And Then He Kissed Me! Part 16

After the shock of "plumber guy" purchasing his own wedding ring, I was on pins and needles, waiting for him to officially propose to me.


My parents were still in town for my cousin's wedding and me and "plumber guy" were traveling south to meet them at the reception. Once we entered the church's cultural hall, we were bombarded by various members of my extended family. Apparently, my parents had spread the good news about me and "plumber guy" deciding to get married and my family was quick to congratulate us with hugs and welcomed my "soon to be spouse" with open arms.


I ran over to my recently married cousin and gave her a hug.


"I heard you are going to get married!" she said.


"Yeah. We are planning on getting married in January," I replied, excitedly.


"Plumber guy" walked over to me and my cousin and I introduced the two of them. I asked to see her ring and oooo-ed and awed at the sparkling marquis diamond and setting. Rings were constantly on my mind, lately, and I would often glance at every one's ring fingers to check out the vast sizes, cuts, and settings. "Plumber guy" took special interest in her ring also. He examined it closely, which thrilled me to no end.


"Maybe he's going to give me a ring that looks like my cousin's!?!?!" I thought to myself.


Once the reception was over, we started our little voyage home in the dark. My heart was so full that night. I loved introducing my future husband to my family. There was a calm peace in the air, as we were driving home and I started to reflect quietly on our love and how it progressed over the last 5 months. I was blessed beyond my dreams and I could hardly contain my happiness. I began to tear up with tears of joy.


My quiet reflection was then interrupted... "You know your cousin's ring?" Plumber guy asked.


"Yeah, what about it?" I said. I thought to myself that maybe he was going to ask if I liked her ring.


"Well, her ring is exactly like the ring I got you."


"It is? You already bought my ring?" I questioned him.


"Well then, where is it?" I thought to myself.


"I wanted your ring to be one of a kind," he said, in a disappointed manner.


I was taken back a little at just how disappointed he was. He wanted my ring to be unique and from the heart, which showed me just how sincere he was.


"So what are you going to do about it?" I asked him. Secretly I didn't care. I just wanted him to propose to me so that I can start to flash my own engagement ring to fellow females.


"I don't know what I'm going to do. Maybe I'll just get you a different one."


My heart sunk at the thought of having to wait longer for my ring.


A week or two had gone by, and still no ring. Every day I waited with anticipation for "plumber guy" to drop down on one knee and declare his eternal love for me and ask for my hand in marriage, but time was dragging by slowly. During one conversation, he happened to mention that he personally designed my ring and that it would be ready in about two weeks.



"Ahhhhhh! Two weeks!" I thought to myself. I was excited beyond belief, yet I was a little nervous. I had nothing to be nervous about. We each knew that we loved one another and that we had both agreed to get married, but the waiting and wondering was killing me!


The following day was November 8th, and while I was at work, "plumber guy" called my office.


"Hey, I forgot my wallet on top of the house that I was working on today, and it's not too far from your office... Do you want to have Cindy (my roommate) take your car home and I'll just pick you up from work and we can go to dinner?"


"Okay!" I said excitedly. This was a treat! It wasn't even the weekend yet and every chance I could be with the love of my life, was a chance that I just could not pass by.


Six o'clock finally hit and the night was crisp with a cold breeze. It was an especially dark evening. The kind where it was difficult to even see the stars in the night sky. "Plumber guy" arrived and I quickly handed my keys to my roommate.


We began to drive towards the east bench and he stopped at a large, extravagant home. Sure enough, you could see his wallet sitting on top of the roof. He quickly retrieved his wallet and then we began our way back down the bench.


"Did you know that there is a little duck refuge around here?" He asked.


"No. What a weird place to have a duck refuge," I told him.


"It's pretty neat... it has a little walking path around a pond and picnic areas,"


"Let's go see it!" I demanded.


We parked in a dark parking lot that was only lit by a dim street light. It was too dark to see anything, but "Plumber guy" said, "let's go walk around. Maybe we'll see a duck?"


He grasped my hand tightly and began to lead me down a path. I was wearing a navy blue dress with heels, so it was a little difficult to walk on the dirt path and amongst the willows.


