Switch, and head home, ring in box, ready to pop the question. I played it cool, waited for her to wake up, and when she came downstairs and opened the box, I was on the opposite side of the table on a knee watching her reaction. Once her eyes lit up I cracked my big, goofy smile and asked, "Will you marry me?"