That Was Close

“I want to propose to your sister on Sunday after our Valentine's dinner date. Will you help me set it up?” He asks me with butterflies in his eyes, his excitement fluttering in the air with the question.

“Yes of course! Oh god I am so excited for you both! She’s been getting antsy with the big question. I don’t think she’ll expect it that night.” I say with ideas already pouring out of my mind. But I restrain myself. “How were you thinking of doing it?” I ask cooly.

Mark beams with a sweet grin, like he always does when he’s happy. “I was thinking of having you set up candles leading to a sign or display so she has to walk through the candles before she sees the question. What do you think?”

I’m a twenty eight year old woman but I squeal like a fourteen year old girl at a Justin Beiber concert. “Oh my god I love it! That sounds so romantic and she will not expect that set up. I can have music playing too!” I whip open my notebook and begin furiously writing down ideas. 

Mark chuckles, “I’m glad you like the plan. I thought about waiting until we were surrounded by your family but she’s always said she wants an intimate proposal.” I nod in agreement. “I think this intimate proposal is exactly what she is hoping for and I truly think she is going to love everything. I promise I will do everything I can to make this an unforgettable night for you both.” I gently take his hands, like a brother, I love him deeply. 

“I am so glad you are asking my sister to marry you. You’re a good man and I think you two are going to be very happy together.” I say choking back tears at the thought of my big sister getting married. 

“Thank you Shelby. I appreciate your blessing and your help with this special night.” He says as he squeezes my hands. “She deserves the best experience.” I notice he is getting misty eyed as well. I clear my throat. “Alright let’s get to work!” I say and get back to brainstorming with my future brother in law.

A week later, Mark and I have our conspiracy all planned out. My sister, who is completely oblivious to this upcoming event, is on her way to meet me at our favorite breakfast spot to celebrate our traditional Galentine's Day. A mom and pop restaurant that’s been cooking the same hearty breakfast dishes for forty years. Potted plants and bistro table sets are thoughtfully arranged throughout the room and little old ladies gleefully take our meal orders, happy to have interactions outside of their homes. A steaming stack of blueberry pancakes in the shape of hearts sat on both our plates. We both delightfully washed them down with a spiked mocha. It’s Saturday morning so we don’t feel a smidge of guilt.  

“So where are you guys going for your dinner date tomorrow?” I ask, already having memorized their entire night, I was just playing the part. 

“We are trying out this Puerto Rican restaurant in Denver. We’ve heard good things so I’m looking forward to filling up with tacos and margaritas.” She smiles and takes another bite of her pancakes. I watch her and think about how both our lives will be changing tomorrow night. I’m suddenly flooded with our childhood memories, filled with laughter and bickering, the only way sisters communicate, no matter their age.

I force down a lump in my throat and quickly blink to dry up my forming tears. I shove a forkful of pancake into my mouth to help keep me focused on our conversation. 

“How are you and Jake doing?” She asks. My boyfriend Jake and I have only been dating for about six months now and she likes to check in with me frequently to keep my head out of the clouds. No matter how old I get, she’ll always have that protective wing over me. I smile with my mouth half full of pancake. “He’s good, thanks for asking. We are going to take a day trip to the mountains tomorrow before coming home to cook dinner and watch a movie.” This was only a partial lie. 

“That sounds fun! Just be careful driving around those mountains, ice is still everywhere.” She warns me. I roll my eyes. “Yes mom.” I whine. She rolls her eyes back at me. “Whatever”, she chuckles and holds up her spiked mocha, “cheers to another Galantine's Day.” We clink our handmade mugs and begin to fight over the check.

Todays the day. I sing to myself as I curl my hair. I do a mental checklist for the day's events and what I still need to pick up. I have the fifty fucking battery lit candles that are going to take forever to switch on and place strategically to make it look casual. I have two large bags of flower petals that I’m excited to throw around their house. I just need to pick up these balloons letters, which I discovered are not a common purchase in this area and we need to drive to some obscure town to buy them. But it’s around the area where we will be spending the afternoon so we’ll pick them up while we’re out. That’s what I get for not ordering them in time from Amazon.

I hear Jake pull his old jeep into my driveway. I left the door unlocked for him and I hear his boots squeak on the hardwood floor as he walks in. “Hi babe!” He calls out. “I’m in the bathroom, I’m almost ready!” I shout back as I smear on the last bit of my mascara and unplug my curling iron. A minute later I walk out to the livingroom and greet him with a kiss. “You seem happier than normal.” He smiles, wrapping his arms around my waist. 

