How We Met
Roman and I met about 3 years ago. I was a manager at a bank and he was the store manager at the auto parts store across the parking lot. One day, I forced him to open a bank account for me because I needed to hit a sales goal (he didn’t know that). I didn’t even think he was very cute at this point, I just needed an account. So I got my account and he got a free ATM right next to his work. He would come into the bank all the time and get change for his store and we would flirt across my teller line. I would go and buy windshield wipers and be forced to ask for help placing them on my car and he would always kindly oblige. This went on forever, almost year and a half. But then for some reason, I started really noticing him. Beyond an account, I started really looking at him. I remember the exact day I changed my whole perspective of him from some guy who was alright to look at to the most handsome guy I had ever seen. He came in the bank without his uniform, a nice button up, nice jeans, and bright white vans. He placed his arms across my teller desk and I saw his tattooed and muscular arms and just about died. I couldn’t believe I had never noticed just how handsome he was. Over the next months, we would spend the few minutes we saw each other a week exchanging flirtatious words and large smiles. I never had the courage to do anything about our little exchanges so I just kept thinking how creepy I was for not being able to get him out of my brain. My work outfits got cuter and my eyes gazed across the the parking lot more often, hoping to see a little blue Evo or sexy bike or that big white truck or even better, that pretty little Mercedes. At this point, I was concerned for my mental health…but he would just never leave my brain. So one day, the same day he walked into the bank and greeted me with a, “Hey, you” (to which I replied with blushing and embarrassment), I asked him if he could look at my car. I told him I thought the power steering was broke (to which he laughed because I obviously had no idea what I was saying) but he offered his expertise, said he could look at it after I got off. I remember feeling weirdly nervous, like first date jittery, as I walked across the lot into his store. It was freezing cold out but, with a smile on his face, he grabbed a hoodie headed out to my car and started to fix what was broken. Without even being asked, or payed, he fixed what had been a power steering leak, in 30 degree weather for a girl he barely knew. I was so smitten by his gesture of kindness. As we both stood there in the freezing cold (I refused to wait inside) I asked how he knew so much and what he was interested in. He asked me how work was going and if I had a boyfriend (at which point I knew I had to make a move). When he had finished and closed the hood of my car, I thanked him and asked him what I owed him. He insisted nothing but after asking just a couple more times, he said, “Alright. How about you let me take you out?” (Jackpot) And the inside of me screamed but I calmly handed him my phone so he could place his number in it and said, “Yeah, I guess that would be alright.” He texted me two hours later, we went on a first date two days later, we were officially dating two weeks later, and almost two years later I am about to be his wife. Turns out, there was a reason I just couldn’t get him out of my brain. Who knew?
how they asked
After a Christmas morning with my family, Roman and I boarded a plane to spend the rest of the Holidays with his family on the East Coast. It would be my first time meeting his family and my first time in NYC. We spent the first couple of days meeting family and eating delicious food in PA. We took selfies with the Liberty Bell in Philly, visited Atlantic City, and ran by the ocean at night. We headed into NYC to celebrate New Year’s Eve. This was the night we would be celebrating on a fancy yacht on the Hudson River watching fireworks shoot off from the Statue of Liberty. (Which was unforgettably amazing) I checked his pockets for a ring box that night because I was a little suspicious that he was going to pop the question. When I found nothing, I brushed it off and assumed that if it didn’t happen then, it wouldn’t happen at all. After an amazing NYE, we spent the next day going to museums, walking the city, and eating more food. As we walked around Times Square, we even stopped to get our caricature drawn, the ones with the obscenely big heads and over exaggerated features. The artist wouldn’t let me see the drawing until it was done and kept poking fun at us for not being married. When we finally got to see the picture, he turned it around and it was a sketch of Roman proposing to me with a big cartoon diamond. We both laughed out loud. I took the picture as a funny joke and we walked back to our hotel room for the night. The next day, our last day in the city, we had plans to meet his family for dinner and skating at Rockefeller Center. Roman and I had been at each other throats the whole morning and when we finally calmed down and decided to stop wasting time arguing about stupid things, we headed to Central Park and took a bike tour. It was beautiful and we even got a picture sitting on the “Friends” fountain. Later that evening, we finally met up with his family, had a great dinner, and we skated on the ice at Rockefeller Center amongst the beautiful city lights. After about an hour, they announced that everybody needed to clear the ice. When I saw the zamboni getting ready, I was anxious to get my stuff and leave. But Roman kept insisting we stay. He wouldn’t get off the ice and kept wanting to take more pictures. I was getting so irritated because I hate breaking the rules and I suck at ice skating. Then a gentleman who worked there asked if we wanted one last picture in front of the tree and I annoyingly obliged. But as Roman, started pulling me to center of the ice, I noticed the song “Thinking Out Loud” was playing and there was no one else on the ice anymore and suddenly things started to click. I asked him what he was doing and all he replied was “loving you.” As he fumbled in his pockets, got down on one knee, and pulled out the most beautiful ring I had ever seen, he asked me to marry him in front of thousands of people in the best city. I immediately started ugly crying, and couldn’t say real words. I finally nodded yes and wrapped my arms around him. Turns out he had been planning this since May. He knew I would look for the ring on New Year’s Eve. He asked the artist to draw that scene of us. And he knew how important it was to get it all on video, hence all the picture taking and videoing. Man, he is so clever. And I am so glad he is mine.
