The day after our vacation I spent the morning shopping for groceries and cleaning the house. At noon, I headed for the door to pick up my son from school. I looked down at my engagement ring as I had done a hundred times that day and saw that it was gone! "No! No! NO!" I cried. My heart literally sank in my chest and I knew at that moment just how much I loved Victor.
He had given me a ring years ago, sort of as a promise ring, that I lost. Yes, I lost it just a few months after he gave it to me. Now he gives me an engagement ring and I lose it within just a few days - he would never let me live this one down. I was devastated. I was angry at myself for wearing it even though it was too big and needed to be sized. I was prepared to scour the jewelry stores that day and buy myself a replacement ring so he would never find out. "God, if you ever do anything for me in this life, help me find this ring!" I pleaded.
I had to leave to pick up my son. I searched the walkway and my car for the ring on the way to the school. I hadn't seen my son for a week and I promised I would take him to lunch that day. We piled into the car, "Honey, I'm sorry we can't go to lunch right now. I have a big problem and I need your help." I explained about the ring and he agreed to help me look for it.
We got home and I began retracing my steps in my head. I had done the groceries but I was pretty sure it was on my finger on the way home because I remembered admiring it while my hand was on the steering wheel, it was so sparkly that I couldn't help myself. I put out the recycling, did the laundry, went to the washroom...what if it went down the toilet and I didn't notice!! As I stood in the doorway trying to decide where to start looking, my son walked into the kitchen, gently kicked the pile of empty grocery bags I had left on the floor to later put into the garage, and we both heard a little clinking noise on the kitchen tile. He reached down and pulled out the ring from one of the bags. "Found it!" I ran to him and hugged him. "You're my hero!" I declared. I could not believe my luck. "You are my hero!"
On the way to lunch my son had other things on his mind. "Mom, there's this game..."
"It's yours" I said, "Let's go get it right now."
Victor looked at me from across the small table on the beach. His dark brown eyes were sweet and his posture was relaxed. Our waiter had just lit the candle on the table between us. We could hear the waves lapping the beach just a few yards away, and I could feel the sand creeping into my sandals as we sat under the palapa and the stars. A soft breeze kissed my cheek and the mood was set. I was about to be proposed to. I had the suspicion all week and this would be the perfect night to do it. We talked over dinner about what we meant to each other and how we missed one another on the occasions when one of us was out of town. Then he said, "I guess this is it right? Forever. We're going to be together forever, so I guess this is it."
"Very romantic," I retorted playfully. "Yes, this is it for me, that's for sure." I said. We had already been together for seven years by that night.
"I mean, I don't want anything else." He clarified. He reached over and took my hand, playing with the ring that my Grandmother gave me earlier that year before she passed away. It was her engagement ring and she had worn it for seventy-five years. It was a pretty and delicate Celtic gold ring with a small diamond in its centre.
"You really love that ring" he said, moving it around on my finger with his thumb. I barely noticed him fiddling in his pocket with his left hand. When I looked up he was holding another ring out toward me. "Maybe you should have this to go with it" he said.
I stared at him slightly surprised despite my previous suspicion. But something was missing. I continued to smile and wait for him to say more. "I guess what I'm trying to say is, will you marry me?" Before I could answer he added, "Someday" with a bashful smile. It would be his second marriage.
I laughed and said, "Yes, of course I'll marry you, someday."
He placed the ring on my finger, we got up from the table and kissed and hugged on the beach in the Dominican Republic on Friday May 5th, 2012. "I'm sorry I didn't get down on one knee" he said.
"It's OK" I told him. "I don't mind."
We sat back down and over desert, Victor insisted that I go to the jewelry store and pick out a ring that I might like more when we got back to Canada. But the ring he gave me is quite simple and sweet and fits nicely on my finger with my grandmothers ring, like they were meant to go together. I knew I wouldn't trade it for another, but I agreed to look.
"Now give it back to me" he said. "I don't want you to lose it."
JB
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