Michele & Daniel

Our story begins in the fall of 1989 (third grade) when Daniel moved to Yorktown and joined Michele’s class. The teacher had everyone make welcome cards for the new student (Danny 🤢), and Michele’s card welcomed Daniel to the class and let him know he would be sitting in her group. We were friends first, and by the time we got to 8th grade we started dating and had our first dance together. Daniel became Michele’s first boyfriend and first kiss.

When we got to high school, Daniel’s cousin Vanessa transferred to our school. Daniel told Michele that his cousin was moving to Yorktown and that they had to be friends. As it turns out, Vanessa became one of Michele’s best friends and ended up playing a much bigger role in this story than any of us realized at the time.

Like a lot of high school relationships, ours eventually came to an end, but we stayed friends. We were still part of the same friend group, still saw each other all the time, and eventually graduated and went off in different directions. We saw each other a few times after high school, and the last time was when Michele was living in Florida and Daniel happened to be there for work. We met up for dinner, caught up, said goodbye, and then went our separate ways. Neither of us knew it at the time, but that would be the last time we would see each other for almost twenty years.

Looking back now, the summer of 2025 feels like the point where fate quietly stepped in.

At the time, none of it seemed connected.

Michele’s friend Jess got married. The day after the wedding, Jess realized she had forgotten to throw the bouquet. So, standing in her driveway with only Michele there, she threw it anyway. Michele caught it and happily celebrated being next to get married, mostly because it was funny. Neither of us had any idea how funny that would turn out to be.

Around that same time, Vanessa’s son Diego was getting married. A couple of weeks before the wedding, Vanessa called Michele to let her know that Daniel would be there. Then she made a cheeky comment about rekindling an old flame. Michele’s exact response was, “Ew, Vanessa, no. I’m not getting back together with my high school boyfriend.” The two of them laughed about it, and over the next couple of weeks Vanessa continued to make little comments while Michele continued to respond with some version of, “Absolutely not.”

The Wednesday before Diego’s wedding, Daniel had gone to a concert and partook in some mind-altering activities. During what he refers to as his “vision quest,” he found himself back in 8th grade, dancing with Michele at the school dance. The funny part is that he hadn’t thought about that dance, or Michele, in years. Then all of a sudden there she was. In the moment, he just thought it was a weird memory to pop up after all that time.

When the wedding finally rolled around, Michele knew Daniel would be there. Daniel, however, had absolutely no idea Michele would be there.

We hadn’t seen each other in almost twenty years.

Everyone was finding their seats when Daniel sat down behind Michele. Michele turned around, smiled, and said, “Hi Daniel.” The look on his face told the whole story. He was shocked to see her. Daniel had no idea that Michele and Vanessa remained friends. There were many times when Daniel went to a family function and Michele was nowhere to be seen; however, as he later found out, she went to family functions all the time but their path’s never crossed.

After that, we spent most of the night talking, laughing, catching up, dancing, and hearing updates on everything that had happened over the previous twenty years. It probably didn’t hurt that Vanessa and PJ (Vanessa’s husband) seemed determined to make sure we stayed in the same orbit all night long. Every time we turned around, somehow we ended up right back in the same conversation. By the end of the evening, Michele had put her phone number into Daniel’s phone under “Michele, The Best Ex-Girlfriend Ever.”

A couple of weeks later, Vanessa invited Michele to a family barbecue and made sure to mention that Daniel would be there. Michele laughed, told Vanessa to stop it, and reminded her that she was absolutely not getting back together with her high school boyfriend. Once again, Daniel had no idea Michele was going to be there. (Thanks Vanessa)

After seeing her at the wedding and then seeing her again at the barbecue a couple of weeks later, he started to feel like maybe all of these little coincidences were trying to tell him something. Not long after that, he texted Michele and asked her to dinner.

Whatever it was, we ended up staying until the restaurant closed talking, and when it was over, FOUR hours later, we both knew we’d had a really great time.

The second time we went out, Michele made it very clear that she was only interested in friendship. Daniel agreed and said he wasn’t looking to date anyone either. He just enjoyed spending time with her and wanted someone to hang out with.

