 | Leo, Leo, Leo, this is truly surreal. We were just friends, for real... just friends. I mean I told this man everything. Things sometimes I wish I chose to take to my grave (nothing criminal- just all the stupid dating decisions I’ve ever made). Yup, let your imagination take you there.. I told him. He would laugh. He definitely enjoyed laughing at my mistakes and indiscretions. But he was never judgmental, gave me great advice and always kept it real.
Leo often called me up with spur of the moment invitations to do something fun. He'd say "meet you there in 30min". So this one Saturday when he called and said, " Hey, get ready. I'll pick you up. We're going to Border Fest", I never thought it would be a day I would remember forever. We sampled every beer, ate foot long corn dogs, visited every booth, rode every ride and laughed so much my face hurt. After being outside in the South Texas heat for more than 8 hours, smelling of sweat and tacos, we decide that we should go dancing. Yes we did. Walked up in the club all disgusting and gross and danced until the DJ stopped playing music. It was one of the best days of my life. The most fabulous date I'd ever been on. Except it wasn’t a date. Just two friends hanging out.
Fast forward a few months later- I was in awe of Leo. I adored him. Falling in love a little more every day. This sounds so romantic right? The truth was this SHIT was scary! Seriously. No matter how attracted I was to Leo, I loved our friendship a thousand times more. What if our attempt at a relationship tanked and it wreck our friendship? I would be devastated.
This is where Mia (aka Mia the Matchmaker) steps in to our story. Leo and Mia are set to go on vacation and two days before they leave, Mia insists that I have to go with them. Seven year old Mia had a full on melt down and said she wasn’t going anywhere if MoniQ (that was her nickname for me back then) wasn’t going to go. Next day, this is the day before they are set to leave, Leo calls me up and says Mia is dead serious and asks if I would consider going with them. Dom was on vacation in Belize when I called to ask his advise. Dominic told me, "Mom, Leo is a really nice guy. You should go". So off I went on a spur of the moment vacation- classic Leo.
As you might already suspect, because we bout to get hitched, the trip was pretty damn magical. Leo, Leo, Leo as if I didn’t already have enough reasons to love him. Damn it. The man is an amazing father. I was like, " Here is my heart, Just take it. Take all of it". I truly didn’t know how much I loved him until I saw the way he loved Mia.
So back to Mia the Matchmaker part.
Step 1- she pulls on Daddy's heartstrings and gets him to invite me on THIER vacation.
Step 2- she casually points out all of her father's good attributes every opportunity she gets.
Step 3- "MoniQ, my dad doesn’t have a girlfriend and you're a girl...and I like you ((wink wink)).
Mia this is as much a love letter about you as it is about your dad. I adore you. I love you so much. You are the most charming, intelligent, caring and fascinating girl I know. I am blessed everyday because I get to be apart of your world. I’ll never forget the day you called me your Step-Mom for the first time. It took everything in me not full on melt down and ugly happy cry like I do at the Movies. I love you Baby Girl.
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