“It’s not every day my sister gets engaged!” I beam with excitement, wishing tonight would come faster. “It’s ten in the morning so as long as we get back by five we’ll have plenty of time.” I say, gathering up my coat and purse. “Can I drive?” I ask, batting my doe eyes. He laughs in a mocking exaggeration. “No, let’s go.” I smile and shrug. “Worth a try.” 

Jake and I enjoy a picnic and an afternoon driving through the mountains. Snow was still piled high along the side of the roads from the last storm. We park in front of the store that sells the letter balloons and I tell Jake I’ll just be a minute to pick up my order.

It looks like an upscale dollar store and I approach the counter where a crotchety looking man is sulking behind the counter. “Hi there, I’m here to pick up an order.” I say brightly. I notice he smells like a smoke break. He grunts and begrudgingly moves toward the shelf behind him. “What’s the last name?” He asks. 

“Bennett.” He slowly scans the shelf and finally grabs the box with my name on it. He rings me up just as slowly. “That’s gonna be $25.89.” 

“Would you mind if I just check the contents real quick? It’s really important that everything is there.” I ask. He rolls his eyes, not hiding his annoyance. “Fine but make it quick, I’ve got other customers.” I look around and notice there is literally nobody else in the store but I don’t argue. I open the box and see the gold balloons letters that I’ll hang up later. I spell out the letters and realize something is missing. “There is a letter missing. I need two M’s, there is only one here.” I say

“We’re out.” He grunts. “I was very specific with this order.” I say while maintaining my patience. “It was confirmed that it was correct on your website. Please can you double check through your inventory to see if you have a second one?” 

“I do the inventory myself young lady, I’m positive we are out of M’s. How important can one letter be anyway?” He says, beginning to push my buttons with ‘young lady’.

“It is extremely important.” I persist. “This is for a proposal and I need it to spell ‘Marry Me?’ It can’t say ‘arry me?’ or ‘Marry e?’ That will look ridiculous. Please sir, would you please double check your inventory to see if maybe a little letter just slipped by and is still hiding here. Please?” 

He stares at me and I just stare back, standing tall and refusing to move. “Fine, I’ll check if it’ll get you out of here.” He grumbles and waddles off to look through the back stockroom. I wait at the register and wipe my upper lip which is only slightly perspiring. I wait for what seems like thirty minutes but what is probably only ten. He shuffles back to the counter and I see in his hand what I was praying for. “You’re a lucky young lady.” He says as he tosses the M shaped balloon onto the counter. “Now, that’ll be $25.89.” I swipe my card, gather up the life changing balloons and thank him profusely as I rush out the door. 

I carefully walk over ice patches as I approach the jeep. “That was stressful, I’m sure driving this awesome jeep would cheer me up.” I bat my eyes at Jake again. He hesitates before answering. “Ugh ok fine, but expect me to backseat drive. This is my baby.” I laugh and climb into the driver's seat. “I thought I was your baby?” I tease. 

“You are my baby but this is my first baby so be careful with her.” He insists as he buckles up. “Don’t worry I’ll be gentle.” I shoot him a wink and rip out of the parking lot.

A mile down the road we are stuck in the snow filled embankment. “Dammit Shelby I told you not to crash my jeep.” Jake shakes his head. 

“Ok I did not crash it, we are just stuck in some snow. No biggie. Let’s switch so you can try to get us out.” Jake looks down at his feet. We weren’t planning on any hiking so he just brought his crocs. An overall poor choice for a person during winter. He opens the door and lands in a foot of snow. His crocs fill with snow, quickly turning to an icy slush against his feet. “Dammit.” He mutters and hobbles over to the driver's side. I crawl over and check the time. “Shit” I whisper. It’s already four thirty. Their dinner reservations are for five and we need every available minute to set up everything.

Jake revs the engine several times and tries different gear shifts. The jeep doesn’t budge. “Shit” We both say out loud. “Do you have any mats or a container of litter in the trunk?” I ask and I grow concerned with his length of pause while he tries to remember.  

“Nope.”

“Great.” My mind starts to race, wondering when will be the appropriate time to text Mark to tell him this won’t be the night he’ll propose because I’m stuck on the side of a mountain. “We need to start digging the jeep out. We have to make it to their house in time to set up. I can’t let Mark down.” I say as I jump out of the car. 

“I don’t even have shovels, babe.” 

“Of course you don’t.” I roll my eyes and rip off my jacket. Thankfully I brought my gloves. “Come on, start digging.” 

We spend about fifteen minutes hand scooping snow away from the tires before we need to take a break to warm our hands. I wipe sweat away from my forehead with my frozen fingers.

