How We Met
Corley and I met back in 2016 under unusual circumstances. I worked at a gym on campus at The University of Alabama and Corley frequently worked out there. We would exchange polite greetings when he would come in, but nothing more than that. One day, while we were both at the gym there was a tornado warning which required everyone to take shelter. That day one of our mutual friends was also working with me at the gym. As fate would have it, Corley was the only patron in the gym at the time, which meant it was the gym employees and Corley in the shelter.
Corley, myself, and our mutual friend all started talking to pass the time. After the warning was lifted, my friend and I’d shift was over and she gave me a ride home. While she was driving she said Corley had texted her asking who I was, if I was single, and could he have my number. I told her he would have to figure out a way to get my number himself ;) From then on they started talking and went out a few times over the years and finally started seriously dating in 2018. It’s true that good things take time.
How They Asked
In May of 2019, Corley deployed to the Middle East for 10 months. Lucky for us, he got a 4 day leave that allowed us to meet up in Dubai. Our first evening in Dubai, we were to go to a dinner cruise. Before the dinner cruise Corley insisted we go to the beach and take pictures. This was odd because if you know Corley, you know he HATES taking pictures. I didn’t think much else of it since we were on vacation and I agreed. When we got to the beach Corley turned toward me and smiled, then pointed to a girl walking towards us with a camera. He said that he had hired a photographer to take some vacation pictures for us.
Still having no idea that he was about to propose, I thought “wow, how thoughtful!” The photographer started to snap a few pictures of us and then told us to stand back-to-back for one. She then told Corley she could see his phone in his pocket and he needed to put it away. “Stay turned around, Olivia!” she said.
STILL not thinking anything is going on I stayed turned around while she “tested the lighting.” A few moments later, Corley says, “Liv.” I turned around to him down on one knee with a huge smile on his face. I was in complete shock and after asking him a few times if he was serious, he was able to say his sweet speech and I said YES!
