David and Shannon met in college while attending Radford University in 2007. Once introduced, they began dating shortly thereafter and throughout the rest of their time in school. On school breaks Shannon and David would spend a lot of time in Clarendon where David's parents used to live. Shannon and David would often walk to the movies close by or to a courtyard near the marketplace to enjoy the weather when it was nice. They frequented the courtyard most often making it their favorite spot.
Shannon graduated in May of 2010 and David in December of 2010. They now live together (with their BEAUTIFUL dog Molly) in Arlington, Virginia just a few minutes outside of Clarendon.
It was Friday, February 4th of 2011 and Shannon was making plans for her evening activities after work. Since David had plans to go to a car show with some friends, Shannon decided to arrange to spend some time with her good friend, Lisa Leonard. As Lisa and Shannon planned to spend time picking out paint colors for Shannon and David’s new apartment, Lisa also recommended a last minute trip to Barnes & Noble in Clarendon so that Lisa could redeem her daily Groupon before she left the next day for a family trip to Pennsylvania.
That evening, Lisa drove Shannon and herself to the marketplace in Clarendon where the nearest Barnes & Noble’s was located. In route to Barnes & Noble,
Lisa decided that first they needed to walk by another store first for something else. Once they started walking in an opposite direction, Shannon
(being overwhelmed with fond memories) began trying to explain to Lisa the nostalgia associated with the area they were surrounded by. Lisa then began
walking into the nearby courtyard, which was nonetheless confusing and definitely not Barnes & Noble.
Before Shannon could express confusion about why they were walking into that direction, she stopped to find David standing underneath a familiar street light and surrounded by the very recognizable townhouses where they used to spend time at. Once Shannon realized that she had been lured to this very spot for another purpose, David got down on one knee and proposed! Without any hesitation, the answer was of course, “YES!”
Somewhat confused by the timing and the fact that David was supposed to be at a car show, she had no idea that David had premeditated the evening’s worth of istractions with Lisa and Meghan Coffey to create a flaw-free excuse to avert any suspicion provoked by the familiarity of the location.
Had Shannon not been brand new to the Arlington area, she might have known that the closest Barnes & Noble to her apartment was actually less than 5 minutes away in Alexandria; not Clarendon.