Suddenly, like an angel sent from Ford, a large blue truck slowly passes by and I turn and chase it, waving my arms like a lunatic. “Wait! Please stop, we need help!” I scream at the truck, hoping I didn’t just wave down a serial killer. It stops and slowly backs up in front of us. An older gentleman gets out and adjusts his baseball cap observing the obvious predicament we’re in. “In a little pickle?” He jokes. “Ha yea, we’re stuck and it’s really important we be somewhere soon. Would you please be willing to help pull us out?” I find myself once again pleading. 

“Sure not a problem.” He looks down at Jake's crocs and chuckles. “Do you have any rope?” Jake does a wide trot through the snow to check the trunk. 

“Nope.”

“Lucky for you I do. Let’s get you out of here.” He chuckles again and hooks up the rope to the vehicles as Jake and I shiver uselessly in the deep snow. 

Fifteen minutes later we had excessively thanked the stranger and we were off. We might make it to pull off this proposal after all. I enjoy my seat on the passenger side.

At six we park across the street from my sister's house. I find the key under the doormat, say hello to their cat and jump into proposal execution mode. “Jake, I need you to blow up these letters while I set up the candles.” I instruct. “You got it, chief.” He salutes me and begins opening the bags holding the balloons. I strategically scatter the rose petals down the hallway and into the living room, then start the tedious task of switching on each stiff plastic switch on every tiny candle. Being sure to place them in a way a woodland fairy would see fit. 

Mark said they would be going to dinner and maybe dancing after so we should have until eight, maybe even nine. I hear my phone buzz and it’s Mark.

“She has an early shift tomorrow and wants to call it early. I’ll drive slowly but we should be back in about thirty minutes.” 

“Fuck, why does my sister have to be such an old lady?” I mutter and look around at what we still have to do. 

“Hey babe, this balloon isn’t filling up.” I look at him and take a deep breath. “You have to make it work, it has to be filled, there is no other option. Make it happen.” I say as I continue to place candles on the ground. “Yes ma’am.” I appreciate him continuing to struggle with that stupid balloon as I fetch the champagne glasses from their cabinet. 

I grab the already blown up letters and begin stringing them through the ribbon it came with so we can hang it. After some extra swearing, Jake blows up the last balloon. “Whew, that was close.” He laughs nervously and hands it to me. “Thank you babe, you did a great job. Now grab a chair to help me string this up. We’ve got about five minutes.” I say. It takes two adjustments but we finally it straight and the height I want. 

“We need to change.” We run to the bathroom with our packed bags, knowing we were going to take pictures tonight, I wanted us to at least look presentable. I’m zipping up my clean jeans when I hear Mark's car pull up. “Oh god the music.” I say as I struggle to pull my sweater over my head. “I’ll set up the camera.” Jake shouts as he runs to the living room. I’m sweating as I hop down the hallway to follow him, trying to put on my sock. I take one last look around our display. The room is glowing with love. 

I hear them at the front door. 

“FUCK.” I fling myself to the speaker, press play and Ed Sherans ‘Perfect’ floods the room. I run and hide with Jake and press record video. They walk in, Mark is saying something sweet to Riley who is already crying. I guess the jig is up. I quietly follow them down the hallway recording every moment. We enter the candlelit room, illuminating those stupid gold balloons spelling the words most women pray for at some point in their life.

Marry me?

Joy falls from my eyes and I can barely hold the camera still. I thank God that I’m part of this wonderful moment. Mark gets on one knee and opens a little red velvet box, cradling a sparkling ring, the one Riley picked out a long time ago.

Through her tears I hear a “yes.” Mark puts the ring on her finger and they embrace. I feel Jakes’ hand around my waist and he kisses the back of my head.

“You helped do this.” Jake whispers in my ear. I smile, my face is wet and streaked with mascara. I forgot to put on the waterproof one this morning. Mark and Riley turn and look at us. Riley is glowing brighter than the candles. 

“Congratulations!” Jake and I shout.

Riley and I hug each other tightly, only the way sisters can. I grab her hand to adore the ring and Jake pops open the bottle of champagne. 

“We are so happy for you two!” I say, still sweating over how close of a call that was.

“Thank you so much for setting this up for me.” Riley gushed. “You guys did a great job, it’s absolutely beautiful. You always make these displays look so effortless.” 

“Ha, yes it was effortless.” I say, withholding the tense reality of that day. The four of us toast to their engagement and enjoy the rest of the evening talking about their wedding plans. I’ll tell her later how this engagement almost ended horribly but ended up being perfect, just like Ed Sheeran sang all along.