What follows may be called the most expected unexpected proposal of all proposals.
My story begins last Friday. It had been a long week. Nate and I were tired, but we had decided to hang out so we had dinner with our friends, Tanner and Lisa and watched a movie. The next day I met the roomies to check out the flower market where we were scoping out flowers for Zanna’s wedding. It wasn’t far from Nate’s house, so I was hoping that maybe we could spend some time together. He was busy. I was sad. [Perfect set up for a proposal.] Thank goodness for biscuit baking and fantastic roommates to talk to.
That night I made biscuits and had a small meltdown. [I miss you. I wish we had more quality time together. Why do we live so apart. You know, the usual.] Of course, he said all the sweet things. [It won’t always be like this. We’ll just make a point to spend more quality time together. You know, the usual.]
Sunday morning, I put on my new shirt, new heels, and even managed to wrangle my hair into a crown braid. The night before, Jill had orchestrated a giant nail painting palooza the night before, so even the nails were in good shape. Little did I know things would get worse before they got better. He texted me that he had stayed up late working on his master’s homework and felt sick.
Well fine. Just fine. I’d just look cute by my own self. Phooey and forget it. I’d just go to church and manage by myself. [This is my super fantastic, Jesus-loving attitude at its finest.]
As I was coming out of church, he texted and told me that he wanted to spend time together, and that he was almost to my house. I told him I’d be home in 15 minutes. The whole way home I tried to figure out what we should have for lunch and wondered whether I’d better stop off at the store to grab some lunch. I made it home without making a decision. Jill’s car was parked on the curb. Unusual, but I didn’t think anything of it. The door was unlocked. Not unusual. I walked in expecting to hear Nate talking with the roommates. Silence.
As I swung open the door, I was greeted with these. A sort of floral map that led through the living room and into the kitchen. In the kitchen was a platter of food. [I was thinking, hey this is great, he brought lunch! Also I was thinking, IS THIS A PROPOSAL OR HIM BEING ROMANTIC JUST BECAUSE?!?!] The flowers took a left turn into the… laundry room? Yes, I was confused.
I opened the door to the garage, and there he stood. Standing next to him was a bike. [The backstory on the bike is I had bought one at a garage sale a couple years ago. Nate and I were going to redo it, but it’s been sitting in half-painted shambles in my garage for about a year and a half.] It was a classic robin egg blue and coral pink bike with a basket full of fresh flowers. That was all well and good, but the real show stopper was on the seat. Black velvet box. I saw it and immediately tried to look away because I didn’t know what to do. So, being me, I screamed. THIS IS AMAZING!
Nate asked if I saw what was on the seat and I said A box? He asked if I wanted to see what was in it and I said yeah, hoping against hope it wasn’t earrings! He half dragged me over to the bike, as my feet and everything else had sort of stopped working. Taking the box off the seat, he did what any red-blooded American man would do with a black velvet jewelry box in the situation [though I can hardly tell you why they do this]. He got on one knee. He proposed.
And I said YES.
He put the ring on my finger, and we basked in the moment [read: I hyperventilated and repeatedly screamed IS THIS REAL]. When we went back in the house, our friends Tanner and Lisa and Jill and Lane and Zanna were waiting with my parents on FaceTime. My sister-in-love, Audrey and her mom dropped in to celebrate and Audrey snapped some awesome pictures. There was a lot of screaming and hugging and some more hyperventilating.
I heard the rest of the story later, snatches from the roommates and Nate. He had had the ring, which is a stunning antique solitaire, for several months, but was waiting for, well I don’t really know what. He had decided [just before my Saturday evening impromptu breakdown] that he would do it the next day. He called my dad and squared things away on the parental blessing front. He texted the roommates and Tanner and Lisa and squared things away on the preparation front. As it happens, he couldn’t hang out with me because he was getting a proposal put together. He said mostly he wanted me to be surprised. Well, ladies and gentlemen, of all the things, I was definitely surprised.
I can’t wait to throw the biggest best party the West has ever seen with with the best man I could ask for.
Love,
Little Miss Sunshine
