Marcos and I initially met in college at the most extravagant Christmas party either one of us has ever been to. It's hard to describe, but here's my best shot: you know how in a haunted house each room has a different theme, well imagine college students doing that exact same thing, but instead of Halloween it's Christmas, instead of a house it's an apartment complex, and instead of rooms it's individual apartments. Each group of roommates apartment within the complex had a different Christmas theme with different decorations, different drinks, different food, and different games. My friends lived in the apartment on the bottom floor and Marcos's friends lived in the apartment on the top floor. One of my friends and I wanted to make our way through all of the apartments, trying their drinks, looking at their decorations, and playing their games. Finally, we made it to the top floor. There was this guy playing beer pong with one of his friends. They just played a game and won, so my friend and I called next game. I recognized the guy we were playing against and I could tell he recognized me too, but neither one of us could tell from where. As we played beer pong, I realized where I recognized him from. When we got done playing our game of beer pong (my friend and I won by the way) I walked up to him and re-introduced myself. We chatted for a little bit and then at the end of our conversation he said, “well, since you know I'm not a weirdo, can I have your phone number?” I giggled and said yes. This was the start of Marcos and Maya. We went on a date the next day to a coffee shop. It went well so we went on three or four more in both Athens and Atlanta. Eventually I realized I needed to take time to be single and learn to love myself. I broke things off with Marcos and the other men I was casually dating and took time to just be me. During that time, Marcos was called to a military assignment overseas and I stayed in Athens to do school and work.

Marcos moved to Atlanta and livedwith two friends who were dating at the time. One night the couple was fighting and Marcos had had enough. He needed to escape, so he decided drive to Athens and go to the bar he used to bartend at in college. His friend Dan was bartending that night and he knew they would have a good time together. Little did Marcos know that was my first night bartending at that same bar, and Dan was my shadow-shift. Marcos walks into the bar looking for Dan, but I see him first. I was thrilled to see a familiar face and catch up with an old friend. Marcos came and sat down right in front of Dan and I. Marcos and I started catching up, talking about life since the last time we saw each other. Dan had had a few drinks by that point and startedbreak dancing in the middle of the bar. While he was break dancing, an entire frat party walked into the bar and started ordering for drinks on top of drinks on top of drinks. Remember, this was my first time ever bartending so I was freaking out and Dan was literally no help. So Marcos looked left and then right to see if my manager was around and then he hops over the bar to help me bartend for the whole frat party. Thank goodness for Marcos because I was so overwhelmed and so inexperienced, without him i wouldn’t have made it through the rest of that night. When the frat bros all had their drinks, Marcos hopped back over the bar to his original seat, bought me a tequila shot as a nice-job-you-made-it, and we continued chatting for the rest of the night. He stayed with me all night and we chatted until the bar closed and I was tipped out (mind you it’s 3AM by this point). Marcos walked me to my car and we talked in the parking lot until 4AM. He drove behind me all the way home to make sure I made it back safely before driving back to Atlanta himself.

every time i bartended i invited marcos up to athens. sometimes he could come and sometimes he couldn’t, but if he couldn’t he always made a point to send me a tip via venmo because he knew 1. i didn’t make a base pay at this college bar i literally only worked for tips from broke college students and 2. summer was so freaking slow i could work for 8 hours and go home with only $20 in my pocket so he wanted to make sure he tipped me even if he wasn’t there. he and i became really good friends and hung out as friends quite often. i’d go visit him in atlanta or he’d come to me in athens. through this budding friendship i could tell he liked me as more than just a friend, but i didn’t want to hurt him in the after like i had hurt him in the before, so i shut it down every chance i got and made it very clear that we were just friends. he completely understood and respected my boundaries and feelings despite his personal feelings. until one day he and i were joking around and he said “if i asked you out you would say no” and i was like “no, i would say yes.” you should have seen the look on his face when i said that (hahaha yikes). this man was so shook because for months i had said we were just friends to his face, but a month or so prior i told my friends i really liked him and i was just working up the courage to tell him (this poor man hahaha). but marcos knows me and was like “well you know how i feel, you’ve known how i’ve always felt, but take time to truly assess your feelings and give me an answer when you’re ready” (he knows me so well, giving me time and space to make a decision ugh i love him). this was on a thursday, so on the following tuesday i asked him to come up to athens for college nights at athens church (a church service tailored towards college students at the church i volunteered at) and afterwards, we went back to my apartment where i told him yes, i wanted to be his girlfriend. and that was the start of maya and marcos - september 24, 2019.

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