You could say we had good...chemistry. Chris had just transferred schools to Bishop Alemany High School, and little did he know that Gabby was waiting for him to change his life forever. In his first semester of Mrs. Qureshi's honors chemistry class their sophomore year, they started to become friends despite Chris' distracting tendencies in class. And as they say, the rest is history.

We were getting ready for our normal coffee Friday at Bogarts in Seal Beach. Nothing out of the ordinary, but Gabby still felt my jacket to see if the ring box was there. I played it off like it was nothing. Bullet dodged. We walked to the car and left to the coffee shop where our two friends, Alyssa and Kristen, were waiting incognito, like the paparazzi waiting for the celebrity to leave the laundromat. Flash back to Tuesday of that week. To Gabby's knowledge I was meeting our friend Dylan at O'Malley's Pub in Seal Beach to grab a Guinness and watch the Michigan State vs Kentucky basketball game. Basketball season was just beginning so she suspected nothing. Little did she know that I was also meeting a couple of the Squirrels (Gabby's friend group in Long Beach) to plan the whole thing out and give them the camera. Flash forward to us arriving at the coffee shop. I immediately notice Alyssa and Kristen, dressed in all black with a mask and sunglasses, looking super sketchy if you didn't know it was them. Gabby did not, so all was going to plan. We get our coffee and begin our walk down the Seal Beach pier. Thus began the longest walk of my life. I never realized how long that pier was until I was walking down it with a ring in my pocket. I could not have asked for a more perfect day to do it. The pier was near vacant and the weather was sunny but not too warm either. We get to the end of the pier and I get down on one knee, completely filled with unnecessary anxiety. Would she say no? That would be weird considering we have been together for 8 years at this point. Biggest scam of my life, but back to the task at hand. I shakily mutter some nice words (for her ears only), and ask her to marry me. And as the many pictures our friends took suggest, she said yes!

I knew a proposal was upcoming, but wasn’t sure exactly how or when, and Chris was not interested in giving up any details. As the “planner” of our duo, I’m a big fan of knowing the details. One of these very important details I made incredibly clear was that I really wanted to have photos of our engagement (put a pin in this). We were getting ready to go on our weekly Friday coffee date when Chris mentioned that he had to go into work for a few hours that day so he had to dress a little nicer than our regular attire of hoodies and sweats. Then he put on a leather jacket….how suspicious. I took cue and, just in case, put on something slightly nicer too. As we were leaving and Chris was locking the door I felt his jacket to see if I could feel a ring box. My heart dropped-there was definitely something there. He tried to play it off, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I knew what was happening. We got our drinks (oatmilk macadamia nut latte for him, vanilla matcha latte for me) and started our regular walk down the pier. I kept scanning the end of the pier, because I expected one or two of our friends waiting there to take photos of us. As we approached closer and I didn't see anyone I knew standing there, I even peeked behind us to see if someone was following us. I swear, there was practically no one on this pier and I didn’t recognize a single person. At this point, I’m beginning to think that this isn't happening today. As soon as that thought entered my head and we arrived at the end of the pier, Chris grabbed my hand and dropped to one knee. Just like that, 8 years of dating had ended and we were officially engaged.