How We Met
Shevy and I met at work when she came to interview for a job and I was tasked with giving her a tour of the campus. I always thought that it was some sort of divine intervention because initially I wasn’t scheduled to give her tour, but some scheduling conflicts decided otherwise. The moment I met her I knew there was something about her that just made me want to be around her and know who she was. She ended up taking the job and told me a couple of weeks after she started working that she felt my tour played a big part of that (well, of course, it did – I’m awesome!)
For over 6 months our relationship developed as coworkers and friends, occasionally hanging out and taking the time to get to know one another. As I started applying to graduate schools I asked Shevy to help me edit and revise my personal statement for my applications and she graciously accepted. She decided to make a night of it and made a pot of chili and some margaritas for us and was waiting with both in hand for me when I knocked on her apartment door.
After an unproductive night of editing my paper and a couple of bowls of chili (and more than a couple of margaritas), I gathered the courage to finally tell Shevy that I had feelings for her, something that I had known for quite a while. Her response was simple – “I think those feelings are misplaced”. Every bit of courage I had was drained and when I tell y’all I was SHOOK at her response I didn’t even know what to do. I felt so small at that moment, but an open and honest conversation and some emotional unpacking immediately followed and she shared with me that she also felt the same way but wanted to confirm if I was sure in how I felt.
The rest truly is history (or herstory I guess lol), we were pretty much attached at the hip after that and “officially” started dating in March of 2019. We left our jobs and homes we had started to create in North Carolina in January of 2020 and have been in Chicago ever since. Despite a global pandemic keeping us in our home for most of the year that we have lived here, it has been a lot of fun trying to find new and nontraditional ways to explore this city we love so much!
How They Asked
I had bought us and our two dogs a matching pajama set for the holidays so we could take photos that would eventually go on our Christmas cards. Because we have two large and squirmy dogs it made the most sense that in addition to setting up our nice camera, we would also set up my phone with the video on hopeful that we could grab a few good stills from the video in the event all of our photos were trash. About 20 minutes into our photo session Shevy asked if I wanted to open a present (we were doing a small gift for each other every day in December) and of course, I said yes.
She asked me to close my eyes and make sure they were “closed.” While my eyes were closed, she fumbled around our apartment for a few minutes and after asking 6 times if my eyes were “really closed” she came back with her gift in her hand. With my eyes still closed she proceeded to tell me “I really love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you”. Of course, when I heard this I had no idea where she was going so I opened my eyes as fast as I could, and she was standing in front of me with a red ring pop in hand. I laughed so hard not thinking she was serious because we had always joked about proposing with a ring pop and of course said yes and put the ring pop on my finger.
She proceeded to ask me “so the answer’s yes?” and after I nodded and said “of course” she got down on one knee, pulled out the actual ring, and said “good because this is the real ring” and I was SHOCKED. I couldn’t even formulate any words or thoughts besides “are you serious?” and “is this real?” over and over again because I truly couldn’t believe that she was asking. I know she said a lot of things that I can’t remember at all because I was just so dang excited, but she made it a point to remind me how serious she was because she “would never get down on one knee for anyone, but I’m getting down on one knee for you.”
Shevy asking me to marry her was by far one of the happiest moments of my life, and I couldn’t have imagined it to happen in a better way. Some of my favorite moments we spend together are at home with just the two of us and our two dogs so to be able to have this new memory in our home is more special to me than I could ever put into words.
Future Mrs. Booze in the making!!