Conor and I met around 9 or 10 years ago through my brother Michael, who has been one of Conor's good friends since high school. Due to the nature of their friendship, I feel as if Conor has alway naturally been around and in the picture, so I don't actually remember exactly how we met. According to Conor, though, the first time he saw me was at a party where he asked Michael, "who is that hottie?" When Michael responded, "dude! That's my sister!" Conor altered his strategy from courtship to friendship and started inviting me to themed dinners at his house where our wild chemistry led us to flirt shamelessly while making pizzas and deep fried s'mores. We both thought it would be weird to date given Conor's friendship with my brother, so we decided to become good friends.

We had lost touch for a few years until one evening, we reconnected at one of Michael's parties. From there I suggested that we get dinner sometime. Neither of us realized that we would be using that dinner as a "practice date". We both felt safe doing this with each other. So the evening comes for this dinner, and Conor picked me up and took me to Casa Del Barco where we laughed, ate great food, and took tequila flights. At the end of the evening, Conor took me back to my house where he kissed me goodnight. It was at that moment that I realized that what I thought was a "practice date" was a real date, and we began dating each other. After a few months, we both realized that the timing was wrong for us to be together, and we went out separate ways. Conor moved to Vermont, and I stayed in Richmond while we continued our own personal journeys towards growing as individuals.

Conor randomly sent me an email one day saying that he was in town for the birth of his niece and asked if he could meet up with me for lunch and drinks. I agreed to meet him at Toast, and we had such a great time catching up that I went with him to the hospital to meet his niece. After that, we continued to talk on the phone and hangout whenever he'd come to town. Conor finally moved back to Richmond that November, and we ended up spending Thanksgiving with each other and our families. By the end of that weekend, we were officially back together!

Conor came home from work one evening and asked if I wanted to go out to dinner. Naturally I said yes and ran upstairs to get ready. When I came back downstairs, Conor was standing by the kitchen counter looking really nervous. I had a feeling about why he was so nervous, but I decided to play it cool and nonchalontly starting tying my shoes. That was when he started his speech. So much of what happened next was a blur, but I remember him apologizing because he wasn't "doing this" the way that he had planned and kept on telling me how he was so nervous. I also remember trying to act cool while in actuality I was freaking out inside my head and trying to figure out what I should be doing and/or saying. Finally, he got down on one knee, asked me to marry him, and I said yes! It's also worth noting that Franklin, my Shih-tzu, was sitting next to me whining the entire time because he was hungry, and at one point I contemplated pausing Conor so that I could feed the dogs. It was the absolute perfect proposal because it perfectly embodied who we are as a couple. Hanging out in the kitchen having a nice moment only to have it interrupted by our dogs whining for some sort of attention.