We met at a charity auction in February of 2024. Within three months, I had stopped seeing anyone else. Within a year, he was telling me he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me.
He proposed in June of 2025 on a small wooden bridge in a state park north of the city. I said yes with tears running down my face because I genuinely believed I had found my person. I want you to understand something before I tell you the rest.
I was not desperate. I was not lonely. I had built a life I was proud of by myself.
I was not looking for someone to rescue me or complete me. I was looking for a partner. Lawrence felt like a partner for sixteen months.
He listened when I talked about my projects. He asked about my mother, who had passed away in 2019, and he remembered the anniversary of her death without me reminding him. He cooked me pasta on Sundays in his apartment in Midtown, and we made plans for trips to Portugal and Japan, and I believed every word he said.
