Part Six: a Promise

I have talked about this on my blog before, but for continuity sake, I’ll repeat it. Pieces of this chapter have been copied directly out of the previous post.

For Valentines day, I packed up an enormously embarrassing balloon bouquet, you know, the thing every guy wants, and drove to the coast. There were only two causalities and so it was still enormously ridiculous. We went to McClintocks for a yummy delicious steak dinner. The table next to us sat a very old couple, easily in their seventies. I smiled, thinking that someday I would be that old, and I prayed I would still be happily married and out celebrating Valentines day with my husband. That night was rather uncomfortable and looking back I had no clue why. We didn’t talk much over dinner, the occasional observance of other people and little comments here and there, but mostly a lot of chewing. Two days later I was getting ready to drive home and we were sitting on Scotts couch in Pismo, watching who knows what on TV. Here it was February, and up until this point we had kept our relationship pretty low key, nothing too serious. And I was happy with it that way. So imagine my surprise when out of no where he takes the remote from me (the nerve!!) and turns off the TV. He turned to me and said

"So I think you're in trouble"

and I said

" Why?"

And he said,

"because I think I love you".

I sat there for a split second, yes, I loved him. Didn't I love him? I thought I did. I did love him, but did I LOVE love him? And if I verbalized it? Acknowledge what he said and reciprocate it??? That would make it real. But all of these thoughts vanished instantly. I smiled. Kissed him. And replied

" I love you too".

It wasn't like in the movies, the credits didn't roll, there were no fireworks, or the crescendo of a sappy love song. Just a simple 4 word response. And it changed my life.

I drove home on cloud nine, he loved me. I loved him. Dude! I was in love!

Two weeks later Scott came into town for my 19^th birthday (sheesh we were just kids!). I had to work all that weekend so we didn’t get to spend very much time together, but he came and made a picnic lunch for my lunch break and took me to the park. I cringed when the park he took me too was the very park that I had dumped Mr. Serious, less then a year before. But I tried to put it out of my head and enjoy our lunch; my little birthday celebration. Sometime during our meal he handed me a small box, my present he said. I tore it open, anxious to see what sort of silly thing he had come up with. He was famous for sending me ring pops in the mail and goofy drawings he had drawn. But as I tore the paper away my heart stopped as it was revealed to be a small velvet box. You know, the size that contained rings. I was dumbfounded, and a little scared to open it. He wasn’t seriously proposing right now was he? We hadn’t even talked about marriage, for crying out loud he only said he loved me two weeks ago! I took a deep breath and opened it and this is what I found.

I knew it was too small to be an engagement ring but before I could really get further than that Scott interrupted my thoughts.

“It’s a promise ring. I love where we are, where we’ve been, where we’re headed. And this just a token to show you my intentions. That someday, I want to marry you.”

What girl wouldn’t melt?