Flashback to 15 years ago

Fifteen years ago I was walking with my boyfriend in the mall. We were Christmas shopping. We came upon a Goodman Jewelers. I asked him, jokingly, "Do you want to see the ring I want?" We had been together for a year and a half, and it just seemed like the relationship was cruising along just fine without us having one of those "where are we?" talks. It was just common knowledge that eventually we would marry, you know?

So we walked in and I started browsing the ring area. They had these displays set up, little trays with like five rows of rings and each row had probably five rings in it. Just to freak him out, cuz I'm mean like that, I said "See the third one down, on the left end?" (It was GIANORMOUS, and very expensive!) His eyes got big and he said "Yeah?" with a kind of gulp swallow.

I grinned and said "Yeah, the one NEXT to it, that's the one I like!" I could literally SEE the relief wash over his face. I had chosen a simple 1/4 carat diamond solitaire, princess cut, just a classic beautiful ring.

About that time, a saleswoman came over and asked if I'd like to try something on... um, DUH! So she brought "my" ring out and I slipped it on and it was a perfect fit. Now that in itself is unusual for me, my fingers are... weird. Long and skinny looking, but in reality, pretty pudgy.

The saleslady asks if we were interested in financing. JP looked at me and then turned to her and said "Could we have a minute to talk alone?" I assumed he was going to ask if we could just do this some other time. We didn't really plan it, after all, we were just looking. Mainly, I wanted to show him the kind of ring I liked so someday SOMEDAY when he went to pick a ring for me, he would know my preferences.

After the woman walks away (I still have the ring on my hand here!) JP says "If I ask you, will you say 'yes'?" I love this guy. He never ACTUALLY asked me to marry him. That is so like him, just sweet and seems to not realize how wonderful he is. Of course I'd say yes!

I told him "Um, hon, I wouldn't be here if I was gonna say 'no'..."
He called the saleslady back over and we proceeded to pick out the wedding band, a 6 diamond wrap that fits around my solitaire.
That was the day we "technically" got engaged. December 12, 1992