The Proposal
I knew it was coming. The proposal. Geraldo had been intentional and upfront with me from the first day. He didn't want to play around with my heart or his. I didn't want to date for the fun of it either, and after two months, I knew he was the answer to my years of praying for a husband.
I knew when he had the ring, too, and waited anxiously for his proposal. "Please surprise me," I had told him, "But good luck, because it's hard to surprise me." He tried his best, but I picked up on enough hints to figure out when he would propose. The ruse was meeting my parents halfway for a picnic on the 4th of July weekend. My mom and I planned the menu and divided it up between us.
"Let's go an hour early," Geraldo said, "and walk around before your parents get there."
"Sure," I replied. Hmm, that's probably when he'll propose, I thought.
I had all the food ready on time, dressed in my best, with my fingernails painted (which I never do), and sat waiting for him to come. The agreed-upon time came and went. Still, I sat waiting. Sometimes he's late, I told myself, he'll come. After 20 minutes of waiting, I called him. He was just leaving his house. I remained calm outwardly, though a slight annoyance tickled me inside. It's fine, I told myself, he'll be here soon.
I knew how long it would take him to get to me. But that time came and went, and still he didn't show up. I called him again. He was filling up his car with gas. "What!? Why now?" I asked him. I felt miffed. When he finally arrived, it was an hour later than agreed on. The hour we were going to walk around the park before my parents got there. The time that I thought he was going to propose.
"Sorry," He said, seeing that I was miffed at him. His apology helped a little, but I still felt annoyed. As he started driving, he asked me about how my devotions were that morning and then shared his with me. He mentioned something about thorns.
As we sat in silence for a bit, watching the scenery pass by, my internal monologue started running. Why had he been so late picking me up? If he really wanted to propose that day, he wasn't off to a great start. What if I was wrong? What if I went home without a ring on my finger? I would be so disappointed. I thought for sure it would be that day.
He started up the conversation again, rambling for a minute. I tried following his line of thinking, but couldn't until he said, "Will you marry me?" Obviously, that caught my attention. Not as much as you would think, though. He had asked me that several times before, including the previous night. Usually, he was joking along the lines of, "Hey, is this what we're doing?" I would usually reply "Yes," then tease him back that I didn't see a ring yet.
In the car, on the way to meet my parents at the park, I just assumed it was his usual joking around again. Still miffed at him for being an hour late picking me up, I hesitated a few minutes before slowly replying, "Yeeees," then paused again before continuing, "But I didn't realize how much it would test me to the limits."
I don't know if he heard those final words because they were hardly out of my mouth before he said, "Great!" and pulled out a small, blue box, opened it, and said, "Here you go," handing it to me while still driving down the expressway.
I sat stunned. What had just happened? I stared down at a beautiful diamond ring, lit up by a small light inside the box. I pulled out the ring, and he reached over to put it on my finger. The relief that I had been right about him proposing to me that day flooded me. I was actually engaged!
"But seriously!" I said after a moment, "In the car!?"
"Yup," was his simple reply. In his defense, he reminds me that he knelt down when he asked me the night before, but again, I thought it was just his typical joking around, and I had teased him that I didn't see a ring yet.
"I can't even give you a hug!" I said in the car. I managed to anyway, then laughed. "Well done, you managed to surprise me. I knew it was today, but I wasn't expecting it in the car. Well done." He just looked over and grinned at me. He had figured out that I knew it was coming that day and still wanted to surprise me. Life with him is always an adventure, and I look forward to that adventure continuing for the rest of our lives wherever Jesus Christ leads us.
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