Our Adventure
Our Adventure
We found love in Da Club....
Hmmmmm.....Bring me THAT one!
As I scanned the bar for "any guy" to chat with and placate my friend's girlfriend, I pointed to a guy standing across the bar chatting in between two friends. At first glance he wasn't my type. Rocking a tank top (to show off his muscles) and a backwards hat, I got the impression that his hobbies were picking things up and putting them down. Buuuuut he was SMOKIN' HOT so what did I have to lose?
Let me back up and explain my mindset: I was not in the mood for boys, I had my friends in NYC and I was about to start studying for the New York and New Jersey Bar Exams. I was (am) a planner and meeting a guy was not in my plans right now. So even though I had no intentions to date, I had made myself a promise - 'be open to new opportunities & make some new friends (it's surprisingly hard in NYC!).' Additionally, I wanted to have one last hoorah before I became a hermit. This is what led me to attend the Bad Kids' Day Club. (Shout out & many many many thanks to our mutual friend Harrison Epstein COO of Bad Kids Collective!)
I am known to be a little stubborn once my mind is made up so my girl friends' attempts to berate me into talking to guys was useless. Their last ditch effort was to do all the leg work for me and proposed the following: "You pick out the boy - any boy in the bar - and we will go get him." Sure, I'll bite.
Now back to this hottie across the bar...did I mention he was very very attractive? (COME ON people, you don't notice someone's personality from across the room!) And with my fingers crossed that there was some substance behind his smile & dimples, I sent my friend over with no instructions. I figured she could improvise the rest. He peaked around her, smiled at me, and for the first time in a long time I got butterflies.
His Story...
It was Saturday morning, and I'd had a late Friday night. Groggily rolling out of bed I had no idea or expectation that I was going to meet the love of my life that day. Weeks beforehand I had bought a ticket to the Bad Kids Day Club party which was being hosted by a friend. Given my current state I was less than enthusiastic about going to a daytime party, but with some gentle prodding of my friends I got clothed and made my way to the venue in the Chelsea district of Manhattan.
To set the scene, it was a blacked out club, inflatable flamingos everywhere, and LED lit dancing robot, loud music, and throng of revelers.....in the middle of the day. I sat chatting to my friends for while when a girl approached us and said, "Hey, you, my friend thinks you're cute and wants to talk to you." That's a new one I thought to myself, and asked her to point out her friend. Across the room a redhead leaned against the wall and stared back with a beaming smile. "Yes" I unequivocally said and walked over.
Hers Continued...
He carried himself very confidently and seemed not to be bothered that a girl made the first move - Check! We started talking about the criminal justice system. Not only was he more than willing to discuss, he had strong opinions - Double Check! His friends left to go to another party but he stayed . . . my friends came over to get me to be social or "rescue" me but I brushed them away . . . and we continued talking. As we jumped from topic to topic all the lights, music, and inflatable palm trees faded away; I was enamored. When we realized that we had to go back to our respective groups, I told him to take my number. I wasn't ready to say goodbye.
All photography provided by our amazingly talented friends.
Team Harklest
Team Harklest
He Proposed
He Proposed
Breaking New York dating etiquette...
We began chatting, and I was pretty quickly enraptured. I'd never met a Layla before. Somehow we got into a philosophical debate on law and government that lasted long after my friends had left. Not the conversation I expected to have with someone I just met in the middle of a chaotic day party. When it was time to leave I must have still been a bit thunderstruck because she had to tell me to take her number. I started texting her immediately after leaving the club, and asked her out to brunch the following weekend.
As soon as we sat down to our first actual date we were back at it discussing politics, religion, economics, sociology, etc. This girl was smart, articulate, didn't pull punches, wasn't afraid to get into the weeds, and just downright fascinating. From that point on we started hanging out almost every day. Being together was effortless, and it started to dawn on me that what we had was something very special.
Two years later and now it was my turn to make a move.
New York has plenty of generic proposal spots: the Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, Rockefeller Center. She deserved something different; something that would be just ours. From our earliest dates I knew that she loved local graffiti art scattered around the cities we visited. My old apartment's rooftop in Nolita was the perfect backdrop.
Skipping out of work early on Friday my friend Chris and I spray painted a massive 'heart wall'. I'm not the "artsy Harkni", but by the end of this I could have been the next Banksy. Now came the tough part: getting Layla there.
Now all those who know Layla, know that she can be impossible to surprise. I took this as more of a challenge. I had let her know in advance that we had happy hour drinks planned that evening, but come that evening she decided she would rather go for a run. With some gentle prodding and peer pressure she gave in (insisting she wasn't going to dress up). I didn't think I would be nervous, but the moment she walked through the door that changed. She stood frozen in place with surprise until I beckoned her over to me and took a knee. Yada, yada, yada (Seinfeld reference)......and here we are!