Over four years ago, I found myself wandering a comic-con convention in Orlando with an actor friend of mine. People were dressed to the 9's.... in fan fiction and cosplay. Me you ask? I was being my rebellious self, wearing a pair of skinny jeans and buttoned up collared shirt. #rebel. On the way to the specific room where my buddy was on a panel, I ran into another friend who said that she has someone she wants me to meet... and there Tori was... She was wearing an incredible gown (is that how you spell gown? anywho) She topped off her ensemble with her Miss Florida sash and crown. I was stunned. I all of a sudden had this vision that I was Mario and she was Peach, but I digress. As I was introduced to her, I vividly remember asking her "am I supposed to know you?" and that, ladies and gents, is where it all started.

A few years after being stuck in the friend zone, I started to make my way out. Tori and I found ourselves on one of those "it's not a date" dates. We made our way through the nice four story Restoration Hardware at Tampa International mall pretending to furniture shop for our new home we purchased together on Bayshore blvd. As we went room to room, couch to couch, we end up on the rooftop where you can see the Tampa Trinity. The Tampa city skyline, the cotton candy sunset and airplanes landing at the Tampa International airport. I remember gazing out only to catch Tori's eyes on me, I internally realized that this was romantic as heck. She will kill me for saying this, but she doesn't know I'm filling this out, so here goes marriage argument #14. She wanted to kiss me so bad, she couldn't see straight. I just knew it. It's my men's intuition. I, however, had a rule that I wouldn't kiss a girl that I was not officially dating. 8 months and a million kisses later, Tori had made it a habit to remind me of how I had dropped the ball that day when I didn't kiss her. Well Tori, you're teasing paid off, because every time I was reminded that I had dropped the ball, I laughed a bit on the inside knowing that's where I would later propose to you. On August 17th, after a few crazy stories I won't bore you with, we found ourselves walking back to that same spot at Restoration Hardware. On our way to catch the sunset from the rooftop Tori looked at me and asked "are you going to redeem the spot this time?" I laughed... she had no idea that I had a house down payment basically taped to my leg in the form of a ring. We pause in the spot where I had dropped the ball previously, we kissed, I told Tori that before I would not kiss her because we weren't officially dating, and that while we want to start a life together, I won't until we are officially married. I got down on one knee and here we are!