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This is no such thing as a short story when I tell it. I always seem to think that every little detail played a huge part, therefore I tell every single detail. I’ll try not to though.

After a rough and emotional day on June 21st, I go home and get ready for Chad to pick me up to go on our “surprise” dinner date. It was in the back of my mind that he was gonna propose to me that night….or at least sometime during that weekend from things that transpired that morning and during the past week. I knew it was soon.

It’s a surprise dinner because ever since we’ve known each other there has been this running joke that my birthday is on June 22 not June 2. So since June 22 was coming up, I tell Chad “Hey, my birthday is this weekend!” and he responds “I wanna take you out to dinner for your birthday”. When I ask him where we will go, he tells me that it’s a surprise but that it’s in the Centerpoint area.

Back to Friday, my brother was coming by to use my car around the same time Chad was to be there but Chad got there like 15 minutes late (on purpose I find out later). I was hoping they would get to see each other before Corey left.

So Chad gets there and he comes bearing gifts (things for our house that had come in through the mail and some Tiki torches for the back patio). And he’s wearing his blue Smurf shirt (though it has seen better days) that prompted him to ask me out nearly four years ago. It took him 2 months to ask me, so my complimenting him on his cool shirt gave him all the courage he needed to FINALLY ask me out for the first time.

We leave the house and I notice that he has playing in his CD player the first Train CD. Man, I haven’t heard those songs in years, but it was really cool to hear them again. We just sang and sang and talked about Train all the way to Centerpoint. At some point he tells me he actually has TWO birthday presents for me. He’s so silly. It wasn’t even my REAL birthday.

So Chad decides to take a short cut over by Jeff State by turning sharply and freaking me out. I was like “what are you doing?” and he said “oh, this is a short cut to cut across the highway” Hey, made sense to me! I always wondered where that road went….so while we are on this “hidden” road he asks me if I want to open my presents at the restaurant or here, at which point he turns another sharp turn into a parking lot at Jeff State. I tell him it’s up to him and he says “I think we’ll do it here”.

So he gets out of his truck and opens my door and hands me a present. He comments on the nice wrapping job that he didn’t do and I go to unwrapping. It’s a gold box….looks very much like a watch box….and I’m thinking to myself “this better not be a watch”……and it’s not! It’s an adorable little pumpkin carriage like Cinderella’s with wheels that turn and everything. And then he says “this is the important part” and he takes it from and opens it…..I see this sparkly ring and bust out crying. Chad then grabs my hand and gets on one knee and says “This is where it all began…..” and I know he said some other stuff but I have no clue what it was…….we hug and while we are hugging he asks me to marry him and I say “uh huh” through my tears and he says “what?”…I repeat “uh huh”…..and then he says “what?” and then I realize I had been saying “uh huh” so I say “yes!” And at some point in there he puts the ring on my finger and asks me if I had even looked at the ring, in which I hadn’t! It was exactly what I wanted.

Then he goes to make a phone call and the next thing I see him do is waving his arms up the hill and I see two people running down the hill through the other parking lot down to us….it’s Kristin and her friend and they had been taking pictures and filming everything! So we take some more pictures and Kristin films all of that too. We reminiscence on the “exact” spot where Chad drops his paper to write down my phone number and I notice his hands shaking nervously. I will never forget that moment.

The ring still feels funny on my finger. I haven’t worn anything on that finger since high school. I love looking down at my hand and seeing it sparkle and remembering what is symbolizes….our next step. And to think, I can FINALLY call him my fiancé!

Thinking back now, I cannot believe Chad put all of our past into such a special moment…I mean right down to that infamous Smurf shirt! From the location of when he asked for my phone number, to our first date and our first kiss…….these memories all created a brand new memory of such an important day. He’s such the romantic. And he’s mine.

And a thousand times I love him.

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