 | Some girls expect flowers or a magical moment of spontaneity where a ring appears at the bottom of a champagne glass...that is not this story.
It was our 11th anniversary and Danny was driving into Camarillo from LA for a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant in Thousand Oaks. Of course, I wasn't ready when he arrived and I was rushing around like a chicken with her head cut off to make sure that we would make it on time. Danny was counting on me being a little frantic in preparation for the evening and, thus, the stage was set for his, almost devious, plan. Then he started, very methodically, reminding me of things that I shouldn't forget to do before we left insinuating that we were going to be late and that it was going to be my fault.
Just as I began to reach my limit, he threw in yet another request. He insisted that I open his anniversary gift to me. One look at the beautifully wrapped gift (pictured) and I had daggers in my eyes. Yes, you read that correctly, daggers. The gift suspiciously looked like an Apple Watch (having wrapped one up myself as an anniversary gift to him). Now you might be thinking that I was being ungrateful, and perhaps, in that moment, I was. The Apple Watch just happened to be the one thing that I told him he should NOT, under any circumstance, get me. I practically begged him not to get it for me. I am not as tech savvy/crazy as Danny is, and I thought that an expensive gift like that would be wasted on me. Now I feel naked without it on my wrist, so, you know...go figure!
Danny sensing my agitation, as I unwrapped the gift, proceeded to help me open it because "I was doing it wrong" (in reality he was lining it up for the grand reveal, but I certainly didn't see it that way!). After all the tape and gift wrap was gone all I could see was that damn Apple Watch starring up at me . So as not to seem completely ungrateful, and in an attempt to salvage the rest of the night, I took the watch out of the box and half heartedly began to put it on. When I looked up at Danny to show him what the watch looked like, the expression on his face was one of triumphant humor. I asked what was so funny and he coily said "you didn't even notice it". Again, not the words I really wanted to hear in that particular moment, but, miraculously, I didn't kill him right there and then!
"What the heck is he talking about" was apparently the expression written all over my face, or so I was told... All I could spit out, word wise, was a testy "what?" To my credit, I was able to hold back on the rest of the choice words I had for him in that moment. After all, it was still our anniversary, and I wanted to salvage some semblance of a special night. Danny knowing full well that all my buttons had now been thoroughly pushed, simply said "look more carefully inside the box.." I VERY reluctantly went back to the box to go find what I thought was going to be a stupid accessory for the watch. I was wrong. Inside the box, cleverly adhered to inside of the front wall, was a beautiful solitaire engagement ring. I don't know how I missed it the first time, but there is was, right there in front of me.
I was stunned. I tremulously asked if the ring was what I thought it was; it's presence, to me, was like a unicorn sighting. After all it had been 11 years! Waiting for his response seemed to take an eternity and then he spoke, as only he would think to.. like a character from the movie Pirate Radio, "so how about it then?". I'm sure he thought this was his dropping the mic moment but I needed a little more to get past my disbelief. So I asked if this meant he was asking me to marry him, to which he simply replied "yes". We were now engaged and all of the happy anger came out all at once!
So, technically, looking back on this story, I suppose that I proposed to myself and got the affirmation from Danny after the fact. There was no bended knee, no champaign or elaborate orchestration of events in a public setting. Truthfully though, I don't know that I necessarily wanted or needed any of that. It wouldn't have been ours any other way!
|