Within two weeks, love.
Three years later, he gets down on one knee.
She says yes…
Preface: Sophomore year, I lived in a house with seven other girls called the ‘Lady Plantation’. Our brother house, you could say, was called the ‘Mountain Dewds’ and was a couple of neighboring houses full of guys – 21 of them. Joey lived there.
For Thanksgiving, our houses got together at the Dewds’ yellow house – the one Joey lived in. I was sitting on a couch at the Dewds’ with one of the other LP roommates, Ashton. Joey walked in the room with his friend Bryce and was being loud, dropping phrases like “many leather-bound books” and “an old wooden ship” just trying to be “pretentious” and as loud as possible. I thought they seemed hilarious, and quickly noticed that Joey was pretty cute, but I minded my own business. Ashton, who knew the dewds a little better than I did, quietly told me “You definitely want to know Joey Williams and Bryce Benton – they are hilarious! They just seem so funny. You want to be their friend.” I was skeptical and said, “Oh really…? Hmmmm” – not wanting to be told who I needed or wanted to know at all.
“I’m serious!” she said.
“I’m serious!” she said.
. Fast-forward to February 8, 2008. It was Friday night and one of my friends had canceled plans on me. I had nothing to do and was somewhat moping around the house. Ashton was going over to the Dewds’ and invited me to come with. I was not in a very social mood, and initially declined, but eventually caved. We got there and pretty much sat in a La-Z-Boy recliner, watching a few of them play Call of Duty. I was SO bored and wanted to leave. I was telling Ashton we should leave when in walked Joey Williams.
We sat next to each other on the couch and played MarioKart N64 until 2 am, play-fighting and -arguing about who was better – Toad or Yoshi – the whole time. (Everyone knows Yoshi is better.) Ashton was ready to go home and asked if I would be okay walking home alone – our house was only a block away from theirs. Another girl began to offer to walk home with me but I gave her the eye to stop talking, because I wanted Joey to. Seeing the opportunity, he offered to walk me home. I was thrilled.
We hung out the next day … and the next … and on Sunday, February 10, our third day of hanging out, we watched an episode of The Office. By the end, we were holding hands. Joey asked, “Can I date you please?”And that’s how it all began.
