What started out as a normal, fun Friday date night, slowly turned into a not so normal life-changing date night.
It was a Friday in early November and I had been excited all day for date night with my boyfriend Adam. Our favorite wine bar, Oakley Wines, had just opened their new cellar bar and Adam had a giftcard to Sotto we were anxious to burn. We drool over good wine and think of our selves as foodies, so it was a guaranteed good night ahead. After a celebratory glass of malbec at Oakley Wines, we excitedly headed for Sotto.
Once at Sotto, the staff was incredibly friendly and accommodating and the food spectacular. For the first 20 minutes while nibbling on bruschetta and sipping on wine, Adam was abnormally anxious and energetic. It had been a big week for him in his job, so this wasn’t totally uncommon, but with every bite he took, he acted like he was going to jump on the plate. At one point I had to tell him “if you don’t calm down, I’m can’t relax and enjoy our food!” He settled down for the rest of our decadent meal, but my senses were telling me something was going on. When he got up for the restroom I prepared myself and glanced at his back pockets for the sign of any object shaped like a ring box. Sotto has pretty dim, romantic lighting so I saw nothing, and reassured myself I was crazy. The rest of the dinner went smoothly and I felt as unrushed as ever. We took our time drinking another glass of wine and talking about seeing the new James Bond movie (of which I nearly bought tickets for at dinner!)
On our comatose drive home, I asked Adam to swing by my place to get food for my dog, Bentley, who was at the time at his house. Adam cruised by my exit and said we needed to let Bentley out first. I was slightly annoyed and confused since geographically it made no sense not go to my house first. When we pulled up at his house, Adam threw out the suggestion of walking the dog to my house to get the food then driving my car back. Now I live a mile from him and I love walking everywhere... but I should have known something was up because Adam never wants to just walk longer than 1/2 mile. So it clearly was the wine that blocked my spidey senses, but I grabbed a coat and away we went, me in high heeled boots to top it off.
Our walk home was charming and slow. Nothing we talked about was out of the norm, and we definitely weren’t rushing with me in my boots. The last half of the walk, we decided to do a little dog training. (Bentley used to have a reputation of running away). One of us would run up about 30 feet and the other would let Bentley go so he would continue to learn to come to our voices. Once we got on my street, I said “just let him go, he knows where he’s going now” but Adam insisted we do it one more time. I ran up to the street sign near my house and as he lets Bentley go, I notice a flashing orange light on his collar. Since it was only a week after Halloween, I figured Adam tucked the neighbors yard decorations in his collar, so I just shake my head and go with it. Bentley trots past me heading towards my house and I hear Adam loudly say “grab Bentley!” I stubbornly reply with “ohhh he knows where he’s going, its fine” to which Adam more aggressively says, “grab him and take the light off his collar!” I finally listen and reach down to the collar light and immediately feel a box. I let go and my mind instantly started trying to piece together the night and what I missed. “ Was this really happening??? No way, I controlled the pace of the night! We were going to see James Bond!”
Adam walks towards me, takes the box off Bentley’s collar and gets down on one knee and pops the timeless question. Now I don’t have a clue what he said, but I do distinctly remember him saying he will keep our life together an adventure, so I can keep him to that. After saying yes and weeping, I start looking for sneaky people in the bushes. Adam assures me there is no one watching us, but we are going to stay at my house tonight.
Euphoric and feeling a bit of out of body, I follow him up my porch stairs to a completely dark house thinking he had some roses and bubbly (how sweet!). Well that was correct, but there was also 40 of our closest friends and family waiting in the dark. As the lights turn on, they yelled “Congratulations” and I just stood there completely surprised, overwhelmed, and dumb founded. I was surrounded by my favorite people,balloons, wedding decor, tiny plastic rings and photos of Adam and I everywhere. Adam had also thoughtfully arranged for our favorite Cincinnati food (Eli’s and Pho Lang Than) to cater the party, bought cases of wine from Oakley Wines, and had my favorite cocktail readily available - a moscow mule.
I’m still processing everything 2 months later. What a night.