I figured since everyone already got his side of the story, I should probably tell mine.

It was a typical Wednesday at work. I was counting down the days until our trip to Denver, and making countless lists of all the things left to do before our Friday morning departure. *ping*! I get a message on gchat from Porya…..”Do you want to go golfing after work?” Of course I don’t. “Who else is going?” Hoping he is just asking me to be nice. “Just us!” Oh dear..I guess I can’t just say no and make him go alone. “Fine, but as long as you order me a chicken greek salad to eat in the car” Might as well get a free meal out of it since we have no food in the house. “Sure!” So it’s settled. I have a million things to do, and golfing is now one of them. For him.

And then shit hits the fan. Things at work are running late, and I fear that he will be super disappointed when I tell him I won’t be home till 7. Surprisingly he says it’s fine, and I should just text him when I am leaving so he can order our food.

So I text him when I’m in the car at 6:38. Traffic is smooth sailing, so I am home by 6:45. I decide that since I have time, I might as well leave the car in the 5 min parking to go up and change.

I walk into a clean house. This is a shock. Our house is never clean…and it certainly wasn’t when I left for work. All of the doors are closed, and there is a giant grey box with a red bow on the table. Beside that is a bottle of wine, some cheese and crackers, and a sign that says “Open me”. Call me crazy, but my first reaction was “I wasn’t suppose to come upstairs. I wonder who this is for? Did I walk in on something I am not suppose to? There is no way that this is for me!”

So I send him a text. “Here.” and I stare at the box with a look of confusion.

“My friend is driving, park and come eat upstairs….he’s coming in 10″ is his response. OK phew…it IS for me. But why? My birthday is in August….. maybe he forgot? Maybe he was REALLY excited about buying me that chicken greek? Regardless, I tear open the giant box….with no idea what is going on. Doesn’t he know that we are already late for golfing as it is?

Inside the box, I find a note and another box. I don’t even think I fully read it, but it said something about relaxing, having some wine and snacks, and I glance at the 4 month old wine, and the stale crackers. Cute.

I text him back “Did u order the food?” clearly there is no food here so I want to try and gain some insight.

“Ya I already picked it up, come eat”.

He clearly wants me to come upstairs and open the boxes, so I tear through each box, only to find a smaller and smaller box inside. FINALLY I get to what looks like a ring box. OHMIGOD it’s a ring box. Or maybe it’s just earrings? Yes, it’s probably just earrings. There is no way it’s a ring.

So I text him again. “If your friend is going, then I’m not. I’ll just go do errands if you don’t need the car.” He still doesn’t know I found the boxes.

“Are you going to eat first?” At this point I know he is squirming. Teehee. Serves him right for promising me a chicken greek and not delivering.

So I take a deep breath and open the box. I let out a sigh of relief when I find the box is empty. At the very top of the box is a small note. “Pisanos, 8pm under Rajabi. Order yourself a bottle of wine”.

8pm? It’s only 7 by this point. My heart is racing. What just happened? I quickly throw all of the boxes back together for a photo. If this is really happening, I need a photo.

I text my best friends photos of the empty ring box……with the message “ummmmmmmmmmmmm”. I waste about 20 mins on the phone freaking out a little. I even asked if I could go hide at her house. Yes, of course this is what I’ve been asking for persistently for the past year. Yes, this is why I’ve gone to jewellery stores on countless occasions. Yes, this is why I’ve left 5×7 images of the type of ring I want taped to his orange juice container. But that’s because it wasn’t really going to happen. And now it is. “I’d laugh if it’s earrings” I tell her.

At 7:20 I realize that I probably smell bad and look like a train wreck. I have 40 mins to transform myself into someone worthy of what belongs in that empty box. Luckily I have an arsenal of dresses in my closet, and I know just the one for this occasion. If we are going to a restaurant most likely everyone will be watching, so I have to make it chic, classy but still a hint of sexy.

7:55. Good enough. Black dress, black shoes, black purse. He left walking directions on my desktop but it’s like a million degrees outside, so I opt to drive. The car is still sitting in the 5 min parking anyways. So I grab the ring box and head to the restaurant. I will need the ring box….for the pictures

I arrive and I’m super nervous. Do the waiters know? Are they going to slip the ring in my wine? Will there be musicians? Will people clap? I order a bottle of red……and check the glasses throughly before I take a sip. Wouldn’t want to shallow it by mistake. He texts me to ask if I’ve left yet. “I’m here drinking alone” I tell him. He was certainly making me wait. He asks “better then golfing?” to which I reply “I guess, but I really wanted that chicken greek”.

He finally shows up at about 8:30. By this time I’ve drank half the bottle of wine. We order dinner, and make chit chat. I am on edge anytime a waiter approaches, or the front door opens. I am usually an eater, but I hardly touched my meal. We pack up our feasts and he pays the bill. “Lets go home” he says. “What??” I’m thinking to myself. Was it all a big joke? I must look like an idiot. I text my friend in the car… “Worse then earrings. I got nothing”.

