Is it secret? Is it safe?


"Can we stop at the next rest stop?"

"Sure thing"

"OK" I think to myself... "This is it." I’m nervous, but not as nervous as I thought I’d be. I guess that’s a good sign.

We pull into the parking lot. It’s relatively quiet at this hour. It’s not even nine o’clock yet. I go to the bathroom in the rest stop. I pull the box out of my pocket for the eight hundredth time and make sure the ring is still there.

I stop for a coffee after my bathroom break. I’m still trying to act as casually as I possibly can. Meanwhile, this thing weighs about a hundred pounds right now. I can’t believe she didn’t notice the funny-shaped-pointy-thing sticking out from my pocket. It would almost be a relief if she asked me about it… I’m going to burst if I have to keep it a secret for another hour.

We walk back out into the cold morning air. "Hold up," I say, and get down on the ground like I’m tying my shoe. I then put my coffee down on the ground next to me and proceed to knock it over. Great. Just the way I wanted to immortalize this moment.

I recompose myself and pull the box out of my pocket.

I place the box in her hand and ask her to marry me.

It takes about two full seconds for her to recognize what is actually happening. I panic briefly in that time. It feels like 20 minutes. A rest stop along the highway? What made me think this was a good idea? Have I made a gross miscalculation of her tolerance of my sense of humor? Oh well. Either way, I’ll get a pretty good story out of this. But if she does say "No," this is going to be an awfully long week...

And then finally she answers:

"Yes".

There is giggling. There is disbelief. There are hugs and kisses. We run back into the car to warm up and laugh at the situation. A tremendous sense of relief washes over me.

We make a few quick phone calls to share the news with friends and family and get back on the road. I’m pretty chatty for the next hour or so. I’ve been keeping so much of this to myself for the last month. But it’s always great to talk to her. This feels right.