We sometimes tell people that we met in the coffee shop where I was a regular and he was a server. Part of that is true, but the real story is a little different. Chris used to work at the hookah bar called “The Egyptian”, in West Lafayette and he had worked there for many years. He was a cook, manager, and server for the restaurant. A few of my friends would often go to the Egyptian and hang out and smoke hookah. So, I became a regular with them and I kept having the same server over and over again. I later found out that this was because he had called dibbs on me and the others weren’t allowed to serve me. We got to know each other through casual exchanges and if he was cooking, I would stand at the window and talk to him while he cooked or if he was serving, he would make time to come and sit by me and chat. I remember I went out for my birthday and I went to the bars of my friends. I had told Chris that I would text him when I got to The Egyptian and then he could hang out with me on my birthday, since he was too young to go to the bars. I guess Chris was at the Egyptian for hours and ended up leaving because he thought that I wasn’t going to show. I guess he walked home sat on his couch all sad and right when he sat down, I had texted saying that I was there. He immediately got up and ran as fast as he could to The Egyptian and hung out with us for the rest of the night. Couple months later we were sitting on the floor in my old apartment in the living room and I looked at him and I flat out asked him “are you going to ask me out or not?” He looked at me surprised by my bluntness and said “well, would you like to go out?” And I said yes. The rest is history.
It was our five-year anniversary of dating. We both worked that day, so we had plans to celebrate after we got off. We were going to go on a walk at a park nearby, but it was raining so badly that we didn’t know if we were going to be able to since it is a flood plain. We ended up going to the botanical gardens in Lafayette and we were hoping it wasn’t drowned. Right before leaving to head to the botanical gardens Christopher picked up are cooler and smiled and said, “I packed snacks!” With a big goofy smile on his face. Those are the best three words ever! We set out for the botanical gardens and we were looking for a place that we could sit down and eat the snacks. We ended up walking to the very end of the trail and found a spot that was right on the bank of the Wildcat Creek. He brought out cheeses, meats, and crackers for us to snack on. There was a snake in front of us that I kept going on and on about. Chris was trying to get my attention so I would look at him and talk to him. He later pulled out a bottle of nice champagne and said it was rather expensive since we were celebrating something. I told him it was fine to splurge a little since we had been dating for five years. He said that there was something else he wanted to celebrate. When he reached back into the cooler, I knew what he was reaching for. He got down on one knee and popped the question. Then, we popped the champagne!