Chris and I have been tight since we were kids. Even though we’re first cousins, I’ve always viewed him and his brother Brandon as the older brothers I never had. I like to think of them as my brother-cousins — “brousins.”  Basically anything Brandon and Chris did, I wanted to do. When they went to Bates Academy, a gifted-and-talented K-8 school in Detroit, Michigan, I went to Bates Academy. When they went to Howard University (aka The Mecca, aka The Real HU) in Washington, D.C., I went to Howard. Point being, I looked up to them — a lot — and still do to this day.

Since Chris and I are close in age, we’ve always had a special bond, from our deep cousin talks at practically every family function to our periodic check-ins on one another’s careers and love lives. To be completely honest, I never liked any of Chris’ girlfriends — for him, at least.