Andre & Maxine

MAXINE

His profile was different. He had pictures showing different sides of himself: casual, professional, in the kitchen cooking, and it felt intentional. There was actually a person behind the profile. But what really stopped me was something he wrote. He said he wanted to find a woman who would allow him to be there for her during the hard times and the good times. And I remember thinking: Who writes that on a dating profile?

This man was already talking about showing up through life, whatever it brought. I was intrigued. And he looked scrumptious. Which was a bonus.

Definitely a bonus. So we started talking and decided that our first meeting was going to be a very sensible, very mature meet-and-greet to decide whether we actually wanted to date each other. That lasted about five minutes. I arrived first on my little e-bike and sat inside waiting for him. Then I saw him through the window walking toward the door.

Oh Lord. Butterflies. My breathing changed. He was even better looking in person.

Then he walked in, smiled at me, and told me I looked better than my pictures. I can't remember whether I successfully returned the compliment because apparently part of my brain had temporarily stopped working. I just remember his smile. And me blushing. We got smoothies and sat outside on a park bench in the sun.

And then something even better than the attraction happened. We talked. Really talked. About our lives. Our faith. How we think. What we believe. What we were questioning. What we were learning and unlearning. The comfort level was strange because it felt so familiar, like talking to somebody I already knew.

I didn't want to leave that bench. I rode home afterward thinking: This man could be the one. Followed immediately by:

Girl. Calm down. You just met him.

ANDRE

I saw somebody who had spent her life doing meaningful things. Somebody who genuinely cared about people. Somebody who was vulnerable enough to let me actually see her. And I knew pretty early that being with her could expand my life. We complement each other.

MAXINE

So now I'm leaving the hospital wearing these terrible drawstring hospital pants. I haven't even had a proper first date with this man yet. And THIS is how he's about to see me? So naturally, I started doing a ridiculous little dance and singing "I'm too sexy for my pants…" to lighten the horrid scene LOL

He laughed. When I finally admitted how embarrassed I was, Andre did something I would see him do again and again in our relationship. He made the embarrassment smaller. He told me one of his embarrassing stories. He met vulnerability with vulnerability.

And then he told me I'd look good in anything anyway. It was a tiny moment, but I remember it because it showed me something important about him. When I feel exposed, he makes me feel covered.

ANDRE

What I noticed about her was how naturally she cared. She paid attention. She wanted to know if I'd eaten. She wanted to know whether I was tired. She would stay on the phone with me when I had a long drive because she wanted to know I got home safely. She'd massage me when I was hurting.

She'd cook. And saying she can cook is honestly an understatement. I tell her all the time she could be a chef. But it's more than the food.

It's the feeling behind it. She knows how to make a man feel cared for. I've told her that she knows how to talk to a man. There's respect in the way she communicates. There's warmth in it. She creates an environment of love, care, stability and fun.

That's what I experienced with her.

MAXINE

Eventually we finally got our actual first date. We were walking together when a car came flying around the corner toward us. Andre instinctively grabbed my hand and moved me away from it. Now he was thinking about the car. I was having an entirely different emergency.

This man was holding my hand. I felt an electrical shock go through my whole body. Suddenly I'm a grown woman walking into a restaurant blushing like somebody's sixteen-year-old daughter because Andre Taylor held my hand. Then came bowling. Arcades. Roller skating. Trips. Adventures.

And a ridiculous amount of talking. From the beginning, we talked or texted every single day. Usually multiple times a day. And somehow we never ran out of things to say.

Eventually our favorite dates became the ones nobody else could see. The couch. We would sit there for hours. Cuddling. Asking questions. Talking about our feelings. Talking about God. Talking about the future. Talking about what we needed. Talking about our histories.

Some of my favorite memories are just us sitting on that couch having heart-to-hearts. And somewhere along the way, I realized something. I knew exactly where I stood. Andre made himself clear.

And I tried to give him that same security. I wanted him to know that I saw him. His integrity. His consistency. The way he takes care of people. His mind. His gentleness. The things that nobody applauds because most people never notice them.

I noticed. And I told him.

ANDRE

That's one of the things she gives me. I feel seen. I feel appreciated. I feel loved.

She studies me. She notices things. She has this way of making you feel like the small things you do actually mattered. And I've told her that I love the way she loves.

