Was it love at first sight or fate that drew us together? You decide:

September 10th started as any other regular Saturday. A nice slow morning with freshly brewed coffee. It was a weekend without my sidekick, so I was determined to stay busy. My mother reached out that she was attending a work event and wanted me to go. I was skeptical at first, as how fun could it truly be, but I didn’t have any other plans that evening so decided to give it a shot. Mom mentioned she worked with a man around my age that she hasn’t seen in an awhile and he would possibly be attending. He was from Wilmington and it would give me an opportunity to meet some new friends which spiked my interests. We showed up to the event and enjoyed some food and drinks. Unfortunately, the man we were supposed to be meeting was delayed and wasn’t sure if he would be able to make it. In good ole Nicole fashion, I took over my mom’s phone and started giving him a hard time about being late. During one of the performances, a gentleman appeared over the hill that I was immediately drawn to and couldn’t help but stare. He casually walked up to us and introduced himself as Travis Mason. In my head I couldn’t get over how attractive he was and my words couldn’t form. He carried himself very well, had an attractively deep voice, and talked very respectively. Again, I couldn’t make my words flow and all that was running through my head was “wow, this man is so attractive”. Everyone at the event was involved somehow or someway in building or construction; which I had no area of expertise in. Looking back, it’s humorous how bad I wanted his attention. I was asking him numerous questions about construction, and literally wouldn’t leave his side. To the point he was accidentally bumping into me while talking to others and where he moved I followed. Surprisingly, he didn’t find me crazy (or maybe he did and felt bad) and offered to drive me home. Which I was so thankful for because I remember as the event was ending, I was trying to come up with any ideas to continue the night with him. That night we talked about everything and anything until 4 in the morning. As the conversation was easily flowing, it started feeling as if I’ve known him my whole life. I knew we had an immediate connection and he was surely going to be someone important in my life. After that night, we had many more similar evenings, and the rest was history.

I was being super uncle and had my niece and nephew that day. I do remember the responsibility of meeting Mike and Jeanette’s daughter was on the plate for the evening while attending an event for Mungo. I was asked if I could introduce her to some of my friends because she recently moved back and didn’t know too many people. Jeanette reminded me I had a very well diverse friend group and to only introduce her to the better of the batch. I believe I was supposed to be there around 6 but true Mason way I was behind schedule. Jeanette shot me a picture of a mutual acquaintance who had dressed up for the lip sync battle and asked where I was at. I explained I still had my niece and nephew and my sister oughta be by around 7 to snag them. I received a response along the lines of “fashionably late. I suppose that’s acceptable” and I had a feeling that message was driven by someone much sassier than Jeanette Wilson which at the time I didn’t know was possible. Boy was I in for a life long lesson there. I parked around back and Jeannette gave me some guidance as to where they were. As I walked up the path and crested the hilltop I saw Jeanette and a brunette woman standing with her and thought to myself “nah ain’t no way. That must be a coworker or a wife that she’s chatting with” I got closer and the sassy exclamation of “bout time” clarified my questions about who Jeanette was speaking with. My initial thoughts after the introduction was “damn man Jeanette been holding out” because I was a bit taken back by Nicole’s beauty. I wasn’t sure what to expect because I’d never seen any pictures but I was pleasantly surprised and immediately attracted. The thought of “introducing her to my friends” was GONE. We enjoyed the night and I’d meander to different groups of people in which I’d engage in conversation with and every time I turned around Nicole was right there. Wide eyed and very tuned into the conversation whether she had any idea what we were talking about or not. She finally caught on that all conversations were about home building and construction and would casually throw in comments like “yes light bulbs make the room brighter” to find any way to relate and join in the shenanigans. As the night concluded at the event I took into consideration Mike and Jeanette weren’t far from their house and Nicole rode with them so instead of them going out of their way I offered to drive her home. As many of you know Old Goldy truck has never been in showroom quality but I opened the door for Nicole and she kicked the stuff out of the way on the floorboard and hopped on in. We listened to some music and chatted for the drive over the bridge and as I walked her to her apartment door we were still effortlessly chatting away and she opened the door, walked right on in and never broke stride in conversation. I stood at the door for some time without entering because in my mind I was just dropping her off and out of respect for Mike and Jeanette I hung tight. She held the door open and never stopped to take a breathe and finally asked if I wanted to come in. From there on out we sat on that navy couch and just talked the night away. The conversations were so fluid and painless. I found myself very intrigued and grateful for such natural engagement with one another. We had a couple more nights like that around our busy schedules and from there on I knew she was going to go from “Mike and Jeanette’s daughter” to “my lady”