John's POV

Well it was the 4th of July and and I’d been deliberately enjoying my alone space for the entire day. No pool parties, barbecue, etc. Went to check out the last 1/2 hour of fireworks and then back home. Felt in my spirit to go and share my gift amongst friends at my favorite karaoke spot in Woodland Hills, called Paoli’s and soon as I walked in I saw this cute young lady who I’d never seen before standing right inside the door. She was slim and cute with short hair , which to me screamed east coast. I introduced myself as JP and we began to talk. Found out she was from Detroit and then it got a little loud so I invited her outside to clearly converse. We talked for about an hour and then the DJ called me in, to her surprise, because at that point I had not mentioned that I was a singer. She followed and I sang "Hello". I engaged her to the point of embarrassment, lol cuz she was kinda shy but it was fun. Afterwards we returned outside and finished the night talking and getting to know as much as we could in one sitting. There was a fight and she got a little nervous but I assured her that there was no need, because she was more than safe with me.

She and her friends Uber came, we exchanged info and went out separate ways. We had our first date the next day and we’ve been together ever since.

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Lena's POV

So it was the 4th of July and I had just got back from a barbecue with a couple of friends, and my girlfriend gets a call from her boyfriend to meet up at a bar . She asked us to go as girlfriend support, we reluctantly agreed. As I’m sitting at the bar, as close to the door as possible , up walks this gentleman with what I later learn is his Chi -Town swagger . He told me his name was JP. We talked a bit more that’s when I found out he was from the Midwest and he found out I was from "the D". The conversation was good and soon the DJ called his name and he went to sing. He sung Lionel Richie's "Hello" directly to me, and

Dude could sang! I became extremely embarrassed. Later that night when it was time to leave we exchanged numbers with an understanding that neither one of us were really into dating at the time, but it would be cool to hang out. So the next day gave me a call and we hung out... and the next day we hung out... and the next day we hung out... Until finally I got past the stage name and learned that his real name was John Prescott Lashley . After this “non-dating” went on for a while he finally looked at me one day and ask “Hey-are you my girlfriend?” to which I replied “yeah I guess I am” . Moving ahead a couple of years in 2024, I decided to surprise him with a birthday cruise . We were excited to hear that there was a karaoke night and planned on going. We invited our new cruise friends to come out also. Finally it came John’s time to sing and as usual he brought the house down. Suddenly he starts talking about my job and the work I did, and I was like...

"Is he raising money for Vista?"

Then he called me up on stage and proposed in front of 300 of our closest cruise friends. Everybody knew but me! And so it was I got the biggest surprise of all. Left on a cruise with a boyfriend and came back with a fiancé !!