Local goon acquires sparkly ring
So this crazy thing happened the other week: I got ENGAGED.
I know! I told you it was crazy. It was a complete surprise too. Well, not a complete surprise. I knew by our third date we were getting married some day. But I didn't know that, three years after said date, he was actually actively working to make it happen. Sneaky little bastard.
So here's what happened. It's Sunday, April 5, the day we planned to go on a picnic, the picnic he has been talking about all week. I wake up and it's sunny and beautiful, perfect picnic weather. But he's gone. I hear banging in the kitchen and investigate. He's there, making breakfast. There are flowers on the counter that he drove 10 minutes to steal I mean cut from some garden somewhere while I slept. I'm impressed.
"Wow," I say. "What's all this?"
"It's supposed to be breakfast in bed," he says.
I do the math in my head: The night before, he baked cookies. Later, we'll be going on a picnic. Now, he's making breakfast and stealing flowers. Yes, I'm definitely impressed. But also slightly nervous. What the hell did he do?
I decide I don't care at the moment because he's making his amazing pancakes and scrambled eggs with cheese. When they're all finished, he makes me go back to bed so it can truly be breakfast in bed. The bedside table is decorated with the fresh flowers.
We eat and talk and joke around. He seems a little off, a little on edge. Something's up, but I can't help feeling cheerful and content. He keeps asking me if I've finished eating. I vaguely wonder if he's trying to poison me. And so, my belly full of possibly poisonous pancakes, I decide to find out what's really going on.
"Did you do something bad?" I ask, already knowing that he didn't because he wouldn't.
He laughs a nervous little laugh.
"Well," he says. "I have something else for you."
"Is it cookies?" I ask.
"No," he says. "I wanted to ask you something."
There it is. Something clicks loudly in my brain, and I start to sweat a little bit. I am suddenly very aware that I am still wearing my mismatched pajamas, my hair is standing up everywhere, and I have not yet brushed my teeth. Meanwhile, he is digging around in the pocket of his jeans.
"Mandy..." he says. "Will you..."
And that's all I really hear because at that point he is holding in his long skinny fingers a beautiful sparkling ring. My brain is buzzing. My heart is pounding. I'm overwhelmed with every happy emotion possible, including relief. I can't stand to look at the ring, it's too much, and I cover his hand with mine. Something in me releases and completely escapes from the confines of my body. The proverbial floodgates open, and I bury my head in his shoulder, shaking with tears. All he can do is hold me and silently freak out.
"Oh my God Kevin," I manage to mumble through tears, "I can't believe you're doing it. I can't believe you're really doing it."
I give him kisses upon kisses all over his face. I cry and laugh and cry. He laughs and cries with me. Finally, he says, "Well...what do you think?" And I manage to say, "Of course." Then he places the ring on my finger, and we laugh and cry some more.
It's a beautiful ring, a princess cut diamond in a simple setting with a white gold band. It's my kind of ring.
"It's too bad you don't get anything, huh?" I say.
"I get you," he says.
Yeah. He's that good.
Later on, we call our families and go on that picnic. He says he was going to ask me during our picnic, but he couldn't wait. I tell him to ask me again, and he does. My answer is still the same.
Periodically, throughout the day, he says, "So whaddya think? Wanna get married?" My answer is always the same and always will be.
