Not just another Thursday

Not just another Thursday.

Earlier this week Jake suggested that we go on a date Thursday to Mama D’s in Newport, as he was craving Italian food. I asked if we could change it to Tuesday but he refused pretending Thursday would work better since that was his “pay day”; I complied.

I went to work today… the usual. We agreed to try and catch sunset at the beach before dinner, so he wanted me to be at his house to leave by 6:15 p.m. I got home with just enough time to change from slacks to jeans… and even sent a text saying sorry babe don’t have time to curl my hair, hope that’s okay with you; which tipped him off that I had no idea what was coming. [Clearly I would have curled my mop of hair if I had even suspected a single photo would be taken tonight.]   

I arrived at his apartment in jeans, rainbow sandals, and a blouse from work I was too lazy to change covered with an oversized cardie to keep me warm from the ocean breeze. We drove down to the beach and nothing seemed unusual, except Jake was super talkative; in fact I don’t think I got much more than a word in the whole way down. Apparently he was nervous, I just thought he drank one too many energy drinks today.

We arrive at Huntington Beach and I grab a blanket from my trunk and we start walking towards the water. As we were nearing the water we start heading toward Lifeguard tower #8. I turned to Jake and said “Hey, it’s tower #8, did you do that on purpose?”  He got all giddy (which I thought was cute) and said “I didn’t know you even remembered that.” That being the place which I first told him I loved him—a month late in response to him first telling me just short of five years ago.

He dropped the blanked and turned to pull me in to hug me. He started to tell me how much he loved me and thanked me for loving him and for being his best friend… [which happens to be a joke of ours in which we call each other ‘bess frennn’ with an accent that mimics Forest Gump] only he didn’t say it with an accent, so of course I said it back with an exaggerated accent. He smiled nervously and then got down on one knee fumbling to get something out of his pocket, before I knew it I’m pretty sure he asked me to Marry him and all I could see was a ring glaring back at me and the man I loved on one knee with tears in his eyes.

I may have uttered an expletive while asking “is this real life,” as I couldn’t believe my eyes… after all I thought this was just another Thursday. I took the ring from his hands, likely before I even said yes and became completely overrun with emotion. We hugged and he told me to take off my sunglasses and look over where he had a photographer friend of ours snapping away. Immediately I regretted not curling my hair and changing my blouse but I had the most gorgeous ring in the world on my finger and more importantly the most wonderful man standing next to me asking me to spend the rest of my life with him… which made it all perfect.

Who would have known… June 19, 2014 would most definitely not be just another Thursday.