The Engagement Game: Why I Said “I Don’t” to Marriage and “I Do” to Me
by Joi-Marie McKenzie

Joi-Marie almost has it all; a thriving career, a supportive family, great friends, and an apartment in Manhattan. What she doesn’t have is a husband.

Ambitious, confident, and successful, Joi-Marie believes she has it all figured out. At 28 years old, she has an enviable job as a producer, covering entertainment in New York City. Her close-knit family is loving and encouraging, and her boyfriend, Adam, is as close to perfect as you can get — except for the fact that he won’t propose.

Like most women, Joi-Marie has a checklist of what the perfect life looks like. She has the career, the friends, the apartment, and the lifestyle she has always wanted. But, when the husband she wants doesn’t fall into place, she decides to play the game—the engagement game—in order to get Adam to drop down on one knee.

After receiving a laundry list of advice on how to secure a proposal—even researching how to cook “engagement chicken”— Joi-Marie realizes that, in the process of trying to attain her perfect life, she has slowly become a person she doesn’t recognize. With this discovery, she must make a decision: pretend to be someone she’s not in order to have the life she envisioned…or have the courage to be herself and find her happily ever after in a way she never expected.