(His Version)
I can remember it like it was yesterday ... I was sitting at my desk trying to solicit volunteers to help me escort and conduct a tour at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, for a youth group visiting from New Orleans, LA (The Fellowship Foundation, of which I am a former member of). Suddenly I received an email from an unknown young lady named Shaemekia L. White. When I saw the email hit my inbox, I almost deleted it since it was from some random female that I knew nothing about. I initially thought that she was probably trying to ask me out on a date or something ... but I quickly realized that we had never met, so maybe she was inquiring about volunteering as an escort. So I decided to open the email and lo and behold, she was interested in helping out with the activity. So after exchanging a few emails that day, she agreed to come out the next day, along with a friend to help out.
It was a rainy Friday morning, February 25, 2005, to be exact, in Fort Worth. A cold day even by some standards. My former youth group was in route to my job for the tour. The tour was designed to enlighten the youths on the various aspects of our business and to provide encouragement about the importance of staying in school and taking advantage of the opportunities that lie ahead. Anyhow, upon my arrival, I noticed these two females walking down the hall to the designated meeting spot for all volunteers. One of the females I spotted was unusually tall and slender, which did catch my eye. Since it was my event, I made it a point to introduce myself and say a word of thanks to each person. But after I introduced myself, for some reason I kept saying to myself, 'something ain't quite all the way right with this girl.' Nevertheless, the tour went as scheduled, but more and more I kept eyeing this girl saying that 'this girl may not be wrapped tight at all!' Probably because she kept goin' off on the kids in her group.
About a month or so later, she emailed me to return the favor, and asked if I would help out with escorting another youth group from the local area. So without hesitation, I figured I couldn't turn her down since she had helped me out previously. As the day went along, we had some good conversation between us ... although she would probably say that I didn't say anything. But by the end of the day, I had taken a liking to her ... but I was more interested in just hanging out with her than anything else.
As the days, weeks, and months went by, we started to hang out more. Mainly it was going out to Poetry night and other functions with the softball team that we were both playing on at the time. Then one day she invited me over to her house to watch movies and soon this became a regular occurrence. Shortly thereafter, I decided that I should invite her to my house and I'd cook Sunday dinner. The meal turned out pretty good, but when she left that night, I began to wonder if she wanted to be more than just friends. Once I asked myself that question, that's the moment I decided that this girl would be my future wife! So with that, came the full court press.
Soon thereafter, I asked her out officially on a date, and then she got sick. And that's when Dr. D. Anthony Jamison had to come to the rescue. When she got sick, I made it a point to be there to serve her soup, wash the dishes and all the other stuff necessary to nurse her back to health.
As the months passed, I don't think that either one of us wanted to admit that we were "dating", though we had been out on more than a few dates by this time. Then Thanksgiving rolled around and since she wasn't able to make the trip to Burnt Corn, I invited her to spend the holiday with my family. Soon after this we both asked each other, since Christmas was drawing near, what each other wanted as a Christmas present. I can't quite remember what she asked me for, but my reply to her was, "YOU!" She probably thought I was joking, but what she didn't know was, that moment began the rest of my life.
(Her Version)
On February 9, 2005, while at work, I noticed a call for volunteers in a morning greeting email to help escort a youth group from New Orleans, LA. I had only been in the great state of Texas for three months at the time, so I figured this would be a nice way to get to know new faces. I wrote Demea Jamison that day inquiring about the itinerary for the volunteer event, and he responded the following day. The event was held on February 25, 2006, a cold and rainy day. I really didn't want to leave the comforts of my apartment, but since I did sign up as a volunteer, I decided to go and help out. As with any day of unpleasant weather, I wasn't in the mood to be cordial, so when Demea introduced himself, I quickly blew him off.
A few months later, a co-worker in my building solicited volunteers to help with her daughter's school. I forwarded the request to Demea, and he agreed to help. We were matched together as escorts for one of the groups of children. Demea was just as big of a kid as the students we were escorting. But with all that said, as we talked, he turned out to be a laid back and cool person. Then, a light bulb went off in my head; Demea was the perfect match for Sherie'. He was too short, too KAPPA, just too much of what I wasn't looking for, so, unknown to them; I began putting a plan into motion to hook them up. As Demea, Sherie', and I ate lunch at the volunteer event, we chatted about college and Greek life, Lockheed's social life, and about him taking us out to a movie. Notice, I was trying to make some time for him and Sherie' to get to know each other because one of us needed a man.
When I returned to work on the following Monday, I began chatting with Demea via our IM service. It was just casual talking, which led to me inviting him to our "Work Friday" Happy Hours at On the Border. The first motive for inviting Demea was to put my "hook-up" plan in motion and the second motive was that he was a really cool person, not too lame. Demea accepted and attended a few, which led to him finally taking us out to a movie. We went to see The Honeymooners. I took a well needed nap while Sherie' and Demea attempted to be cordial to each other and watch the movie. As the night came to an end, I realized that the "concocted hook up" wasn't going to work. Mainly, neither of them was interested in the other. But that didn't end the friendship with Demea. Around July 2005, Sherie' and I started attending this open-mic and karaoke night at Crystal's that Rickey Smiley hosted. I began inviting Demea to attend the outing with us. This in turn led to me and Demea spending more of our free time together. Eventually it seemed as though we spent all our down time together.
That brings me to how I finally realized Demea may be the one. In October 2005, a lot of things happened. First, I got sick with a sinus infection. I'm a big baby when I'm sick and Sherie' wasn't kind to me at all. She would call me a hypochondriac, because I'd think the worse when I got sick. She wasn't taking proper care of me, by my standards. Well, to my surprise, Demea had planned to come to my rescue. When he got back from business travel that Friday, he came over to my apartment with Olive Garden soup, breadsticks, and orange juice. He stayed and talked and watched television with me, while I was confined to my bed. He even took me to Wal-Mart around 11:30 P.M. because I was sick and tired of watching television and wanted to color. I figured if he put up with me when I was sick, he must be a keeper! The entire time I was sick, Demea would come over to help me clean and fix me something to eat; he helped nurse me back to health.
Not to long after I recovered from my sinus infection, my car, "the Turtle", go sick and I had to put her in the shop. The day she broke down on me, I had to call Demea at work and ask him to come get me from the house. He helped me out tremendously the following months. He never complained about having to drive thirty to forty minutes away from his home to take me back another twenty minutes in the direction of his house and vice versa; just so I could go to my part time job as a HP rep. I would always let him know that I was thankful, because you don't meet friends like that every day. After spending so much time together, it was pretty much a "sealed deal" but neither one of us wanted to admit it. We went through December 2005, not really claiming that we were officially dating. When people asked what we were, we'd explain that we were friends, because we'd both been through some pretty rough relationships. After visiting my family in Burnt Corn, AL, in January 2006, we had a discussion about our relationship status. We both finally realized that we had been dating since October 2005. We've been together since then, and actually began calling each other boyfriend and girlfriend and now I'm able to call him my fiance'.