It was Valentine's Day 2015 and Allan insisted on making dinner reservations. I didn't want to be bothered with the hoopla that is Valentine's Day; we love each other everyday of the year why did we have to celebrate on THIS day. He tells me the dinner reservation were set for 7pm and he will pick me up. In true Allan fashion, he was late. He's picks me up after 7 with lovely flowers and the cutest Build-A-Bear Puppy. At this point, I tell him to forget about the reservation and try to convince him to go to Chipotle. He ignores me. As I get ready to leave the house I see him near my Build-A-Bear box, I question him and he says, "You dropped something, I was just picking it up for you." I thought nothing of it and rushed him out the house. As we leave, my mom tells us to have a good night and I happened to mention to Allan that my parents were engaged on Valentine's Day. On our way to the restaurant, it was very reminiscent of our early dating years, a drive to Long Island with R&B music as we cruised along the Southern State Parkway. We arrive at Capital Grille, to my shock and amazement we were on time for our reservations. We had a lovely dinner; champagne, great food and tons of laughs. As our meal was winding down our waitress puts down and gold box on our table, Allan grabs it, leans in, opens the box of chocolate and says “Ha! You thought I was going to propose!” We both laugh and make our way out of the restaurant. On the way back to my house, he made to perfect Love song playlist and it begins to snow lightly. He walks me to my door and kisses me goodnight. As I basked from a great night, Allan called claiming he left something in the Build-A-Bear box. I told him he didn’t leave anything. As we’re going back and forth, I go into the box to find a ring box. Inside this ring box was a piece of paper that said “Come Outside.” My heart sank as I opened the front door to find Allan on one knee and a ring in his hand. I really wished I remembered the beautiful words he said but I was so surprised that I couldn’t comprehend a thing. He finally asks “Will you marry me?” and I replied “Are you * kidding me?” Now after the joke he played at dinner, how could this be real? Allan on one knee, snow lightly falling, it all seemed like a dream. After I snapped out of it and said “Yes! Yes! Yes!” and the rest is history.
Photo Credits - Alexander Williams