By Kate Gorton

Nicole and I met in 2006. When I was 20 and studying French at the University of Rhode Island (I’m originally from Connecticut). Nicole, 24 at the time, had just moved home after three years in Virginia. We met online through a mutual friend after Nicole asked said friend if she knew any girls that were “cute and not nuts.” 

At first, I was hardly interested in Nicole’s pick-up lines, but once we talked on the phone, I was hooked: No one had ever made me laugh so hard.  

After nightly phone conversations that lasted until the wee hours of the morning, we finally hung out in person; Nicole drove from her hometown of Fall River to visit me in my college dorm at URI, where I was a Resident Assistant for freshmen. We played Trivial Pursuit, and I dominated: a real turn-on for Nicole, a trivia junkie. After that night, Nicole visited URI to see me almost every day: a 40-minute trip each way, with a toll bridge to boot! Now that’s dedication. 

We’ve never separated for more than a weekend ... until I left to study in France for a semester in August 2007. But absence makes the heart grow fonder! While I was away, Nicole spent her time finding us an apartment. Upon returning stateside, we moved into a cute little apartment on the water in Rhode Island.  

It was in the kitchen of our first apartment together on October 14, 2008, that Nicole proposed. I was making us tea after a long day at work and was surprised to find a ring box in the sugar! The engagement ring was inscribed: “Just be mine, 4-9-06” (the day we started dating). When I turned around, Nicole was down on one knee on the linoleum. Of course I said yes!

Kate and Nicole will wed in 2011 in Kate’s hometown of Waterford, Conn.