I crashed a birthday drinks one summer night in London, and the only free seat was right next to Folabi, so I sat down and the first thing he said was 'How's life'. I thought 'that's a random question'. I guess in the end it worked out because we had a great conversation, but I assumed he was really young because we were at a 30th birthday drinks and he looks young. Suffice to say, when he ended up dropping my friend and I off home and he asked for my number I was surprised, but I was like, sure! For the next four months, we became friends and grew pretty close as he became my go to for my job hunting and moving to NY process, and then in January 2022, he finally 👀made a move, and my visa taking forever was a wonderful blessing in disguise because we got 4 months in London together before I moved to NY! The moral of the story is always crash birthday drinks, don't assume someone is too young and even if their opening line is questionable, have a conversation 😄 His POV I met Femi at a friend's birthday party. When she walked in, I couldn't help but notice how cute she looked, and luckily for me, she chose the seat next to me. The jury is still out on whether that was the only available seat that night 🙂 We struck up a conversation, and at some point, she offered me some of the party gift she received from the birthday celebration she had just attended. I found that to be a kind gesture, especially considering we had just met. As the night was coming to a close, I realized our conversation had been too short, so I suggested we continue it at another bar. However, that offer was not successful, so I proposed dropping her and her friend off at their homes. Based on Logistics, Femi was the first to be dropped off, and based on my past experiences, I knew it was crucial to get her number myself rather than relying on asking her friend later. Long story short, when we arrived at her place, I mustered the courage to ask for her number, which she shared. Fast forward through a few ping pongs, months of friendship and some moments of extended anticipation when waiting for texts. Here we are now, and it turns out that "How's life?" wasn't such a bad conversation starter after all 🙂

Folabi was flying into NY for a planned visit, and he'd blocked the first weekend in our calendar (yes we have a shared calendar, you need all the tools for a LDR). This is about a year and 4 months after we started dating so I'm not gonna claim I didn't think 'ooh, ok, so this may be a proposal trip'. He really tried to limit the info I got though, I was told what to pack but didn't know if it was a flight or a road trip, and only found out on the day once we got to the car rental, picked up the car and he put in the location on the GPS! We drove up to the Catskills (upstate NY), and stayed in a really cute cabin in the woods. So I figured, on the Saturday, maybe he'll send me away for a bit while he prepped (but we spent the whole day together) or he'd organised with the hosts to do something for when we got back (there was nothing). So I thought, oh maybe I was wrong, cos we were leaving the next morning. Maybe he was just being sweet cos we don't get to go away a lot. Anywaaay, the next morning I went to take a shower and sat in the living room. He asked me to go help him with something in the room, and when I walked in he'd decorated the room with petals, and tea lights and lots (lots!) of pictures of me or us with notes on the back. I was actually surprised! And of course tried to exit left, but I chilled, read all the really sweet notes (took a while - tea was made and drank in this time), there were tears, and when I was finally done, he asked! P.S. I've summarised here - so if you want more details I have a voice note recording of the story 😄 We're so excited to celebrate this next chapter in our lives with you. See you in Lagos!