We get into the elevator, and he asks me to close my eyes. He takes my purse so I can use both hands to cover them. Little did I know that he needed my purse to get the ring box that I wasn’t suppose to take with me. It was suppose to just be waiting for me when I opened the condo door.

He leads me down the hallway, as I can’t see a thing, and opens the door. I open my eyes, and there are candles glowing. The old wine has been replaced by a new bottle I picked up from Niagara that I’ve been saving for a special occasion. He gets down on one knee and presents the box….this time with a shiny new ring!! “OHMIGOD!” I manage to say “I guess so?” before he shoved the ring on my finger and gave me a big hug and a kiss!

I had been sitting on a sparkling new diamond ring for about 5 weeks, but was unable to put together an exciting plan on how to present it to my girlfriend. I obsessed excessively on the perfect way to propose, but see-sawed between grand gestures, epic surprises, and romantic settings. The internet was of little use – despite some of the most incredibly though out proposals, the ideas presented there were neither reproducible, nor unique for me after I had seen them. I tried to focus on the core idea of a proposal and think about what would make the strongest impact. What will make it an unforgettable experience for her that is special and exciting? I came up with two necessary ingredients: unexpected and suspenseful. I needed this to hit her out of left field – so no booking any get aways or setting asides dates or piggy backing on special occasions. I also needed her to become aware of what was happening so that there could be some suspense – an unknown anticipation that gets her heart pounding. I would save the adventure and romance for our honeymoon and the public displays of affection for our wedding. This was something different, it was something exciting.

The core of my plan boiled down to this very simple concept: let me pick a time where she is in her weekly routine and on mundane autopilot and present her with a message, “I am going to propose to you tonight – you have one hour to get ready”. Instant adrenaline. You know its coming because I just told you, but its so fast that it catches you off guard. You are left with nothing for the next hour except your own racing thoughts and your pumping pulse. That’s the suspense.

Over the next few hours I put together some of the details to achieve this. I picked an evening after work to schedule a golf game for us – something that is not out of the ordinary. Once she gets home, I am no where to be found, and instead she is greeted by a spotless condo, and inside, sitting on an empty table is a giant wrapped box with a bow and a sign that reads “Open Me!”.

What’s in the giant box you ask? Its a series of smaller and smaller boxes each with a quick note hinting about the contents of the boxes and encouraging her to relax and indulge in some wine and cheese sitting beside her mystery box. The final box is the engagement ring holder – and instead of the ring waiting for her inside, she only finds an address to a restaurant and a time. The plan is for her to have enough time to get ready and expect to be presented with the actual ring during the dinner awaiting her. Or so she thinks… and instead, the dinner is just that – a nice dinner at a local restaurant. The real surprise is waiting for her back at the condo. On the way home she’ll be thinking, surely there is nothing waiting for us back home, I was just there and there is nothing there. Little does she know I snuck back in right after she left the condo and replaced the boxes with some candles, flowers, and the engagement box – except this time the ring is actually inside. Surprise!

The reality turned out a little bit differently however. You see, other people are also capable of the unexpected and there are many parts of this plan that strayed off the main path or simply were just never thought out. For instance, she took the engagement box with her to the restaurant (but more on that later). My main problem was that I had no way of knowing when she would leave the condo and hence, when to sneak back in and create my new setup. One of the key concepts was that I wanted her to be alone in her thoughts, so any communication between us was out of the question. The other issue was that I needed to get into the condo as soon as she left so that the time between when she arrived at the restaurant and when I came would be minimal. In the end, I convinced our security guard to keep an eye out on the elevator camera’s with a detailed description of my beloved. At 8:05 PM I caved and texted her for fear that she was already waiting at the restaurant and I had missed her. She wasn’t – but it was even worst, she had taken the car and was en route. This took away my plan B which was to use the car to drive the 1km stretch and gain some time. I rushed to do my new setup, only to find the next disaster: the engagement box missing. With the ring now stuffed in my pocket and beads of sweat dripping down my back in the 40+ degree weather, I raced towards the restaurant without any clear plan on what I would do with the ring.

The restaurant, with its heavenly AC, was a nice break. I got to enjoy a pleasant meal, relaxed to think up a new plan, and mischievously smiled every time I saw my fiance to be squirm or fidget in her seat. After a wonderful meal, we packed it up, got in the car and made our way home. My new plan was put into effect where I asked her to close her eyes from the elevator ride up while I dug through her purse to find the missing box. In the mean time, my off key humming served as a distraction to cover up the sounds of the clasping box; in retrospect, I don’t think my cover was too successful. The rest as they say was history since I had no intention of further delaying the anticipation and wanted to enjoy a night of celebration. Kneeling down on my knee, I happily accepted her “I guess so” response and we held a deep embrace while I slipped on the main attraction onto her finger.