We decided to meet at a mall that we were both familiar with for a quick coffee date. The good ol’ “I can make this coffee last either 15 minutes if things go badly, or 45 minutes if this date goes well.” After five minutes with her, I knew. After sitting together and me awkwardly showing her YouTube videos of an octopus, I ran out of coffee and desperately suggested dinner. After dinner, we ended up spending five additional hours walking around the mall. We made some small talk, enjoyed some of my acapella singing of “In the Air Tonight” by Phil Collins, and sometimes basked in comfortable silence. I remember those as five of the happiest hours of my life. I was so nervous and flustered that I wasn’t sure I was making any sense at all, but the thing was, she didn’t seem to mind. 17 mall stores, 3 acapella songs, and 2 pastries later, we finally parted ways in the South Coast Plaza parking lot close to midnight. I secretly told myself, “I’m gonna marry that girl.” - Roy

It was September, and he knew I was feeling those post-travel blues after my August trip to England. So for two weeks straight, he started hyping up a staycation he had planned. "You're gonna love it!," he promised. And I did. He had booked an AirBnB that was a replica of a hobbit hole! After I was done nerding out and exploring every cozy little corner, he asked our AirBnB host to take a photo of us by the round hobbit door. That's when he told me he had a belated birthday gift for me. He handed me a hardcover Harry Potter book, said something about it being signed by Rowling. As I flung it open, what I saw was immensely better than a signature. He had carved a little nook into the book and there hid a ring. The rest, as they say, is history and a whole lot of happy tears. -Sharleen