 | WHEN WE GOT ENGAGED
May 3, 2003
HOW IT HAPPENED
What Jeff and I had was a whirlwind romance…When he finally had the nerve to talk to me instead of staring at me with his mouth agape, he was already miles away and in California. But our phone conversation was so easy, like we’ve known each other for an entire lifetime, and things just took off from there.
It was in May 2003 that Jeff surprised me by coming home to attend my internship graduation. It was a bit weird because, although we’ve been “together” for months and have been talking to each other over the phone for hours everyday that it feels we know each other so well, we still haven’t really “met”. We had to go through all those many awkward “firsts”, like first touch, first kiss, first date… He tried his best to blend in and join the festivities and even went along with our group outing to Tagaytay. So while everybody else was singing or dancing their hearts out and getting drunk, we just sat in our corner and hugged each other the way we never got to do so all these months.
Early in the morning, as the first few rays of sunlight filtered through the thin white curtains, everybody lay in drunken sleep, while I was startled awake by someone snoring. I looked up and saw Jeff was awake and was looking at me intently. He had the weirdest look on his face…he explained that he was watching me sleep. He said I looked so beautiful in the morning. What?! Who, me?! He smiled and said he was sorry, but there was something he had to do… it wasn’t what he had planned, but the moment was so perfect that he had to do it right then…
He got up and brought out this small blue box and handed it to me. I opened it and it contained the most beautiful ring I have ever laid eyes on. In his anxiety he wasn’t able to say anything else. I guess he completely forgot to propose… but I understood and wanted to accept, with or without a proposal. And so I did!
Of course I still wanted to hear him say "Will you marry me?" I eventually was able to get it across that I needed a formal proposal. He didn’t say anything then. But months later, out of the blue, over a crab dinner he finally said those words: "Princess, will you be my wife?"...and he made me cry all over my oversized red bib!!! I was crying and shaking; he was wiping my tears away with my bib, and shushing me because people were starting to stare. I guess when I said I wanted to hear those words, I also gave up on ever hearing them. I never realized how important those words were to me until that moment. I just whispered "Yes...I will". And while everybody else in the restaurant stared, we hugged so tightly and kissed for what seemed like eternity.
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