Like any modern love story, Gabi and I met on the dating app ‘Bumble’. I was on my way back from Orlando for the weekend when I installed Bumble for the dozenth time. After many failed attempts to match with someone worth going on a second date with, I finally matched with 'Gabriela, 28.' Seeing her profile and how incredibly beautiful she was, I couldn't believe that she was not a bot. The first question I asked her was, how do you get a non-True Crime Podcast listener to listen to a True Crime Podcast? She responded with an elaborate response, beginning with "In this essay I will..." and this line made me erupt with laughter, I knew she could be the one. After 4 days of getting to know each other through text messages, we finally agreed to meet at El Camino at 5:30 pm on March 5th, 2021. I knew that her favorite food was tequenos, so I showed up to the restaurant with an order of 5 tequenos which she was pleasantly surprised with. She was waiting for me, on time as always, while I was 5-10 minutes late due to the tequenos. This made her a bit unsettled, but when she opened the box of her favorite snack, I was quickly forgiven. The rest of the night led on and Gabi took me back to my car, but not before she showed me her rapping skills by singing every word of a Ludacris song and a Drake song that we both loved. This was another green flag for me. I found out that she went to Pines Charter School and that she graduated with my cousin, Jessica. As soon as the first date was over, I reached out to my cousin and her response was 'OMG I love Gabi!' This is when I knew that I couldn't mess this up because I finally found myself a keeper.

On our second anniversary, we went back to recreate our first date at El Camino. As we drove, we reminisced on our feelings and first impressions from that day two years ago. Favian was cool, calm, and collected, and just like that day, he treated me to my favorite snack. To my surprise, I opened the box and was greeted by 26 tequenos! Before I could even open the box, I exclaimed "Why did you get so many?!" After asking me to take the box out of the bag, I noticed the biggest surprise of all, the inside of the box read the very special words: “Gabi, will you marry me?” The 26 tequenos represented the amount of months we had been together. After a dinner full of excitement and celebration, the recreation of the first date continued at Unit B, a speakeasy also in Fort Lauderdale. I was wondering if my parents knew about the proposal, and was confused as to why none of my friends would answer my FaceTime calls. As we approached Unit B, I was greeted by the final surprise, as I burst into sobs when all of our friends and family applauded to celebrate the occasion with us. We're so excited to celebrate this next chapter in our lives with you. See you in Colombia!