A Guy Asked This Girl to Go Steady in the Most Romantic Way

During a Super Bowl party earlier this year, Marissa Peña, 18, met Juan Quintanilla, 19.

Marissa Peña and Juan Quintanilla
Young man proves romance isn’t dead. (Photo: Marissa Peña)

It was the romantic way Quintanilla asked her to be his girlfriend that has the Twitterverse singing his praises.

“Omg, he’s so cute, I wanna get them digits, ” Pena tells Yahoo Style. “That was my first thought when I first saw him.” A mutual friend introduced them at the party.

Quintanilla asked for her number and texted her a week later. It started as a friendship, but it quickly developed into something special.

Marissa Peña and Juan Quintanilla before Peña's prom
Marissa Peña and Juan Quintanilla before Peña’s prom. (Photo: Marissa Peña)

Peña says her mom always encouraged her to go out to events so she could meet different people. Obviously her mom’s advice paid off.

“He’s a gentleman. He’s so sweet and most importantly my family likes him a lot,” says Peña.

After a few months of getting to know each other, Quintanilla knew it was time to make things official. While Peña was on vacation, he asked her parents’ permission to make their daughter his girlfriend.

“My parents really like him,” she says, “so my entire family helped him plan the big surprise.”

Quintanilla prepared roses and a romantic candlelight dinner for his new girlfriend
Quintanilla prepared roses and a romantic candlelight dinner for his new girlfriend. (Photo: Marissa Peña)

Peña and her mom went to a mall to celebrate her newly acquired driver’s license. Around dinnertime, her mom told her they had to go back home to pick up her father.

“When I got home, my little sister was holding the ‘God gave me you’ sign, by the door,” she says. “I was confused when we got there because there were Christmas lights everywhere.”

That’s when Quintanilla popped out of the closet, told her how important she was for him, and asked her to be his girlfriend. He gave her roses and a chalk sign bearing the word “girlfriend.” But he wasn’t done with the surprises.

“I said yes, and he walked me to the backyard,” she says. “He had planned and set up a romantic dinner — I couldn’t believe it.”

The Internet couldn’t believe it either. Quintanilla’s Twitter post has received nearly 15,000 likes and over 2,500 retweets.


For both Texans, this is their first serious relationship. Peña says they are happy and are taking it day by day enjoying each other’s company.

“I feel like I’m living in a movie. It’s all a dream,” she says, “he makes me so happy.”

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