Ah, February, the month of romance. Love is in the air. Cupid is warming up his bow. And our thoughts are turning to romantic engagements. This is a new PaperCity series of engagement stories that will continue throughout the year.
It was quite a clubby scene when KPRC Channel 2 news anchor and YouTube star Dominique Sachse first met the dashing business man about town Nick Florescu on a beautiful spring Sunday on the balcony of Cafe Annie where she and her mother were having brunch with Monsour Taghdisi. Consider the bold-faced types that were part of the picture — John and Becca Cason Thrash, Lonnie Schiller, Manfred Jachmich and Nick among them. One by one they sauntered over to the table to say hello. One of them stayed to visit.
That, of course, would be Nick who amiably chatted with Dominique’s mother, Audrey Toll. When he rose to leave, she, emboldened by a glass of wine or two asked Nick if he knew anyone like himself for Dominique. (Well, yes, but no one realized it at the time.)
Then in June, Monsour held a pool party for his close friends and their children. Nick, as Dominique recalls, “was wearing a pink swimsuit which looked great against his tan . . . We talked poolside and talked and talked and talked” while her young son, Styles, and his eldest daughter, Elle, partied with the other kids. Later that day, the savvy Elle told her dad, “You should marry that girl.”
They exchanged phone numbers and a few days later Nick left for business in Europe. Clearly fascinated with the gorgeous newscaster, he sent her flirtatious text messages throughout the trip and signed them “Your Friendly Stalker.” The day after he returned home, they had their first date. It was June 12.
“I lived out west and offered to drive myself to his house. Just playing it safe, in case,” Dominique details. “As I approached the house in a black ruffle silk sleeveless dress, the sprinklers in the courtyard turned on, and he watched me dodge, weave and dance around the spraying water. He came out to greet me smiling. To this day, he always describes seeing me in that moment and knowing . . .
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“Months passed, and we were inseparable. There wasn’t a day that went by where we didn’t see each other. Flowers would arrive, signed ‘Your Friendly Stalker,’ even still to this day. . .We knew we were supposed to be together, but there was something even more important that needed to happen.”
In addition to Dominique’s young son, Nick had five children. The families had to blend comfortably before the next step. So they moved into a residential high-rise, Nick on the ninth floor and she on the 15th.
“The children would mingle with each other by the pool or downstairs in the theater room. “Before we knew it, the kids were flying up and down the elevators to play games in each others’ apartments. Sure, there were squabbles, but there were also friendships forming. Our youngest were 6 at the time, and our children’s ability to connect was paramount.”
A year and five months after the fateful day on the Cafe Annie balcony, Nick and Dominique were in Europe for a week.
“Nick had been hinting all along that a proposal was coming, even eluding to it in Prague at a family celebration, introducing me as, ‘The future newest member of the Florescu Family.’ (He has a hard time keeping a secret.) I knew it was coming, I just didn’t know when,” Dominique says.
Time was running out. They were in Rome on the last day of their vacation. They were dining at Ristorante Dal Bolognese next to the Piazza Del Popolo.
“As spaghetti intertwined, the conversation steered toward love, meaningful sentiments and commitment,” Dominique tells PaperCity. “It was then, he asked for my hand in marriage. Following the pasta, proposal and Pino, we sealed it with a kiss in the Piazza!”
Dominique and Nick will celebrate their eighth wedding anniversary on May 19, and a total of 10 years together.
“There isn’t a day that goes by where we don’t count our blessings,” she says. “True love is a gift, no matter when it arrives.”
