It's been a long time, and I have a lot to say.

Despite being in love with Austin, I moved to New Orleans a month ago for a reason I never expected and a reason you, my audience, would likely never expect either.

A month and a half ago I received a phone call from my friend friend J who is so dear I could call her my sister that changed my life forever.

So you should come to New Orleans.
I know, I know. I just can't afford it.

The money in Austin had been lackluster; she'd been asking me for months, and I always had to decline, for if it wasn't one thing, it was another.

I'm serious. When you come here, I have the perfect guy to hook you up with.
Really? Is he cute?
I think he's cute! I think you guys would be so good together, I'm serious. Can I give him your number?
Sure, what's his name?
His name is G, you'll love him. I promise. Here's his number, actually, you should text him!
Ok, I think I will.

J and I had broken up recently due to his legal issues in Dallas, and my realising that yeah, it wasn't going to work, especially since I had been broken up with over facebook message and was trying not to take it seriously.

I figured what the fuck. I will text him.


Over the next three days, there was no less than two hundred text messages per day, hours of phone conversation that made me smile. The click was instant and deep, like I had known him all my life. It began with I will see you in three weeks. Then I will see you in three days. Then, I'm coming tomorrow.

Admitedly I am a hopeless romantic but I had related to this same friend six months ago

J, there is no one for me. I will never meet anyone who wants the same things I do.

She assured me, over and over, that when the right time came, I would.

G texted me late into the night one night with a phrase that would change my life.

So, you want to get married?

I stared at it. I didn't know what to think.

If you're serious, you will call J right now and tell her.

He called me and we conferenced called J, she would later tell me she thought we were playing a joke on her. He drove out the same night.

I went to work, elated, drank with my girlfriends, and threw around words like my love and my fiance and my husband. I went home and fell asleep on my couch, woke up with a start at seven in the morning. I followed my gut and went outside, and there he was, everything I had imagined; tall, broad shoulders, dark eyes, curly hair, with a five o'clock shadow that suited him surprisingly well, though it would prove to be murder on my skin.

I married him six days later on the 22nd of April, in an eight and half minute ceremony in Austin. My new in laws came, took us and our friends who had managed to come out to a fancy sushi restaurant. His mother hugged me, and his father kissed me on the cheek; they called me their daughter from the moment I met them.

G took a job in New Orleans a week later. I wasn't ready to leave Austin, but it was a guarantee, and dancing in New Orleans has relieved me of my alcoholic demons. It's changed my diet, my hips are flat again. He's changed my life saying things like

If anything happened to you I'd kill someone
Lock the door behind me when I leave
I love you woman
I'd do anything for you
I absolutely adore you.

He makes me lunch when I wake up, and notices when my clothes are hand wash only. I sleep on his shoulder every single night, while he reads or watches movies to fall asleep; he needs far less sleep than I do. He proudly introduces me as his wife everyone he knows, and tells me I am beautiful.

Every morning around 4am when I hear the click of his key in the lock, I run up and throw my arms around him, stretching to my tiptoes to kiss him good morning, running my hands through his wavy hair and exclaiming

Look! I cleaned and made you chocolate raspberry cupcakes, just because I love you.

I've never had to do that before. Though trivial, it makes me feel small and protected... when I lay in his arms, nothing can get me. He always smells warm, faintly like clove menthol cigarettes and Kenneth Cole Black cologne. I bury my face in his neck; he purrs with contentedness and strokes my hair.

I never believed in this kind of love. When people say you just Know, and that the love you have for your spouse is different than other love, I would roll my eyes, thinking yeah right give me a break.

But it's true. It isn't a crazy lust drunken madness rollercoaster of emotions. It's a safe, I've got your back, I love you as you are for better or for worse til death do us part.

He completes me.

And I've never been happier.