When I think back to how we met, it was love at first sight (at least it was for me anyway). It started in May of 2021. I went to work as usual, and my boss volunteered me for a working party (for those who aren't Navy, a working party is where at least 100 sailors line up and pass cargo/food/ supplies to their storerooms); I absolutely HATE working parties, how do they expect ME to pass 50 lb boxes for 4 hours. I am just a girl! Lol. At about the 3-and-a-half-hour mark, I am stuck on the stairs, having to run up and down to pass these what seem to be at least 100lb boxes now (they were like 30 lbs, but after 4 hours, C'MON!) I am sweating, weak, dying of thirst, and my hair is an absolute mess, but then I see this 6'3, tan, and MUSCULAR man with the most beautiful smile in the world walks in (Oh, and did I mention tall and MUSCULAR ;). I can promise you my whole demeanor changed; I took off my nerdy glasses, slicked back my fly away hairs, wiped my sweat, and suddenly gained all this strength to keep passing these heavy boxes. He came to my rescue because I could only keep up the strong act for about another 2.3 seconds without falling down the stairs and dropping these boxes. Thankfully, he swapped spots with me, so now I'm passing the boxes to him. I vividly remember passing him a box of lettuce. I stared into his eyes, and that's when I knew I WAS OBSESSED. But secretly, because I'M JUST A GIRL, HEHE. As the days went on, I saw this man EVERYWHERE, but I always took off my glasses when walking around because, well, I looked cuter without them, so because of that, I could never see his name tag. I was too afraid to ask him because he basically forgot who I was, smh. It is now June of 2021. I go down to medical(our version of a hospital on a ship) to fill out some paperwork that I was supposed to fill out a month before, and lord and behold, MY CRUSH IS DOWN THERE TOO. Here I am, sitting next to the most handsome man I have ever laid my eyes on. I'm trying to give myself a pep talk inside my brain, "C'mon, you can do it; say something!" A million things are popping in my head, and the only thing that comes out of my mouth is, "So what are you here for?" Really, Serena, we're in medical; that's private business. Thankfully, he was only doing the same thing I was, except he was a month early, lol. Not much came of the conversation, and it was time for him to leave, but at least he knows who I am now. Best of all, I WAS FINALLY CLOSE ENOUGH TO SEE HIS NAME TAG!! As soon as I got home later that day, I started doing some internet digging. I looked up Hoskins on Instagram and found and clicked on his profile. My. Heart. Drops. HE HAS A GIRLFRIEND!!! I instantly called my mom, "THE MOST BEAUTIFUL MAN HAS A FREAKING GIRLFRIEND, WHYYYYY MEEEEE?!". Here goes my mom, " Serena, there's plenty of fish in the sea; you didn't even know the guy, anyways." Fast forward two months, I had been on a few dates here and there, but one night I had this GREAT idea of looking Devin up on Instagram again, you know just to see how he's doing, nothing crazy. I clicked on his profile, and... MY. HEART. DROPS. I called my mom instantly, "MOM!!! HE'S SINGLE!!!". The next day, I'm eating lunch with his best friend. Mind you, I had no idea they were best friends at the time, and I am just rambling about Devin. Lawrence, his bestie, and our friend Castro at that point are DETERMINED to help me. Only to find out that Lawrence had told Devin not to fall in love and that I wasn't looking to date anyone because I had been saying that for the past 3 months after going on a few dates. UM, HELLO, I DIDN'T WANT TO DATE ANYONE. BUT DEVIN, YEAH, I'LL DATE HIM. HE IS THE ONE, DUHHH. Either or myself, Lawrence, and Castro are working our magic. Lawrence is texting me, saying, "Hey, tomorrow if I see you, I am going to call you over so I can introduce you guys." I say, "Okay!" The next day, I am walking, and I hear a voice "QUAVO! (that's my nickname at work)." And guess what happens. My. Heart. Drops. I am SCARED. I know that voice, it's Lawrence. I am looking around to see where the voice is coming from, BUT I'm not wearing my glasses, I can't see! So I keep walking, lol. It's been about a week of our friends talking his ear off about me. It's 0830 in the morning. I'm sweeping the hallway, and my coworker is picking up the piles; I then see the love of my life walking by. I FREEZE. ALL WORDS SUDDENLY DISAPPEAR FROM MY BRAIN. ALL SOCIAL SKILLS GONE. He says, "Hi!" I'm basically foaming at the mouth, lost in the sauce. I finally say, "What's up?" you know, try to keep it cool ;) We make quick conversation and swap Instagrams, and he tells me to text him. My whole life, my mom has told me, "Never chase a man; let him come to you." NOPE DON'T CARE. I'm texting him. ALL FOR WHAT. NO FREAKING RESPONSE!!!! I texted his bestie, "I literally texted him, and he didn't respond. I'm not doing this." The next morning, I got a response, and turns out yes, yes I am doing this :)

