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She Said...
It was the second week of August, and
although my birthday was rapidly approaching, Reggie kept asking what
I wanted for a gift and threatening that I would not like the result
if he were left to his own resources. A few days before my birthday,
Reggie called me from work in the middle of the morning to ask if I'd
want to travel to Charleston (one of my favorite places in the world)
for the weekend. He explained that he'd earned the trip as a bonus at
work, and it seemed a perfect way to celebrate the dawning of my late
twenties. He was very busy with church meetings and contract work for
the University, so we hardly got to see each other until we hopped in
his car Friday afternoon to drive to Charleston. The inn was right at
Waterfront Park, was beautifully decorated with antiques, and featured
amenities such as spa-style robes, afternoon wine and cheese tastings,
and fresh-baked cookies and milk at bedtime. During the entire drive,
the sky had looked threatening, and by the time we were ready to
venture forth from the hotel, it was storming violently. After Reggie
and I tried unsuccessfully to play Chinese Checkers with the neat
marble set in the lobby for at least an hour, our stomachs growled in
unison and we decided to brave the downpour. We ended up, soaking
wet, across Meeting Street at the South End Brewing Company, which I
suspected had something to do with our concierge's telling us that it
was owned by professional wrestler Ric Flair. (Reggie fondly
remembers meeting "The Nature Boy" in Columbia a few years ago.)
Although I had hoped for a romantic dinner, the brewery was not the
place to find it. By the time we were seated and eating our
mini-pizzas, we were exhausted and I was doing an excellent
drowned-poodle impression.
After our dinner, the highlight of which (for me) was being able to
color on the table, I wanted nothing more than to head back to the
inn, where dry clothes and warm cookies awaited. Reggie urged me to
go for a walk along the waterfront with him, and even though I drew
his attention to the wet streets rife with "palmetto bugs" (also known
as huge roaches), the hot, muggy air, and the pitch darkness, he was
adamant that we needed to exercise. When I made a non-negotiable
demand for cookies, he suggested I run in to the hotel and get one "to
go." I reasoned that the walking would virtually erase the cookie's
calories and decided this idea wasn't all bad. As we walked briskly
along the deserted waterfront, though, the brilliant plan backfired:
I started having severe I-shouldn't-have-eaten-pizza-and-a-cookie
stomach cramps. By the time we got to Battery Park, I felt I
couldn't go any further and sat down on the only dry spot I saw, the
granite steps of the Confederate Soldiers' Memorial.
Perhaps because of the car that squealed past us, its passengers
screaming obscenities, Reggie seemed anxious to move on. He helped me
up from the steps and we cut across Battery Park and Whitepoint
Gardens to get to Meeting Street and begin our walk back to the inn.
As we approached the gazebo/bandstand, we noticed that possibly for
the first time ever, it was completely unoccupied. Reggie grabbed my
hand and we ran up the stairs into it. He casually asked me, "Didn't
we see a wedding here last time we were in town?" I replied, "There's
ALWAYS a wedding going on. I did see a band performing once,
though...." I started descending the steps on the other side of the
gazebo, anxious to get back to the hotel. Reggie caught my hand and
pulled me back onto the platform. I looked at him strangely, but was
not in any way suspicious because he seemed absolutely calm and
composed. When he dropped to one knee, still holding my hand, I was
flabbergasted. As he proposed, he fumbled in his pocket with his free
hand, but all that came out was some wadded up tissue. After some
struggling, he got the ring loose. As I nodded my answer, completely
unable to speak, he tried to put the ring, which glinted even in the
almost utter darkness, on my right hand. Mutely, I gave him my left
hand. He stood up and hugged me tightly, and a sense of overwhelming
love, peace, and certainty enveloped me. When he told
me he'd asked Mom and Dad's permission, I started crying. (I also
finally understood why Mom had called me three times that day.)
On the walk back to the hotel, although my stomach still hurt some, my
heart (and my finger!) felt great, and the palmetto bugs didn't bother
me at all.
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He Said...
I'd been working on proposing for a few
months -- researching diamonds, visiting jewelry stores, etc. Many of
the times Lee Anna thought I was doing contract work at USC, I was
actually traveling around on engagement-related business. I kept it
almost a complete secret, only telling one friend and Lee Anna's
parents, and then only at the last minute. The night before we went
to Charleston, I drove to Augusta to ask Dr. and Mrs. Maynards'
permission and take them out to dinner.
Lee Anna isn't an easy person to shop for or contemplate proposing to,
because she likes things to look and be done differently than the norm
(never, ever give her red roses). It was helpful that while I
was looking for our ring, she was helping her dad shop for a diamond
ring for her mom's birthday. I thought I had a pretty good idea what
she would want (princess cut with platinum setting), but it was nice
to hear her confirm her opinions as she told me what they'd seen.
Once I got the ring, my next hurdle was figuring out a way to
propose that was different and meaningful to us, yet also feasible.
When I was offered the trip to Charleston at work, it seemed meant to
be. I admit it would have been a masterstroke of planning and
sneakiness if there was no bonus, if I had just made that all up to
throw her off the track and get her to Charleston, but it was just
divinely ordained, I guess. I didn't know exactly when or where I'd
propose, but I knew how much she loves Charleston and thought if I
just carried the ring around with me, I'd know the right time and
place. We had reservations at a very nice restaurant for dinner
Saturday night, so I knew that was a possibility.
The ring box was huge and impossible to carry around in summer
clothes without being really obvious, so I wrapped the ring in
kleenex in the hotel bathroom before we went to dinner Friday night
and put it carefully in the pocket of my shorts. The weather was
terrible and I wasn't that hungry, so I suggested we hang out in the
hotel lobby for a while. We tried to play Chinese checkers, but
neither of us knows the rules, so it was a pretty lame attempt. She
was laughing about something and put her hand on my leg, right on top
of the ring. I began to get the feeling that I might not be able to
go indefinitely without being found out. We had a good meal at the
Brewing Company, and there wasn't any wrestling paraphernalia, so Lee
Anna had nothing to complain about. I thought that, what with the
nasty weather, this night was probably my best chance to take her
somewhere cool to propose without having it be some sort of public
event. I decided it was going to happen tonight, and I turned into
what Lee Anna calls "Lawyer Reggie," answering every one of her
reasons why we should go back to the hotel with a reason why we needed
to walk. After she ran in to get her cookie, we started walking. I
had an idea I'd like to get to Whitepoint Gardens, since that's one of
our favorite spots, so I was walking with purpose.
When Lee Anna sat down at the Confederate memorial, I couldn't believe
it. I was not about to propose there to a woman who went to the "take
it down" rally. I urged her to get up, and we walked across the park.
When we saw the gazebo empty, I knew it was the perfect spot. Even
better, when we got to the top, I realized that we could see Lee
Anna's favorite house in Charleston, number two Meeting Street. I had
a hard time getting her to stay in the gazebo long enough to propose,
and then had a terrible time trying to get the ring out of my pocket
and then out of the tissue. I'm not sure if she knew I was completely
serious until she saw the ring. Once she'd accepted, I kept trying to
get her to look at the ring, because, after all, I'd worked pretty
hard on it and was quite proud of it.
We enjoyed our "romantic" dinner on Saturday night, and on Sunday
morning we went to the Waterfront Park early in the morning and
watched the sun come up from one of the huge porch swings there. We
were the only people there, the weather was beautiful, and it would
have been a great time to propose, so I asked again for good measure.
Fortunately, she hadn't changed her mind.
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