“Oh, I got out early, so I called you.
Don’t be mad, but Michele Martino called and asked if you
were dating anyone because she thinks you and her friend
Dave would hit it off, so I gave her your number and told
her to give it to him.”
"Oh.”
I decided to wait
until I got home to listen to the voicemails, one of which
was from Dave. I called Lori back once I listened to it,
gave her a detailed account of what it said, and decided I
would call him after work the next day since he didn’t sound
like an axe murderer. The fact that he was able to come
across as funny and sweet without being creepy added to the
fact that Michele was friends with him made me willing to
call him back and MAYBE meet up for a drink. The next day I
called as soon as classes were over, hoping I’d get a voice
mail. However, in the wonderful world of Corporate America,
people can answer their phones mid-day. Dave answered, I
introduced myself, we chatted for a bit and decided to meet
the following Monday at Houlihan’s in Eatontown.
We met up at
Houlihan’s, had a drink, then another, and were seriously
contemplating our third before we decided that we could make
the commitment to actually eat together. I remember
perusing the menu and thinking about going the salad route,
but I decided to order like I often do and got the bacon
cheeseburger and was my usual pain in the ass and modified
it to come plain, added sautéed onions and BBQ sauce and a
side of ranch. My friend’s grandma one time told me that in
relationships, you should, “start out like you can hold
out,” and I figured Dave should know what he was getting
into in terms of me and ordering food. So we ate, continued
talking, and finally left about four hours after we got
there. Since Christmas was three days later and I was going
to Kauai with my mom for the break, we had about two weeks
to assess the situation and decide if a second date were in
order.
The day before I
left Kauai, I received a text from Dave wishing me a safe
flight. When I got home, we made plans to go to Juanito’s
in Red Bank because I love it there, and it was early enough
in the relationship that Dave wouldn’t tell me that he
doesn’t really like Mexican food. We met for dinner and
then went to Jamain’s for drinks afterward. I don’t really
remember what we talked about, but we ended up closing the
bar and then stood in the street talking for about an hour.
I could go one
about date three, date four, etc., but you get the picture.
We had a great first date, which led to date two and here we
are.
Our Engagement
[in the chorus of 'c' ... I mean her
voice]
The big engagement
story . . . I would feel that I were being a bit untruthful
if I didn’t start out by saying that by the time we got
engaged, the toe inside my head was tap, tap, tapping, as we
had been dating for two and a half years, and I would have
said yes if Dave had asked me at six months. That being
said, I thought Dave might ask on our trip to St.
Croix, but since I didn’t want the vacation to be ruined by
immense disappointment on my part if he didn’t ask, I had
tried to convince myself that if he didn’t ask, it wouldn’t
be a big deal. Although it probably would have been a long
flight home for Dave, as he would have been trapped with me
in a plane while I dissected the minutiae of where our
relationship was headed.
Anyway, on our
flight down, I was fairly convinced that he wasn’t going to
ask because he was acting really normal (well, for Dave). I
figured that if he were going to ask, he would be nervous.
(Clearly, I can over-analyze a situation.) We arrived fairly
late on Saturday, barely making it to the restaurants before
they closed for the night. Sunday, we had a great morning
and afternoon exploring Christiansted and Protestant Key,
but I was wiped out by a case of food poisoning that
evening. While doing my best to suffer silently (at one
point I told Dave that I would get ready to go to dinner in
a few minutes), the night ended before it got started as I
never made it out of bed other than to be sick. However, I
awoke bright and early Monday morning feeling much better.
When Dave woke up and asked me how I was feeling, my
response was, “I’m starving!” At that point, he knew I was
feeling myself again. We made plans to rent a car and
explore the island. When I finished doing my hair, I came
out into the room and Dave was on the balcony. I figured he
was enjoying the view and went to brush my teeth. When I
was finished, he was still on the balcony, which is a little
odd, since Dave doesn’t like the heat. I was ready to go,
so I went out and struck the same stance he had. He looked
at me and I said, “So?" He then said, “So.” I then gave him
a hands-up, what-are-we-doing gesture, and then he gave it
back to me. For a second I thought to myself, “What are we,
eight?” But then he reached into his pocket, took out a
ring box, got down on one knee and said, “Denel-l-l-l-l-le .
. . “ and I said, “Yes-s-s-s- . . .” “Will you marry me?”
“Yes!”
We decided not to
tell anyone back home about our news because we wanted to
savor being engaged all by ourselves. It was nice to have a
week of no one asking, “Have you set a date?”, “How many
attendants are you having?”, “What kind of flowers do you
want?”, “How are you going to wear your hair?”, etc. While
we know that these questions are asked out of genuine
interest, it was nice to just enjoy being together and
basking in the moment.
