Entering Two Player Mode

For Toniqua, she’ll have you believe it all started when she was mean to me on one of our first days we had class together at Winthrop and she YELLED at me for asking to borrow her phone charger. And she would be correct. My phone wasn’t dead, it was just a reason for me to talk to the pretty girl I had seen around campus. Wasn’t expecting to get the elite neck snap and a sassy “don’t you see me using it?!” (She wasn’t using it btw) Anywho, fast forward to half way through the semester, and we now have assigned seats in a college class because the 2 of us and 2 more wouldn’t stop talking. (Somehow our professor could only hear us when we whispered, but never when we spoke full volume). Clearly we’ve recovered from Toniqua hulking up on me (I saw the green glimmer in her eye) at this point, but just as friends. We spent that summer hanging out, doing what we still do to this day, eating junk, hanging out and me winning at board games. Until one day it ended (I’m certain it was because Toniqua cheated at Monopoly). But we did what people do, grew apart and went down our seperate paths. Fast forward 8 years now to 2018. I never watch Snapchat stories, but something told me to click on her’s and watch it one random day in March. The likelihood of me hitting the shot I would take can only be described as Derek Fisher against the Spurs in 2004 with 0.4 on the clock. But I took the shot and we made plans to watch horror movies that day and have not gone a single day without speaking since. The few months between our movie night and us making it official was full of catching up, laughs, a couple of scares, and everything else. We talked about everything under the sun. That lead to us finally making it official on July 11th, 2018 and here we are....

Bryan will have y'all convinced that I was mean to him back at Winthrop. That is false! I don't remember our literal first day meeting. I do remember hanging out summer 2010 and realizing that Bryan is genuinely a good guy. Genuinely sweet & caring. Plus that same summer I was introduced to Patty's macaroni & cheese and her banana pudding; so, I had to keep Bryan around so I could keep those snacks around! But then we lost touch because sometimes that's what happens after college. However, fast forward to my last year in PhD school during a random night of SnapChat rambling while I was getting food to fuel my dissertation writing... Me: Does anyone want to come watch horror movies with me? Bryan: *shoots his shot* And the rest is history! The movie we watched was actually a terrible movie and not scary at all. But, we spent the next few months texting and talking all day about everything and nothing. Between distracting me from my fear of flying, comforting me when my apartment caught fire while I was out of town, and destressing me when my car gave me one of many problems. I knew pretty quickly that this one was a keeper. He is the calm to my chaos, everything I didn't even know I needed. Finishing school, moving to Rhode Island, and navigating life amid the pandemic....I couldn't have done it without the love and support of my favorite person to person with. Cheers to forever!

So we were in Brooklyn helping my mom move. We decided to spend some time out in the city since Bryan had never been to NY. As I'm getting dressed, Bryan is supposed to be fixing a tv for my grandmother. I walk out of the room ready to embrace the evening and Bryan hands me a package. The package is a t-shirt that says 'Engaged AF' and then this happens: Me: Wait...who's engaged? Bryan: You if you say yes. Me: *lowering the shirt* 😯 Bryan: *on one knee* Toniqua Mikell will you marry me? Me: YES! 🤭 Bryan: *fumbling with which finger to put the ring on* Me being confused, Bryan almost forgetting to actually ask me. My mom recording only part of the proposal. Finding out later that Bailey attacked the mailman the day the ring was delivered to the house. LOL! I really couldn't ask for a better representation of our relationship as we take the first steps toward forever. 💍🖤