Flashback

It was Sunday, August 2, 2009, at about 11:30am. I was sitting at Orange Grove Missionary Baptist Church between my older sister, Attorney CMW, and my then-boyfriend, C. The reverend asked all the single ladies to stand. Whenever the pastor said single he meant unmarried, so I popped up out of my seat in obedience. That's when I got the death stare from my boyfriend. My sister laughed out loud. I think I blushed.

After church C told me I jumped up too fast when the pastor asked the single ladies to stand up. My sister laughed again. I said it wasn't that big of a deal and laughed with my sister, but on the inside I thought C's reaction was kind of sweet.

After church, C and I made the hour-long drive back to my apartment. At the time I was living in Greensboro with no friends or family around and I didn't mind driving an hour to go to church or to see my sister in Durham. When we got back to Greensboro we ate at Olive Garden, which is our favorite restaurant. Somehow I convinced C to go to the mall after we ate. I don't remember how I pulled it off, but once we got to the mall I convinced C to look at engagement rings.

I always knew C was "The One" and I knew I would be his wife and the mother of his child/ren. Something just clicked the first time we met. I wouldn't exactly say it was love at first sight, more like an epiphany. From the first time I saw him I knew my life would change, but I digress.

As I tried on rings, C was trying to get an idea of what I liked. I'm not big on jewelry at all. My engagement ring was the first ring I had worn since my childhood birthstone one. I always thought I wanted a simple round solitaire, but once I started looking I realized that I'm more of a princess cut, three-stone ring type chick.

I don't think the salespeople were taking us seriously because C and I don't look our ages. We resemble teenagers more than people in their mid and late 20's. When we walked into Helzberg Diamonds the saleslady treated us with so much respect. It was so refreshing. I had been trying on rings for probably an hour, but I finally saw my baby in the case at Helzberg. It was a white gold "past, present, future" ring with diamonds along the band. There were 11 princess cut diamonds total. It was gorgeous! When I tried it on it fit perfectly like it was made fore me. I was in a trance. I just kept saying how pretty it was. I wasn't even cognizant of anything that was going on around me. I was in love again.

The saleslady wrote down the item number for the ring and my size for C. I finally took off the ring, and C and I left the mall. I couldn't get the ring off my mind and I couldn't stop talking about it. As we drove to my apartment, C made an illegal u-turn. I had no idea what he was doing. He looked at me and said he was going to get my ring.

So yeah, he got my ring. He asked me to be his wife. I said "yes." C called my dad to get permission to ask my hand in marriage. Yeah, he did it backwards, but we both knew he didn't need permission to marry me. He did it out of respect for my parents. Plus, C wanted to propose in a more official way on my birthday in September. He had planned a trip to Vegas to celebrate my birthday and what would be better than proposing in Vegas?

So I said "yes" twice. Secretly I was just happy I got my ring back because I had to give my baby up on the way to Vegas.

Between the initial proposal and the official proposal I started grad school, and decided to move to Durham to be closer to my fiance and my sister. Little did I know that my sister was planning to move away from Durham the exact same day I was moving to Durham. So from then on it was my hubby-to-be and me holding things down in the RTP.