The Adventure Continues

The hour had finally come. I had spent weeks preparing and coordinating with the amazing Serena and Joy. I had found the perfect ring, I had paid for her to get her nails and hair done, but NYC had just been hit with 8 inches of snow and a brutal cold front that had lingered and caused the romantic carriage ride through Central Park to cancel the day before. The decorations we had ordered were delayed days because of the snow. Luckily for me, Serena was determined to make this work and hunted down everything we had ordered before Sunday afternoon brunch we had left just a few minutes before. Back in our hotel room, Elicia was in the bathroom putting on her makeup, as I unlocked the hotel room safe and retrieved the oversized wooden box holding the ring. I slipped it into the breast pocket of my suit and stared out the window of our 46th-floor corner room at the sun lowering in the sky over a snow-dusted Midtown and Central Park. I joined her in the bathroom to gel my hair. As she frantically applied her eyeliner, I caught myself staring at her in the mirror. "You're so beautiful," I said. "I'm so excited! Are you?" "Yes", she said with a giggle. "Now shut up! You're so obvious!" At this point, what was about to happen wasn't much of a surprise, but she had no idea how or where it would take place. "Ready!" she said. I looked at my phone and the sun was just about to set. As I put on my suit jacket, the oversized ring box was clearly visible against my chest. I tried to cover it with my hand before she saw, but she burst out laughing. "Stop!" I jested. "Go away for a minute" as I tried other pockets to be more conspicuous. We walked into the hall and pushed the button for the elevator. Now I was nervous. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. Memories started to swirl of random moments with her throughout the last five years of my life.

There was a disbelief that I was actually about to do this. As we walked down the street I couldn't stop looking at her. When it got awkward we both laughed and acknowledged it. "I feel like I did on our first date right now!" I said. "I know…" she replied in disbelief. As we approached Central Park the sun began to set. We walked through the snowy road leading to Cop Cot where our loving friends Serena and Joy had decorated with lights, pictures of Elicia and my favorite memories together, and a heart of candles at the center. As we entered the gazebo, Ed Sheeran's "Perfect" began to play. I lead her to the center of the heart. Pulling her close, we slow danced to take in the beautiful scenery. As she lay her head on my shoulder, I felt like nothing could be more perfect than that moment. When the song ended, I got down on one knee and pulled out the ring from my pocket. I was so excited that I forgot 80% of what I had planned to say! Staring up into her twinkling eyes, I could see the overwhelming excitement, joy, and rush of feelings that seemed to flow between us. Holding her hand I said, "I love you with all of my heart. You are now and have always been the best part of my life. I don't know what the future holds, but I want to spend every moment of it with you. Will you marry me?" Through her tears of joy she managed to let out a "Yes!" and crouched down to hug me; almost knocking me over and I almost fell over. The ring slid onto her finger so effortlessly and we embraced one another as her friends came rushing over to congratulate us. I would have stood there with her in my arms forever if I could, but it was 12 degrees and her friends had been outside for over an hour preparing for this. And so began the mad dash to pack up all the decorations and take down the lights before our friends, some of whom were completely underdressed, entered the second stage of hypothermia.

To warm-up, we wandered out of the park across the street into the nearest hotel which just happened to be the Ritz Carlton. I had never been inside the Ritz before, and if I had not been wearing my finest suit, I would have felt out of place. The bar was empty as we stumbled in with bags of decorations. Serena convinced us to order a round of "Hot Toddies" to warm up, and I obliged insisting I owed everyone a round of drinks for helping with the surprise. When the bartender approached to take our order Elicia shouted "We just got engaged!" excitedly showing off her ring finger. I burst out laughing and kissed her. She let out a squeal of excitement as she noticed the glimmer of the diamond in the dimmed table lighting. To everyone's surprise, the bartender appeared from the kitchen with the chocolate mousse cake (Elicia's fav!) you can see in the pictures with "Congratulations" written on it!