I can’t lie. She found me before I found her. I had no clue that my future was so close that I was literally touching it while I was in this working party ( if you read her story, then you know what a working party is, lol). All I had to do was let go of everything and talk to this girl, buttttt I had a girlfriend, hahahaha, and mama ain’t raise no cheater, so I ignored this girl and paid no mind to her at all and completely forgot about the entire encounter! Fast forward to a few months later, and I was sitting at our ship medical, and this nerdy girl walked in and asked me what I thought about the weather hahahaha like whatt who was this girl? She was super shy, her legs crossed and her glasses on, but staring straight down, little did I know this is the most sassiest, hard-headed, bossy monarch this world has yet to see. (At this point, I don’t have a girlfriend, but I haven’t deleted pictures from my social media yet 🤦🏽‍♂️) She was beautiful, and at that moment where she was, as shy as she was, it was adorable, but if anybody knows me, they know I can’t “get a hint” about anything! Sooo, I ended up just leaving thinking, well that was a weird interaction, hahahaha. Fast forward again, and it’s the beginning of August. My friend Lawrence, who was, low and behold, a mutual friend of Serena’s, had started trying to get me back into the dating life, and I wasn’t going for it at all. I wanted nothing to do with it. Point. Blank. Period! Butttt, he showed me this girl. He said she was absolutely stunning, but she’s not a girl to stay with. She’s a free runner, and nothing can hold her back, so don’t expect you (I) would be able to lock her down. He knew exactly what he was doing with that statement because now I was determined. She would be mine, and I knew that for sure, but the only question was how? Another day comes around. I’m trying to wait around at these spots at work to see if she shows up like I was told she would since it’s her usual route, but she wouldn’t!!! I could never find this girl, and as much as I told my best friend to tell her all these things, come see me, or say hi, she wouldn’t. At that point, I thought I was getting the run-around. That this is high school all over again. So, the next day, I was showing this new kid around in my division. I had to take him to the office where our chain of command was so they could meet him, but the stairs to get there were blocked off, so I had to go around. So, I found some other stairs like 30 feet down the hangar bay, then I went up three levels and back those thirty feet to be able to go down one level to get to the office, butttt low and behold this woman, OS2 Cuellar, was cleaning right in the p-way (hallway). I saw her get really nervous for a second, but then it hit me… IM HIM! Soo, I was like, "Heyy, what’s going on.. ‘nothing, just cleaning’… You should definitely follow me on Instagram so we can chop it up.. ‘uhh, I already did like two months ago, and you didn’t follow me back’.. (shit, how the hell was I supposed to know that! Little bit of panic, but I bring it back in before she could notice) ohhh, my bad send me a message today, so I can know what your Instagram page is( good saveeeeee)… ‘ok I’ll send you a message later’... Sounds good, I’ll see you around WHITCHO-CUTE-ASS……and then I walk away……. WHO THE HELL SAYS THAT? WELL, I GUESS ME, THAT'S FOR SURE!! Fast forward past the embarrassment of what I did, and it’s the next day I got woken up in my rack since I had duty the day prior by Lawrence, and it turns out I’m just plain stupid because I didn’t even respond to her!!!!!! I told her to text me, but I didn’t even respond! I SUCKKK!!!!! I managed to save it, thank god, and got her to come out and hang out with me after nagging for about two days, haha. She finally came out, and I enjoyed every second of it.

The rest is history…