Technically, Sipan “met” me months before I met him when I introduced myself in a large meeting he was in at work. We like to say it was love at first sight, but it wasn’t until months later in October when we officially met. I had been hearing about the “hot manager” for some time so was interested in seeing what the hype was about. We did a building tour walkthrough together and said maybe three words to each other. I was skeptical, but intrigued, and made sure to scan my calendar to dress nicer on the days I knew we’d cross paths. Those days started happening more and more frequently as he would always have an excuse to swing by my office for some reason, and eventually we became close friends. We would stay at work until late at night talking, laughing, and shadow boxing in the parking lot, then talk on the phone our whole drive home. Eventually, after 7 months of this, he worked up the courage to ask me hang out outside of work. We deleted all of our dating apps that night.

Sipan and I were in Cabo, Mexico for my birthday. He surprised me with a bouquet of 25 roses for my 25th and booked us a private dinner on the beach. As the sun was setting, we walked up to the beach to find our table on the sand overlooking the ocean decorated with rose petals, candles, and serviced by our own private server. A photographer took us down to the water to take pictures, which I assumed was just included in the private dinner package. As she was taking individual pictures of me, Sipan came behind me and got on his knee. I turned around to find him holding out the most gorgeous ring and asked me to marry him.