One thing I have always stood by is never mixing business with pleasure. Well that held true until the fall of '96.

I was an employee at Dollar Bills store, on this day I was all dressed up because I had another job interview.

As I was about to go count down my drawer, I ran into this unfamiliar face. Little did I know this unfamiliar face was my new assistant manager.

Staring into his eyes I knew there was something about him that I liked, but I hid my feelings and apologized for the run in.

As the week progressed, I noticed that every time I looked away he was looking at me and vice versa.

Then one day we were really short of help and I was forced to stay later than I was supposed to. With the lines filing all the way to the back of the store, I could still feel his stare.

When I was suddenly out of change and he had to come to my register, I felt an attraction like a paper clip to a magnet. Yet I still tried to hide my feelings.

As the weeks progressed to months, he finally gave me a call at home. How did he get my number? He said that he was tired of waiting on me to make a move so he got my number from the employee list.

I thought to myself, "what a plus, I like an aggressive man". We talked for a month and I told him my belief on business and pleasure.

The next day he sent me a bouquet of flowers and in the note it said he had put in his two week notice for his resignation. I thought this guy is crazy, leaving a job for a girl like me.

Then as I thought more, it flattered me in a way that no one ever had. So with that in mind, I knew that this man definitely deserved a chance.

I decided that it was better to start off as friends and then become lovers, something I learned from a past experience. As time went by, I felt we were at a point where a relationship could be built.

On May 30, 1998, he proposed to me at a family gathering and it was the most joyous day of my life. At the time I was away at college and I thought of all the possibilities and prayed that everything would work out.

Well here it is now, a year has rolled by on our engagement and we will be married on August 21 of this year. I can not begin to explain the joy that has entered in my life.

Though I am young, I know that this is the man that I have been dreaming of. Sometimes love can hurt you so bad that you don't care to open up your heart for love again. This man is my inspiration, my hope, and my future.

Some people pick up a man in the grocery store, the church, the club, or a fancy restaurant. But my manger turned into my friend then to my lover and in 2 months, he will be my husband.