Proposal Story

It all started when Aaron casually called me on Wednesday and said something along the lines of, "Hey, we should do something on Friday night. Do you want to grab some dinner somewhere after work." This was not at all unusual considering the fact that we always do something together on Friday night. I said yes and Aaron's not-so-evil scheme was set in motion. On Tuesday night, he called me all apologetically saying, "I almost forgot to tell you, we're going to this nice restaurant, so you might want to dress up." I was a little suspicious, but I agreed that I should dress up. On Friday, I was a little nervous because I thought Aaron might propose but I didn't was to be too sure or else I might get disappointed. He picked me up from work at 5 and gave me a vase with some flowers which included a gerber daisy (one of my favorite flowers). Suspiciously, he was driving his dad's car making up some excuse about how his dad had to borrow his car since it was a hatchback. So we took my car and went to the nice restaurant. The restaurant is set up in a refurbished Victorian era house and the food was great. Afterwords we had a tour of the house from the owner and even saw a friend playing the harp to provide background music. Interestingly enough, the friend's mom was right by the door and on our way out, she said, "I hear congratulations are in order." Aaron and I kind of looked at each other and insisted that we were not engaged. By this time, I had decided that Aaron was not going to propose. However, as we were driving, Aaron asked me what I had planned for the evening. Of course, I had just planned on hanging out with him and proceeded to tell him so. Aaron, trying to be all casual, said, "Well I have an idea that is kind of spontaneous and maybe even romantic." To which my response was, "Spontaneous and romantic? Here in Owensboro?" Aaron drove me to a restaurant where we had one of our first dates. There was table reserved for us and on the table were four envelopes. By this time I knew he was 75% sure that he was proposing and so I tried to avoid talking to the family I knew that was sitting just a couple of tables away. I didn't want to be rude, but I also didn't want anybody to interrupt our proposal. In each of the four envelopes was a letter talking about our first four dates and how our relationship progressed. Aaron would read each one to me and we would talk about what I remembered from each of those events. In the last letter, Aaron read, "..and that is why I love you." We had never said those three little words to each other and I'm sure that I had the most shocked expression on my face. I didn't know what to say because he hadn't proposed and I didn't want to tell him that I loved him until he proposed. After the last letter, Aaron told me that we had one more stop and so we drove to the library. Since we were in my car, I asked Aaron if I could return a book that I had with me. He happily obliged and together we went into the library. Yes, I did return a book to the library while my boyfriend was in the middle of his long proposal scheme. Oh, and on the way in, Aaron saw a guy from his work but he didn't let on anything to me. We made our way to the second floor where there was a reading nook which had previously visited and even read T.S. Eliot together. While we were making our way upstairs, I passed a guy I knew from high school. All I could think was, "Don't you dare talk to me, my boyfriend is trying to propose." As we approached the reading nook, I noticed a humongous bouquet of flowers (see picture) and a guy sitting there. I got kind of nervous because I couldn't figure how he would be able to propose with a random guy in the room. But when I we got closer, I realized that it was Aaron's brother just saving the room for us and he graciously left without a word. Inside the room, there were two giant bouquets, a chair pulled forward into the middle of the room and Aaron's guitar case was on the floor. Aaron made me sit down and then pulled a fifth letter out of his guitar case and read it to me. Then he picked up his guitar and played and sang me a song that he wrote right in the middle of the library. If he wasn't in the middle of a proposal, I would have gotten really embarrassed. As it was, I was just amused and impressed with his song writing skilz. After his song, Aaron got down on his knees, took my hands and proposed for real. I said yes, but then I realized that he hadn't showed me the ring. So I told him that I thought I should get to see it before I accepted just so I would know what I was getting myself into. He agreed, pulled it out, and I said yes again. Meanwhile, over the intercom came, "The library will be closing in 10 minutes. Please check out now." As we got ready to leave, two librarians came into the room and excitedly asked whether or not I said yes. I assured them that all was good. They responded, "You've been coming to this library since you were little. We've watched you grow up!" And just in case we hadn't seen enough people already that night, two friends came in and excitedly asked, "Did you just get engaged?" By that point, I no longer cared, and excitedly showed them my ring.
I loved getting proposed to in the library because I love libraries! And I have gone to our library every couple of weeks since I was just a little kid.
The best part about this story is how well it demonstrates our true characters. Aaron is really quite thoughtful, romantic and serious. I, on the other hand, say what I think, am more than a little weird, and say and do funny things while being proposed to.