Our Love Story: Part VI

Goldilocks pokes her head out of a cabin not her own to bring you the next installment of the ever-intriguing, memory stretching saga of the Newman lovebirds.

Enjoy...

Seeing Chris in the doorway of the park pavilion, my recently exed boyfriend, made me waver. I was shocked, I felt awkward and scared…especially knowing that Matt, the man that had stolen my thoughts and visited my dreams, might be coming. For these two men in my life to meet would be tragic and would quickly dispel all my hidden thoughts about a future relationship with this single, handsome and ever respectable man.

I had just recently broken Chris’ heart, right? Why was he standing there smiling? Why was he HERE at all? Was he checking to see if I had been lying about ‘that guy from church?’ Was he hoping to get back together with me? Was he just trying to torture me?

I stood there, looking dumb and not trying to hide it. My mental fingers were all thumbs and if I couldn’t even put it all together in my head-how was I supposed to TALK or know how to ACT? Eventually I welcomed him and quickly added the inevitable question. My attempt was at friendly nonchalance, I tried not to sound like this; “WHY in the WORLD are you here?!?!” But perhaps I did. I don’t really remember~I think I squashed this memory so far down that it now resides in my little toe-a good place for it, if you ask me. All I remember was how worried I was that Matt would show up and see Chris.

Chris reminded me that he had been invited for the party BEFORE we broke up and that he saw no point in us not being friends, just because our relationship was over. Could it be POSSIBLE that a relationship gone awry could still end up on good terms, even staying FRIENDS? Of course, the idea was exciting. I did like Chris. He was a great guy! To leave a relationship amicably would be wonderful…to leave it as friends would be amazing.

I was happy to invite him in then, as long as I knew what he was thinking, but I must admit I was OVERJOYED when Matt never did show up that night.

~ ~ ~ ~

In the next few weeks Matt was becoming a better friend, though at a snails pace and Chris had BECOME a ‘friend’ so my life was happy, simple and busy. It was about this time that the whole rye dip, recipe creating, manhunt ensued. My life was going pretty smoothly, considering.

Smoothly, that is, until the night when Chris asked if we could get together “Casually, of course.” He came over to my house that night…my parents had gone to bed and we were sitting on the couch chatting about our respective college lives, jobs, families, etc. All was going pretty well, until Chris started getting all sentimental on me. He started talking about the good times we had had…how he missed them and wanted them back…how he couldn’t live without me.

Then, he got right down on one knee and held out a box. A tiny one. One that couldn’t possibly hold anything more than a tiny piece of folded paper, a piece of candy, a coin, or say…a ring. The words that came next took my breath away.

“I love you, Rebecca, and I will become the man that you want me to be. I will change in any way you want me to. I’ll do that for you because I love you and can’t imagine my life without you. Just please, give me the chance.”

With that, he popped open the box and revealed a shining glittery and oh-so-sparkly ring cascading with diamonds.

My eyes soaked up the sparkle. My heart stopped. My breath wavered.

“Rebecca, will you marry me?”