When I first met Marcus, he was racing down the hall of Blodgett Food Hall. We both opened our restaurants there and were two doors from one another. He was moving so fast that I don't think he noticed me. When he passed by again, I said hello, and he said hello back to me and flew on by me. I just recognized him as another business owner in the building. I saw Marcus on other days when we spoke and talked briefly about our businesses. Marcus was a cigarette smoker, so the majority of the days I saw him was when Nana and I were leaving the building for the night. He was always there late. He would speak to me while smoking. I have asthma, so that wasn't going to work. I spoke to him from a far. I told Nana one day that man was going to kill me with smoking in my face.

ONE DAY, he knocked on the door of my kitchen to come visit. During this and other conversations, he showed me that he's a hard worker, intelligent, and very confident. He even gave me some advice I took and tried to tell me other ways to manage my business. I took some advice, but one day, I had to tell him, this is the way I do it as a chef. He respected my wishes but always kept trying! One conversation, he asked if I wanted to go hang out because it was a crazy week. Nana said mom you should get out. I hadn't done anything besides working for a while. I told him that I would let him know. I eventually agreed to go hang out. After discussing the location where we meet, we ended up at one of our favorite places now, in the Woodland's, Town Green Park. This was the first time that I noticed how handsome he was, and it made me smile. I had forgotten about him being a smoker. We had a nice dinner that I provided with wine that he provided and sat and talked. Marcus had a situation that I was not in agreement with to continue on with conversating with him. My mind went back to where I originally was, which is he's another business owner at the same location. Although we continued to be cordial, in my eyes. Marcus had other plans!

He would continue to visit my kitchen, make gestures, and want to spend time with me. I continued to echo my previous statement that I do not agree with his situation, and to let me know when he is "fully available". He asked me to not get to know anyone else while he work through his situation. I told him that I cannot promise that to him. I am a single woman. Then, things changed, I started to like spending time with him in his kitchen and looking at him differently. The smoking was still a problem, and he knew that.

One day, Marcus called and said to me that he's going to the smoke shop, I said, "good for you". He then, called me and said, I got a vape and its green apple flavored. I smiled, because that was my favorite! He didn't know that, but said, "I asked the clerk, which flavor will allow me to get a kiss." I laughed and smiled hard. I never experienced a man making these gestures to change for me. It was very refreshing, but another problem, still existed. Then one day, Marcus called and said, I am looking for an apartment. I said, great for you. He said that he had addressed his situation and looking to move out soon. I smiled again, because he's made another great gesture, but still continued to echo, "let me know when you're fully available". He became fully available on November 24, 2020, which is when we officially became a couple!!

When I first Dolores, our friendship started before our actual relationship. We were in two different times in our lives and business ventures, only to find out that we ended up in the same place, nearly simultaneously. How can I forget the Blodgett Food Hall? To this day, I give credit to that place, because It's when I first noticed her kitchen and then her. It was about two doors down from my kitchen, but I never saw her as of yet. I recall saying to myself, "I wonder what kind of chef this woman is?" I saw jerk chicken on the menu and of course, my competitive nature was to make sure I had better food. One day, I finally saw her walking out of her kitchen, and it was surprising because we worked different days and different hours. There she was, however, the only female chef I could recall in the facility. I had to seize the moment to connect with her!

I spoke to her and naturally, she spoke back. It was different with her compared to anyone I had met in the past though. It couldn't have been her smile at first, because we were wearing masks during COVID, so I believe it was her sexy persona she carried with confidence. As a man, I learned to be truthful about how I feel about a woman, so I'm sticking to what I saw that drew my attention further. I needed to learn more about her so, I'd make it my business to stop by to say hello. But that would soon get old, it was time for me to express some type of interest in her as opposed to her being a Professional Chef like me. We in fact had a lot in common such as education and business, but we didn't know we would have more in common personally.

I found myself going to her kitchen during my downtime to strike up some conversation, but it always led to cooking, menus, tasting, and troubleshooting delivery apps. Obviously, she was just as busy as I was. So, it became harder to talk about other things, also given the fact that her daughter was always around. The one thing I didn't want to do was appear like other men she may have encountered with the same lame lines to capture her interest. I did the opposite instead, by being as kind and attentive as possible. The key here was to be consistent though. Quiet as kept, she was having a little trouble paying for some app services, so I offered to pay for the services. I let her know that I understood what it felt like to need something for business, but I also hoped that she could depict my genuine interest in her.

On another day, I was in my kitchen, and Dolores paid me a visit and said she was just checking on me. That might have been the case, but I knew deep down that she liked me as a person. A part of me was really excited about her presence since it was her visiting me this time. Before she left my kitchen, I asked her for her phone number and told her it would be nice to get to know her. She kindly gave me her number. I waited about two days and decided to text her. Days later, I asked her out. She tried to make me think it was just a friendly chef-to-chef outing. Yet, she brought dinner she personally cooked and I bought wine. So basically, we ended up having a very romantic unofficial date toasting to our futures as business owners.

What I loved about Dolores was her smile, laughter, imagination, dedication, work ethic, and our commonality as Geminis. We learned a lot about each other that night, enough to make an informed decision if we wanted to pursue our friendship into a relationship. It was a peculiar time because I was searching for an apartment as we were getting to know each other and when I learned where she lived from an invitation to visit her home, I knew that I should get my apartment close to her. People call that stalking but I called that ambition, convenience, and confidence that leaned on us potentially wanting to spend more time together.

Since we decided to enter into a relationship, I've wanted to give her my heart and show her what happiness can feel like even in our darkest moments. We never looked back, and our happiness together is something remarkable to cherish. I love my Dolores!