I know that's a simple sentence. But it's one of the biggest things for me. Love is how you speak. How you respond. How you care. How you show up. And with Maxine, I felt the possibility very early that this was somebody who could really love me.

Me. And I wanted to love her the same way.

MAXINE

By November, only a few months after we started dating, we were already traveling together in Texas. We ended up in a jewelry store looking at rings. You know. Just casually looking at engagement rings when you've known someone for approximately 3 months.

But both of us already knew where this was heading. Then came December 31, 2025. Andre takes me to a drawer, looks at me and says: "Don't get too excited, but I want to show you something."

Let's examine the logic of telling a woman not to get excited immediately before opening a drawer and pulling out an engagement ring. Sir. He had already bought it. But Andre being Andre, he made something extremely clear:

This was not the proposal. He wanted me to know how intentional he was and wanted me to bring in the new year clearly knowing his intentions. He intended to marry me. I knew exactly where I stood.

The man literally showed me where he was taking the relationship.

ANDRE

By that point I had already started thinking seriously about what my life looked like with her in it. And eventually I started doing something else. I imagined life without her. Sometimes thinking about losing something shows you how much you value what you actually have.

And when I imagined my life without Maxine, I started realizing how many things would disappear with her. The ideas she brings. The way she thinks. The way she makes me laugh.

The things she gets me to experience. The way she draws me out. The care. The fun.

The conversation. The love. And I knew how much I wanted all of that in my life.

MAXINE

The proposal itself started as one of our conversations. Which is probably the most appropriate thing possible for us. We were at the Detroit waterfront. Walking.

Talking. Andre was being even more expressive than usual about what I meant to him. My heels eventually informed me that we needed to sit down. So we did.

And as he kept talking, I remember thinking: I want to remember this. I asked if I could record him. Thank God I did.

Because what I thought I was recording was another one of our heart-to-heart conversations. And then this man started saying things that were making me melt.

ANDRE

I was trying to explain to her what I saw when I looked at her. I'd found somebody beautiful. I'd found somebody whose mind I admired. Somebody who made me laugh.

Somebody who made life more interesting. Somebody who could sharpen me. Somebody loving. Somebody genuine.

Somebody I felt lucky to have stumbled across. I wanted us to keep walking down this road together. I wanted us to go down the same road together until the end. And eventually the conversation stopped being theoretical.

I got down on one knee. And I asked her to marry me.

MAXINE

I completely lost it. I hadn't even noticed what he was doing. One second we're sitting there talking. The next second Andre is on one knee.

And suddenly I'm replaying the entire day in my head. Ohhhh. THAT'S why you wanted to go for a walk. THAT'S why we're at the romantic waterfront.

THAT'S why this conversation is sounding like the final scene of a movie. And yes. Obviously yes. Funny thing was, the proposal wasn't exactly planned to happen at that moment but he felt compelled and couldn't wait until we got home for a beautiful slideshow he prepared.

The thing is that the proposal was the formal moment for something our lives had already been feeling. Our hearts have known this destination for a while.

ANDRE

What I found in Maxine was more than what I thought I was looking for. That's probably the simplest way to say it. I found somebody beautiful. I found intelligence.

Character. Love. Joy. Boldness.

Purpose. Fun. Care. A woman who makes me want to experience more of life.

And somebody who lets me be myself while still challenging me to grow. I met her as herself. That's the woman I fell in love with.

MAXINE

And I found a man I can stand fully beside. Someone whose strength makes room for my strength. Someone whose care brings peace. Someone who sees me clearly.

Someone I still want to keep learning. That's why so many of the songs I've written about us keep circling the same ideas: Learning. Choosing. Seeing. Peace. Presence. Two whole people moving together.

TOGETHER

We resonate. Two people. Two histories. Two families. Two cultures. Two worlds. Still learning each other. Still choosing each other. Still laughing. Still talking. Still showing up. And somehow moving in the same direction.

We didn't enter the dating process trying to mimic the traditional steps that sometimes feel awkward or forced. We leaned in fully. Fully open. Fully vulnerable with each other. And that approach was so natural and resonated so deeply with each other. Our wedding is another chapter in a love story that has already been unfolding. It's the day the people we love get to stand around us and witness it... in real time.