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Raymond Santana and Deelishis

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Raymond Santana, of the Exonerated Five, proposing to Deelishis of “Flavor of Love” fame seemed to come out of nowhere. Truth be told, it was a bit of a whirlwind romance. Weeks after the two met in late October, Santana was popping the question.

In the days since Deelishis accepted Santana’s proposal, she sat down with Atlanta’s V103 radio station to share more details about how they met and began dating.

To Raymond, what made you come to this decision?

Raymond: “Me and this beautiful lady, we had a lot of conversations, great intimate conversations, very deep conversations. And on an intellectual level, I’m very attracted to it. I mean, physically, that’s no doubt. But she definitely sparked me intellectually. And so that’s what made her stand out and made me say, ‘This is a woman, right here.’ When a man finds a good thing and he finds it fast, we don’t play games. I’m too old for all that.”

Deelishis: A lot of people didn’t know but we met at, now we can say it, Todd and Kandi’s. It was an event. And when I met him I was excited because he was Raymond Santana of the Exonerated Five. So, just like everybody else, I’ve seen the movie. And to meet them is an honor. So, I was like this is so cool. I wanted to hug him like, ‘I embrace you and your story and I pray for you and I think that you’re awesome. And he hugged me different. I said, ‘Wait a minute.’ That hug was a little ‘Oooh.’ Then he started following me on IG. I was already following him. Then he started double-tapping my special pictures.

Tigger: You was lurkin?

Raymond: Yeah, you already know.

Deelishis: So, after a whole lotta that, I finally DMed him and said, ‘You like another picture, you gon owe me lunch.’ He said, ‘Yeah and dinner too.’ I said, ‘Okay.’ So it took a turn that I wasn’t expecting but I was definitely open to. I started paying more attention to their story, specifically his. And I asked him out. But he put in the friend zone for about two months.

Raymond: I was so busy, at the time, promoting the series, running around with Ava and the fellas so I didn’t really have time go on a date. So I would just text her every now and then just to let her know, I didn’t forget you, I’m just extremely busy at the moment but I’m definitely interested.

Deelishis: No woman wants to hear, ‘I’m busy.’ So I started dating somebody else. Well, I had a friend anyway. I wasn’t ignoring him. I was already honored because I met him. I had conversation with Raymond Santana. I was good. So if it didn’t go anywhere else, there was no love lost. I still really liked him. But he was keeping in contact. And I think he noticed that I went on a date. I put a story in my Insta story. It just showed that I was out. So, instead of me getting a text saying, ‘I didn’t forget about you.’ I get a text saying, ‘Yo listen, I need to make good on this date that we supposed to have. And I want you to know that I was serious when I said that I want to go on this date, I just haven’t had the time.’ So, his text message was totally different than those drop in texts.

V103 Host: It showed intent.

Tigger: And consistency.

Deelishis: Well, there was no consistency yet. So I said, ‘Well, listen. Our mutual friends that we met, I’m doing a show with them and you’re welcome to attend.’ I was very passive about it because he had been playing me for two months. He showed up to the one thing I did not think he would come to. And that was dope. And as much as he wanted to play the background, he didn’t do that. He said, ‘I’m really interested and if this is what your world consists of, let me find out a little bit about it.’ And that from that day on, we have been inseparable.

Later, she explained how he proposed. Listen to it in the video below.

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