One of them was lying.

As Daniel will tell you, he knew after their first date — or not-a-date, depending on which one of us you’re asking — that he was going to marry her.

For the next several months, we talked constantly. We texted every day, went out to dinner, took a painting class, and got to know each other all over again. Michele was still insisting they were JUST friends.

Then came the playlist. And it changed everything.

We were supposed to go to a 90’s concert featuring Keith Sweat, Ginuwine, and Dru Hill. About a week before the concert, it was canceled and our plans changed to dinner and a 90’s movie night at Daniel’s house instead. Since Daniel was making dinner, Michele wanted to do something for him too, so she decided to make him a playlist.

What started as a thoughtful little gift quickly became something else. It wasn’t just a playlist. It was the kind of playlist you spend way too much time thinking about. The kind of playlist where you order a mixtape sticker and carefully write every song on the back. The kind of playlist that causes a minor panic attack because halfway through making it, you start realizing that this might not be friendship anymore. By the time Michele went to Daniel’s house that night, she had already spent days questioning herself. She knew she couldn’t keep pretending nothing was happening, so at one point during the evening she told Daniel that it felt like there was something they were both avoiding talking about. Daniel looked her straight in the eyes and said, “Only one of us is avoiding talking about it, Michele.”

What followed was a conversation neither of us had been planning on having. We talked about how much we enjoyed spending time together and how neither of us wanted that to stop. Daniel said that if friendship was all Michele could give him, then he would take it because having her in his life as a friend was better than not having her in his life at all. Michele admitted that she didn’t know exactly what she wanted, but she knew she didn’t want to just be friends anymore.

By the end of the night, we hadn’t figured everything out, but we had agreed on one thing: we were both willing to see where things might go beyond friendship. Right before Michele left, she handed Daniel the mixtape sticker, sent him the playlist, and gave him a quick kiss goodbye.

A few days later, Michele went back to Daniel’s house for what was supposed to be a quick lunch visit. Instead, the two of them spent NINE hours sitting on the couch talking about everything — their lives, their families, their past relationships, the things that had hurt them, the things that scared them, and what they wanted moving forward.

Somewhere during that conversation, Michele explained that she approaches relationships the same way she approaches a swimming pool. She dips a toe in first. She takes her time. She gets comfortable before she gets in. Daniel, on the other hand, cannonballs straight into the deep end. Michele told him it was fine that he cannonballed in — but he was going to have to swim back and get her.

It was also during that conversation that Daniel admitted that he had known after their first date — or not-a-date, depending on which one of us you’re asking — that he was going to marry her.

By the end of that afternoon, we officially started dating. Unless you ask Daniel. According to him, that happened five months earlier on our “first date.”

That same day, Michele met Ava and Jackson. The two of them were excited to see their dad happy, and thankfully they seemed to like Michele too.

From that point on, things moved pretty quickly. Of course, if you’ve been paying attention, none of this will come as much of a surprise.

Remember the cannonball.

While Michele was still getting comfortable with the idea that she was dating her high school boyfriend again, Daniel was already looking much further ahead. At some point, the conversation turned to proposals and what Michele would want someday. She only had two requests: her hair had to look nice, and there was to be absolutely no public proposal. Michele figured this information would come in handy a year or so down the road.

Daniel apparently had other plans.

A few weeks later, with Ava and Jackson helping him every step of the way, he started planning a proposal.

Then came our family trip to Universal Studios. On our first day, we were walking into Islands of Adventure when we stopped in front of a sign that said, “The Adventure Begins.” We paused to take a few pictures, and after we took one together, Daniel smiled and said, “You know what’s about to happen now.”

Michele definitely did not know what was about to happen. Daniel had told her he would never propose on a vacation, and she was standing in the middle of a theme park, which seemed like a pretty safe place to be if you were trying to avoid a public proposal. A few seconds later, Daniel was down on one knee.

Michele looked up, rolled her eyes, smiled, and said, “I can’t believe you’re doing this right now.”

Then Daniel asked her to marry him.

And, of course, she said yes.