“No. Don’t you remember? You had to leave halfway through our dinner because you got called away by the hospital. The story of our life!” I huffed, rolling my eyes. “This one doesn’t deserve to be eaten beyond the halfway mark. I should’ve known then you were a workaholic…next!”
Jake just stared at me so I added, “Please?” along with a sweet smile.
The third box was just an ordinary slice of thinly layered chocolate cake.
“No memory on this one?” I inquired.
Then it dawned on me. “Oh, I get it. This is an opera cake. This must symbolize the opera we saw in San Francisco, right?”
“Ding, ding, ding.” He rang an invisible bell.
“This is loads of fun!” I exclaimed, while feeding both of us the cake.
I looked no different than a child opening up presents on Christmas morning. Love and satisfaction filled his gaze as I reveled in each gift.
The fourth box was an easy one to figure out. The pastry chef cut the dessert to look like waves in the blue ocean with little orange fish everywhere.
“This must be Hawaii. Too easy. Let’s see what this one tastes like.” We polished off number four.
The fifth petit four was an intricate Eiffel Tower. It looked too good to eat so we saved it for later—on to the last box.
I was bummed that this was the last one. Jogging through our memories was so much fun.
“Thank you, Jake, for coming up with such an elaborate trip down memory lane. And thank you for crossing off another item on my bucket list. You are just too wonderful.”
There didn’t seem to be enough adjectives to describe the awe I felt for this man.
“OK, I’m ready for the last one.”
Box number six, in my right hand, was quite heavy, so I gathered up the other five into my left hand. Using my hands as a scale, I measured one against the five. This last one was definitely heavier than the other five combined.
“Maybe a pound of butter to symbolize the cooking classes I’ve been taking?” I guessed.
Jake cracked up, nervously.
As this was the last surprise, I slowly opened the box. Jake was peering into my face as I saw another box inside this box. My heart started racing, as I knew that this was another jewelry box—like the kind a girl received when a man got down on one knee, about to propose to the woman he loved. I tried to tell myself that it could be a pair of earrings just as easily as it could be a ring. Even if it were a ring, there was no guarantee that it was an engagement ring.
Then it dawned on me. Oh. It was my eternity band coming back to me. My heartbeat flat-lined immediately with this revelation. Jake must have picked up the band and was going to place it back on my finger. Bummer! I casually opened the box not putting much thought into it, and to my surprise I found Sandy’s ring in there.
I looked at Jake a bit puzzled. “Why is your mom’s ring here? Where’s my eternity band?”
Jake took the ring out of the box and declared, “Emily, I can’t imagine anything I would like more than to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?” Simple as that, he proposed.
It took me a millisecond to replay what he just said to me. It took me another millisecond to answer, “YES!” as I flung my arms around his neck. Jake hugged me back just as fervently. He eventually tried to pry me off so he could place the ring on my finger but I wouldn’t let go.
“Why’d you take so long?” I asked in a petulant and whiny voice. “You know I’ve been waiting!”
“Have you been waiting? I hadn’t noticed.” He began laughing. “I rather liked the disappointment on your face each time you thought I might propose but didn’t. Your anticipation put me on an emotional roller coaster every time.” His laugh turned into a guffaw.
“I can’t believe you did that! How mean are you? You knew I was waiting, but you kept it from me purposely and poked fun at me in the meanwhile?” I pulled myself away from him hoping this would serve as retaliation.
“No, of course not…well, kind of.” He said, pulling me down onto the blanket for a passionate embrace. Finally letting go, he explained, “Many times I wanted to propose, but I kept thinking of reasons why it wasn’t the right moment.” Facing each other, head in our hands, he continued, “for instance, I wanted to ask you to marry me at the Japanese restaurant, but it was a bit too soon after we had reconciled. I wasn’t sure you were ready, and we still had too many issues to resolve. Then when we were at the park, I thought about proposing with the eternity band, but I knew that if you had said yes, I wouldn’t have let you stay in Japan, not even for two weeks.”
“Yeah, I probably would’ve had a hard time leaving you if you had asked that day. But, I was sorely disappointed when you didn’t.”