Our Love Story

It was my last semester at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC. I came home almost every weekend to get away from the college life, which I had outgrown. I had a paper due every Friday at 5pm that semester, so I decided that I would drive home to Wake Forest and work on my paper in a local coffee shop. I ordered a latte and began to settle into my paper. Then I received a phone call from my mom asking me where I was. When I explained to her I was at the coffee shop, she informed me that a new coffee shop, Back Alley had recently opened their doors across the street. She requested that I go check it out. Maybe I was being moved by an unforeseen force or perhaps I was just procrastinating, but I decided to leave for the other coffee shop. I walked in and eyed the menu board, thrown off by the coffee selection. At that point, I was more of a tea person--having no clue what a pour over was. After I ordered, I sat down and quietly worked on my paper. I glanced up at the counter every so often, listening to the small talk between the baristas and customers; everyone seemed to know each other. That was when I first noticed him. His smile was cute as he joked with his co-workers. I turned in my paper, left and went back to Greenville at the end of the weekend. I kept coming back the shop week after week, getting a little excited when I saw that he was working. One Friday, he was wearing a CrossFit shirt and was talking on and on about CrossFit. I began to interject, conversing with him without a filter. We had a friendly argument about CrossFit that ended in him sitting down at my table and boldly asking if I wanted to go to the gym with him. He then bribed me with coffee and waffles afterwards and proceeded to ask for my number. Afterwards, he quietly got up and went back to the bar. Within minutes I saw that he texted me. I looked up at him and made eye contact that broke when we started to laugh. Text he sent read: "Yo. This is Bo."

The plan was we would get away for a few days at the beach. It was as simple as that. We always like to surprise each other so I didn't get very suspicious when Bo told me that they place we were staying at was a surprise. He told me that we had to meet the owner at Marina Grill and follow him to the place. We parked and I noticed the guy was pulling a cart behind him. When he took our bags, I was very confused...there was not a condo nor apartment in sight, just the marina. Reluctantly, I followed him and Bo down to the docks. All I saw were fishing boats and yachts. The man pointed to a few of them and said "pick one". I laughed thinking it was a joke, but when I pointed at a beautiful 2-story yacht, he responded with "try it out". Again, I was hesitant. Not knowing what to do, I stepped on. It was absolutely breathtaking--I felt like I was in a dream. After walking the beach and playing some uno on the yacht, we went to dinner. Dinner was almost as amazing aa the boat. We had a beautiful view of the cape fear river through a display of floor-to-ceiling windows. When we arrived back on the boat, Bo told me to stay in my room. He was going to make me a special dessert. I followed along with his plans and in no time he was knocking on my bedroom door, ordering me to close my eyes and follow him to the top story and out onto the balcony. When he said "open your eyes" I noticed right away he had said it to me from a lower position. Before I even opened my eyes, I knew he had got down on one knee.