Engaged!!!!

by Hannah Brown on Monday, March 19, 2012 at 9:17pm

OK, as promised, here is the long story.

Thursday is our” Date Night” most weeks, we go do something together, since I don’t get out much. I was in bad pain for most of the day, but still super excited. I went out to the hot tub with Krystal and her guy Tre to try to help my back. We found and adopted a toy dinosaur. The jets for the tub were not working, so I was really bummed about that, but it was still mega hot, so that helped. After that, I went and got ready, meaning manicure, pedicure, (both super red) facial, etc. (Date Night is serious business) I put on my new black dress, lace top with a pencil skirt, flip flops, pearls, and put my hair up.

 

Right before William got there, his dad Kevin did, we hung out for a second, then William came in to pick me up. I was so damned excited to be out, and to be with him, alone. We were holding hands and laughing, talking, joking, like we always do. We drove over to The Stratosphere, where my favorite restaurant is located, Roxy’s Diner. It is a super corny 50’s themed place covered in neon, where the waitstaff sing once every half hour. They also play old movies and serve really delicious food. The drive took forever, because we made the mistake of taking Sahara at rush hour. I really didn’t mind, since Date Nights are so much fun, I always want them to last as long as possible. (more on that later)

 

So, William “forgot” to put his brief case from work in the house, and we had to bring it in so no one would break our windows to steal it from the casino parking lot. We got inside the casino, got to the restaurant, and I told William to ask for a booth, since my back had been terrible. He went and said something to the hostess. I thought he had asked for a booth, but really he had said the super secret code word, “Two for Aretha.”

 

We were seated in a lovely booth in the middle of the diner.

 

At this point, some mean old woman with a bad perm and terrible fashion taste (Really? That color of yellow with your level of jaundice?) started harassing William to take off his hat. She even pantomimed taking off a hat and putting it on the table. OK. There were about 5 other guys in hats, one woman, and two waiters wearing hats. She didn’t even work there. She just felt like being a horrible, rude person.William said “Just a second,” and rolled his eyes. I gave her a death stare, totally turned around in my seat.

 

Apparently, William’s black fedora was the clue to the wait staff that we were the correct couple.

 

We ordered, William took off his hat, and I did my usual date night stuff, asking about his day, singing to the 50’s songs, doing jazz hands and drinking coke. William ordered a glass of wine. It came in a shot glass on a pedestal, possibly the world’s smallest glass of wine. He got a cheese steak sandwich, and I got the steak dinner with fries, a side salad, and no dairy.

 

Our waitress, Aretha, was great, cracking jokes with the table of drunk idiots sitting behind William. They kept asking her to sing, since that is the theme of the restaurant, and she kept smiling and saying she would soon.

 

William was done with his food in about 10 minutes. I took about an hour. Nibbling french fries and poking at my food a great deal before eating it.

 

Apparently they were supposed to wait until I was done eating to sing.

 

They cleared my plate away, and Aretha asked William if we wanted her to take our picture. I said yes right away because we had been snapping photos with his cell phone the whole time and having one with both of us would be great. William then pulled out some random camera and handed it to her, saying our friend Chelsea had let him borrow it in case we wanted photos on date night. Aretha said that the camera was out of batteries and she would get some from the back. I assumed after a few minutes that the kitchen had stolen our camera and we would never see it again. Then I saw that Aretha and another waiter were setting up to do a song and thought that it was probably a timed thing she had to do, and that is why our camera had not been returned. It was at this point the mean old lady left and thanked William for”finally being a gentleman” sarcastically. The look on his face was priceless. If only she knew!

 

They started a duet, “Unforgettable” by Nat King Cole. I LOVE that song, so William and I were holding hands across the table and I was smiling, thinking that this was totally the best date night ever. Then the instrumental hit, and the duo moved over and sang to our table.

 

William looked at me and said, “Stand up.” to which I replied, “No.” thinking,”He’s being rude, what the heck is happening?” It took him saying “Stand up” 4 times before I did. He got down on one knee and pulled out a little blue box. He opened it and there was a ring. Two heart shaped stones, one garnet, my favorite stone, and one opal, his favorite, with diamonds. I looked at him and thought about the last 10 years; him kissing me goodnight, every single night, him walking into Burger King alone on Valentine’s Day because I wanted a Whopper and didn’t want to go in, him hand feeding my dog kibble and speaking sweetly to her when she was nervous about eating, him talking me through some of the hardest times in my life…I snatched the ring from the box and shoved it on my finger as quickly as possible. He stood up and we hugged and kissed. The whole restaurant was screaming and cheering. I had no idea. It was only me and him. That was all I could think about. We were the only people in the universe for that moment. We stood there hugging until they finished the song, and I then collapsed back into the booth.

 

That wasn’t the end of the night. William had “forgotten his bag” on purpose. He had a comfy dress, and all my essentials, as well as our 1969 bottle of Chianti wine, which turned out to be amazing, like a good port. He had also booked us a suite for the night with a view of The Strip. We went up to our room and it was great, jetted tub, (yay, since the hot tub jets hadn’t worked)  huge bed.

 

We spent the rest of the night walking around the casino, going to the top of the tower, having our caricatures drawn, overflowing the jetted tub with bubbles, and making sweet love in the room. Also a bit in the elevator.

 

I didn’t sleep that night. I just smiled the entire time.

 

The next morning we checked out, hungover, and dragged ourselves through the casino to the parking garage. We went to Denny’s and had breakfast, then went home to our pets. I have barely been able to move because of all the activity for days.

 

Worth it.