“I think you already know the answer to that, Phillip,” I roll my eyes at him, “and, no, they have not.”
So I add the charm to my bracelet and eat another crab cake.
The waiter comes over.
Yay! He's here to take my order, and I'm starved. Okay, I'm thinking a big steak, some garlic mashed potatoes……but I notice he doesn't have his little pad out.
Instead, he sets another box on the table in front of me.
I think I'm on present overload. Can't I just play with what I already have?
But I want to please Phillip, so I smile at him and start to untie the bow on the box. At first, I think this is another charm, but I realize this box is bigger than the others.
Charm earrings, perhaps?
“Wait.” Phillip says.
He grabs both of my hands in his and looks into my eyes. “First, I want to tell you that I love you, that I'm IN love with you. I know you wanted me to be serious when I said it, and I am. Princess, I have loved you for as long as I can remember.”
I smile at him, and I know he's serious. I feel the same way. Then he slides out of the booth, walks over to my side, kneels down on one knee in front of me, takes my hand in his and says, “Will you marry me?”
WAIT!!
“WHAT!????!!!!?” What was that last part? I thought you said…..
Phillip doesn't respond to my question or my shocked look. Instead he slides back into the booth next to me, unties the ribbon on the box, and opens the lid.
And what's inside is definitely not charm earrings.
What's inside is a ring .
An ENGAGEMENT ring!
Absolutely. The. Most. Beautiful. Engagement. Ring. I. Have. Ever. Seen.
Yet, it looks strangely familiar to me.
But why?
I've never seen a ring like this. It's so beautiful!
I look at Phillip, and then it hits me, “Oh my God, this is the ring I sketched.”
I am stunned.
I look at him, flabbergasted. That's a very weird word, but no other word can accurately describe the way I must look.
Phillip smiles and pulls a little folded up piece of paper from the top of the box and hands it to me.
“No way,” I mutter and shake my head.
I unfold it, and there is my drawing.
He kept it.
Has he always known?
I mean, did he keep it because he knew months ago that he wanted to marry me?
I look at the ring again. A gorgeous two-carat emerald cut diamond in a platinum setting with baguettes diamonds on the crisscrossed sides.
I am staring at perfection.
This ring belongs on my finger.
I am dazed.
“So will you marry me?” Phillip says, jolting me back to reality.
“Phillip. No. I can't marry you. We're on our first date. What am I going to tell everyone? I know you didn't even know we were dating, but on our first date we got engaged. It's like the time in sorority, when one of the girls passed her candle and when she blew it out we were all like, which one is she marrying? Because she was dating like two different guys. I don't want to be that girl, Phillip. Everyone will think we're nuts.”
I pause, “You can't get engaged on your first date.” I put my hand on his cheek, kiss him, look into his eyes and say sincerely, “I'm not saying I don't want to marry you. I mean that possibility seems very intriguing to me, but don't you think we should see if we can make it past, I don't know, maybe the third date or something?”
Phillip sits there very calmly. He's known me long enough to know that this is not necessarily my final answer, that I'm working things out in my mind by saying them. I tend to speak what my mind is thinking.
It does get me in trouble sometimes. But I'm done talking. This is ridiculous. I said no, what more is there?
Phillip leans over and whispers in my ear. He reminds me of something that happened so long ago, I had completely forgotten it.
And then, well, all of a sudden, everything made perfect sense.
Hmm.
“So, let me ask again,” Phillip says patiently. “Will you marry me, Princess?”
I smile and say, “Yes!” as he slips the ring on my finger.
Apparently you can get engaged on your first date.
And you know, it's not like we have to tell anyone right away.
Right?
“So can we kind of keep this our little secret?” I ask Phillip. “Like we'll start letting people know we're dating, and then maybe in a few months, we can announce the whole engagement thing?”
“Uh…sure,” Phillip responds.
That should work out just fine, I think.
“So can we order now?”
“Um, well, we need to run downstairs real quick first.”
I give him my dejected look.
He sighs big at me and gives me a is your stomach all you ever think about look. “Just quick and then we'll eat, I promise.”
He drags me out of the booth and down to the mezzanine level.
Now normally, I would ask a million questions about where we are going that's so freaking important, why we can't at least eat first, stuff like that.
But what can I say?
I'm still a bit dazed by the ring, but I'm also seriously dazed by, well, everything!
All of it! The roses, the dress, the spa, the limo, the charms, the ring. He really put a lot of thought into this. And I'm starting to grasp the fact that he's loved me for a long time.
Why didn't I ever see that?
Maybe I'm the one that's not so perceptive.
Phillip leads me into a ballroom.
There are people mingling and talking and a band that looks like it's getting ready to start playing.
“This is the fundraiser my parents are at,” Phillip tells me, while scanning the room.
So much for not telling anyone. I'll have to stress that this is just between us, and that we will tell people in our own sweet time.
As I look for his parents in the crowd, I'm surprised to see a few people I know. Like a couple of the girls from Phillip's office.
Hmm, maybe this is a fundraiser that Mr. Mac's company is hosting or something.
But then over in the corner, I spot our friends, Brandon and Neil...wait a minute.
“Hey Phillip, Brandon and Neil are over there. Why are they at this party?”
He ignores my question and points, “Hey, there's Mom and Dad.”
But when I see Katie and Eric, I know something is going on.
Why are all these people I know at this fundraiser?
Katie is not the fundraiser type.
And what fund is it for anyway?
Why isn't there a sign?
Finally I say, “Phillip, what the hell is going on here?”
He looks at me with a huge grin, holds up his hands, and happily says, “Sur-prise! This is our engagement party.”
I blink, hard.
What? You've GOT to be kidding me.
This is keeping things QUIET?
I stand there and stare at him, dumbfounded. I'm sure my mouth is hanging wide open. The boy is nuts.
“Excuse me? You were so confident that I would agree to marry you on our first date that you planned a surprise engagement party?”
“Well, not just me,” he grins proudly, as he takes my hand. “My family helped a ton and Danny and Lori too.” He is so excited about this.
WHO is this man?
He has taken on some alter ego, and I don't like it one bit!
Phillip kisses me quickly and says, “Let's go up on stage, thank everyone for coming, and tell them it's official! Now we can party!”
I look at the stranger standing in front of me and pull my hand out of his, with as much force as I can muster.
“You arrogant son of a bitch,” I say.