"Oh wow!" I proclaimed. The moon's reflection was dancing on top of the pond's dark water, with shadows of clouds drifting slowly over the moon's reflection.


I wanted to stay and take in the beauty of the scenery, but "plumber guy" began to guide me over a small foot bridge.


In the near distance I noticed something.... it was a soft glow, flickering.


"Jennifer, Jennifer, Jennifer," Plumber Guy said, as he began to rub his thumb over the top of my thumb. I noticed he began to rub his thumb faster and a little harder. It was kinda hurting me! "What's up with him?" I thought.


Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. "I think he's going to propose to me!" My heart started to pound heavily. It was pounding so hard, I was having a hard time hearing what he was saying to me. We were getting closer and closer to the flickering warm glow, and I was able to see that it was a lit candle sitting on top of a picnic table. We approached the picnic table and the candle's flame embraced us with it's warm, amber, glow. Along with the candle, there was a Lagories Pizza, red roses, and Dr. Pepper. He knew me so well. I turned towards him, expecting to be face to face, but instead he was kneeling. He pulled out a cream colored ring box, and held my left hand with his right hand. By now the tears were welling up in my eyes and there was no holding them back. My heart was about to burst out of my chest.

"Jennifer, will you marry me?" he asked nervously, but with a warm smile.

I smiled, the biggest smile I had ever smiled and replied with a soft, "Of course, I'll marry you."

He then opened the ring box and was about to put the ring on to my ring finger, when he accidentally dropped the ring into a pile of leaves...in the dark. He quickly picked up the ring and placed it on my finger. I was such a beautiful ring! I held my hand out to the candle light to observe every single detail. It had a round solitaire diamond in the middle with two emerald baguettes and two blue sapphire baguettes surrounding it. It also had 5 round diamonds set in a swirl above the center diamond and the same pattern of diamonds below it.

"Plumber Guy" then sat next to me on the bench and I embraced him and we kissed passionately. "I love you!" I said, through sniffles. "I love you too."

"I remembered you mentioning once that your favorite gem stone was the emerald, and I knew the sapphire was your birth stone. I thought the two stones would be pretty together, " Plumber Guy said.

I couldn't believe he remembered me saying that my favorite gem stone was the emerald. I remember telling him that I knew someone that had an emerald instead of diamond in her wedding ring and I loved how unique and beautiful it was.

I held my hand up to the candle flame to admire "Plumber Guy's" creation, when I noticed something odd about the ring. There was a dark space next to an emerald baguette. One of the emeralds was missing. I felt horrible for "Plumber Guy" and I wasn't sure how to break it to him, that something was wrong with ring.

"Um, is this suppose to look like this?" I asked him, as I pointed out the empty setting.

"Oh no! One of the emeralds must have fallen out!" he said.

"Maybe it fell out, when the ring fell in the leaves," I said.

My heart sunk, because I knew the chances of trying to find the emerald would be nearly impossible to find in the dark and in a pile of leaves.

I grabbed the candle and it's base and began to move it over the ground in hopes of finding a glimmer of green.

"Ha!" I gasped. "I found it!" We were both amazed that I actually found the emerald in the middle of fall leaves, on the ground. I carefully picked up the emerald and placed it in between the folds of the inside of the ring box.

We both sighed a sigh of relief and began to eat our romantic pizza dinner, but we were too excited to eat, and not too mention, it was freezing cold.

"How did you set this up?" I asked him.

"Oh I had help from Dave," he said.

We didn't stay long at the little sheltered picnic area. We wanted to spread the news to our friends and loved ones.

We drove to my apartment and I immediately held my hand out to my friend, and roommate, Cindy. We both screamed in unison and began to jump up and down with excitement. I quickly changed my work clothes into a sweater and jeans and we drove to "Plumber Guy's" home. His family greeted us with congratulatory hugs and love.

The night was perfect. Our love was perfect. I was truly blessed and looked forward to starting our future together, as an eternal married couple.

Thirteen years later, there have been some heart breaks, loss of loved ones, some trials, and once in a while some disappointments. But most important, there has been love. A love that continues to grow with each year that goes by.