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Mini-Vows

The Delay Game Worked for Both of Them

Credit...Lauren Cowart

Angelina Elizabeth Darrisaw and Maurice Cheeks II are to be married Feb. 18 at the Sheraton Bay Point Resort in Panama City Beach, Fla. The Rev. Caroline Mack, who was ordained by the New Gate International Church, is to officiate.

The bride, who is 30 and will be taking her husband’s name, is the founder and chief executive of C-Suite Coach, a career coaching platform in New York that helps companies retain and engage diverse millennial talent. She graduated from Davidson College and received a master's degree in management from Wake Forest University.

She is the daughter of Dr. Monique Darrisaw-Akil of Freeport, N.Y., and the stepdaughter of Shomari Akil. The bride’s mother is an assistant superintendent for secondary education, programs and policy in Brentwood, N.Y., for the Brentwood Union Free School District. Her stepfather is an administrator at New Rochelle High School in New Rochelle, N.Y.

The groom, 29, is a broker in Jersey City for ICAP, a financial trading company. He graduated from Villanova.

He is the son of Rosalyn O. Simpson of Houston and Maurice Cheeks of Oklahoma City. The groom’s mother retired as a mathematics teacher for the Houston Independent School District. His father is an assistant coach for the Oklahoma City Thunder in the National Basketball Association; he is a former player for the Philadelphia 76ers, San Antonio Spurs, Atlanta Hawks, New York Knicks and New Jersey Nets.

Ms. Darrisaw and Mr. Cheeks met at a party at his West Village apartment in February 2012.

“She was really pretty,” Mr. Cheeks said, “but I thought she was a little stuck-up.”

But he had scored a few points by ordering vegetarian appetizers from her favorite vegan restaurant.

“My first thought was that he was cute and kind of charming,” she said. “There was a bit of a spark.”

Several months later, Ms. Darrisaw, who was now single, was out with friends celebrating a new job. They were at a restaurant in Harlem when Mr. Cheeks, also unattached, walked through the door.

“He looked extra nice that day,” said Ms. Darrisaw, who wasted no time turning that old spark into a new flame. “You should take me on a date,” she said, momentarily stunning Mr. Cheeks.

Mr. Cheeks, who said that Ms. Darrisaw “seemed on par with my original feeling that she was stuck up,” said he simply told her, “Fine, give me your number.”

He did not call that weekend. “I thought maybe he just blew me off,” she said.

As it turned out, Mr. Cheeks lost his cellphone in a cab and had to ask their mutual friend, through Facebook, for Ms. Darrisaw’s number. When he finally connected with her in August 2012, she appeared to be putting him off, saying that she was headed to the 2012 Olympics in London, and would start a new job shortly thereafter. She also said she planned on spending about three months concentrating on her new job, which meant that she wouldn’t be able to see him until October.

“At first I was aggressive with him, and then I went and flipped the script,” Ms. Darrisaw said. “So I thought for sure he wouldn’t stick around.”

But Mr. Cheeks surprised her. “I thought, ‘O.K., she’s very serious about her career, and that’s a good thing,’” he said. “If she wanted to take it slow, well, I had some time on my hands.”

Once again, he scored a few more points.

“The fact that he was cool about my plan and he didn’t seem offended made him very attractive to me,” Ms. Darrisaw said. “That told me that he was very respectful of my work and my boundaries.”

In October he called, and they went on a first date at the same restaurant where he had first ordered vegetarian appetizers for her.

“She was cooler and a lot more down to earth than I expected her to be,” Mr. Cheeks said.

She was feeling much the same about him. “A part of me had thought that since he was the son of a great N.B.A. player, he’d be a little full of himself,” Ms. Darrisaw said. “But we laughed so much and had such good chemistry together.”

“I was never someone who kissed on a first date,” she said, “but I definitely did some kissing that night.”

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section ST, Page 13 of the New York edition with the headline: The Delay Game Worked for Both of Them. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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