He handed me a brown paper bag — thoughts you, only a common lunch-size kraft paper bag that was nonetheless flat and folded — and in all seriousness mentioned, “Simply in case you want it.”
Turning to take a look at him — an almost-stranger I used to be about to embark on a espresso date with — I requested, “Is that this in case I get nauseated?”
“That too,” he grinned sheepishly. “However I used to be considering one thing extra like this …”
As his voice trailed off, I watched wide-eyed as he pulled out a paper bag, snapped it open, coated his mouth and compelled it to open and closed with managed respiratory. “We’re each so nervous,” he defined matter-of-factly. “We may have these if we hyperventilate.”
Like a launched champagne cork, laughter exploded and bubbled over, and the chemistry within the automotive modified from frigid temps to cozy and comfy. We chatted like outdated buddies as we hopped on the 57 freeway headed to the Orange Circle, the place we talked over espresso on the Pie Gap, strolled with our palms stuffed in our pockets and planted the start seeds of friendship.
I had lately muddled by a marathon seven-year divorce that left me shattered and devastated, and my household, buddies and kids knew that I’d by no means date once more — and indubitably, I’d by no means get married. I had solely agreed to go to espresso as a result of I knew of him by our 19-year-old boys. Their inseparable friendship throughout their junior excessive years had triggered our paths to cross. We shared quite a few drop-offs and pickups as I mustered by divorce paperwork and he navigated a grief-stricken dwelling with the loss of life of his spouse.
However now, years later, as he walked me to the door, he requested, “Can I see you once more?”
On our second date, he took me to “The Sound of Music” at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. Tears streamed down my face the entire evening due to his cologne and my allergy symptoms. After we mentioned goodbye on the door, I cautiously admitted, “I don’t suppose I can see you once more. I’m terribly allergic to you.”
Stunned, he mentioned, “I believed you had been moved by the singing!” That evening he texted me a photograph of a hammer crushing his cologne bottle.
A number of days later, we strolled by the Muckenthaler Cultural Heart in Fullerton and heard reside music floating by the park. Our curiosity bought the most effective of us, and we rambled onto the grounds to search out an intimate wedding ceremony reception going down within the courtyard beneath. Instantly, he grabbed my hand, and we had been dancing underneath the moonlight whereas the bushes twinkled with floating bulbs and vintage avenue lamps lit up as if on cue. It was as if we had been on the set of “La La Land” — one thing magical and unforgettable. This was the evening he mentioned he fell in love with me.
As companions in crime, we started planning shock adventures for one another over the course of two years: an enchanted evening stroll by the botanical gardens of Palos Verdes; a day journey to San Francisco to eat at Purple’s Java Home and watch the Giants play ball; ice skating on the Lodge del Coronado in San Diego and a caroling trolley experience; “The Lion King” on the Pantages in Hollywood; dinner downtown at Perch previous to the closing efficiency of “Peter Pan Goes Improper” with Neil Patrick Harris on the Ahmanson Theatre; a day on the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades; and a fascinating dinner in a non-public cabana on the Firefly in Studio Metropolis.
So it was no shock when he texted, “Are you obtainable all day on Sept. 21?”
I wrote again, “It’s my time without work. Completely!”
He arrived early and whisked me off to the Huntington Library, Artwork Museum, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino. We spent hours lingering within the Chinese language gardens, consuming within the glass tea home and gazing over the koi-filled pond. We strolled by rose gardens, exhibitions and the unending reward store. By the point 3 p.m. got here round, we collapsed glad and exhausted on a shaded park bench.
“We are able to name it a day for those who like,” I mentioned, yawning. “It’s already been superb.”
In response to my occasion coordinator, the day was simply getting began. Our subsequent cease was Culver Metropolis, the place he gave me a music field that performed “Edelweiss.” It was a clue to our subsequent vacation spot: the Hollywood Bowl for “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music Sing-A-Lengthy.” However first we needed to eat at Lustig, an Austrian restaurant the place we ordered schnitzel with noodles (in any other case often called spaetzle), sausages and a bowl of divine butternut squash soup beneficial by our uber-friendly waiter.
On the Hollywood Bowl, we hissed on the Baroness, booed on the Nazis and shot off confetti poppers when Maria bought her first kiss. When Captain von Trapp sang “Edelweiss” to his youngsters, the entire amphitheater joined their voices collectively, flooding the Hollywood Hills with a surprisingly heartwarming sound of music.
I fell asleep contentedly on the drive dwelling however awoke as we pulled into our favourite spot on the Muckenthaler.
“You wish to take a stroll?” he requested. Sleepily I adopted him to a picnic bench glowing amber within the lantern gentle.
“I wish to provide the similar reward I gave you on our very first date ….”
Puzzled, I challenged him: “You didn’t give me a present on our very first date.”
Slowly he handed me a brown paper bag — thoughts you, only a common lunch-size kraft paper bag, nonetheless flat and folded. “Keep in mind this?” he smiled nervously. “I’m guessing you’re going to wish it proper now.”
And he was proper, as a result of at that second he dropped to at least one knee.
The writer is a librarian for the Fullerton Public Library system. On her days off, she explores new locations and embarks on all-day adventures together with her accomplice in crime and newly acquired fiancé. In her spare time, she additionally enjoys studying, baking, writing, spending time together with her household and her newest pastime — planning a marriage and honeymoon.
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