Moneika and Don met at work in late 2015. Moneika, fresh out of college, landed a job in the Marketing Department. Don, fresh out of unemployment, accepted a position developing the mobile app.

There wasn’t much interaction between the two until 2017, when the company moved both of their departments to the same side of the building. Moneika was placed in a cubicle one row away from the bathroom and Don was placed a few rows over. Shortly after, she noticed Don frequently passing her cubicle multiple times a day to use the restroom. She genuinely couldn’t tell if he was checking her out or struggling from a bladder complication. But she never asked him about it. A couple weeks passed. Nothing happened.

Then, one night, Moneika and Don were both invited to a work happy hour at a local Spanish tapas bar called Ceviche, in downtown St. Petersburg. The two found themselves talking, laughing and sharing multiple plates of delicious raw fish together.

After that night, the two quickly became really good friends. They continued to hangout for about a month, until Moneika suspected that Don started to become romantically interested in her. (He gave her a really weird long goodbye hug before his trip to Ireland.) When he arrived home, the two planned to hang out, so they met at a beach close to work where they had their first kiss. Ate a generous amount of cheese and split a bottle of mead. It was spectacular.

That special night led to a series of wonderful dates and trips to places such as San Diego, Chicago, Richmond, San Francisco and finally Napa Valley where Don proposed to Moneika at the Castello di Amorosa on December 9, 2018.