The proposal

Sedona had been dating Derek for 5 years now.  Valentine’s Day is tomorrow and she can feel something special is going to happen soon. His whole family had prepared for a proposal coming up though he hadn’t said anything. 

The 14th came and they had planned to go to the beach for Valentine’s Day. That morning 

when Sedona woke up she could hear the rain hitting her apartment balcony. She stepped outside and sat in her chair. She looked down at her phone and got a text from Derek “Meet me outside your apartment we need to talk, now” She stood up and walked across the room sopping wet. She got dressed, pulled her hair into a claw clip, threw on a coat, grabbed her chucks and as thunder struck she was out the door. 

As she walked down the stairs she saw Derek he didn’t look happy almost as if he was confused. She walked toward him more stressed than she had planned. “Happy Valentine’s Day” she said uncertainly. “Um happy Valentine’s Day” He replied sounding puzzled as if it weren’t Valentine’s Day. She checked her phone sure enough February fourteenth. 

“Ok uh I’ve been meaning to tell you I think we need to break up.” He said quickly. Sedona took a step back, she couldn’t speak she was trying to hard to hold back tears. “You see there’s this girl Brook” he said slowly. Sedona now choking on her words “you um-what.”  “But I just don’t feel like we have something anymore, you know what I’m talking about” Sedona now crying slowly nodded. “Bye Sedona”He said. “Bye” that was all she could get out. And with that he hopped in his truck and was gone. She turned around and started walking towards her apartment. “What just happened” she thought.

Sedona dialed her friend Krista’s number. The phone rang. “Hello” she said on the other line “Hi uh you and Hadley need to get over here I need to talk to someone” she said still trying not to cry. “Ok is something wrong are you crying?” Krista said over the phone panicked. “Sort of I just need to talk to someone” Sedona said. “Ok we’re on our way bye” “ bye” she hung up and threw herself on the bed in tears.

Krista, Hadley, and Sedona had been friends since they met in high school nine years ago. Krista was twenty-six and Hadley was twenty-four. She was twenty-five so she was right in the middle. She didn’t know how she was going to tell them what happened.

Twenty minutes later she heard a knock on the door. She open the door and sure enough there were Krista  and Hadley standing in the doorway. “Hey what’s wrong” Hadley said “Derek and I just broke up.” Sedona said as fast as she could.

Krista and Hadley walked in and gave Sedona a hug. Sedona was crying again though she’d promised herself she wouldn’t. “Come here tell us what happened” Krista said as they walked to her bed with her and sat down. Sedona gave up on trying not to cry and told them the story. By the end of it they were all crying and then occasionally laughing. Once they left she pulled herself together and went to sleep.

The next few years went by quickly. It had been three years since her and Derek broke up. She had been saving up for land to own a farm since she graduated college. Her, Krista and Hadley were still friends. Krista had taken up sports broadcasting and Hadley was working her way up to becoming an actress. Sedona met her boyfriend John two years ago when he moved into the apartment next-door.

She told him how she had been saving up money to open a farm. He had told her that it was a smart idea. She could hardly remember what had happened three years ago with Derek when she was around him. 

“Hey would you want to start an agriculture class together to make money to pay for land one day”said John that night. “Yeah that would be cool but what age would we teach?” She replied liking his idea. “we could teach younger kids just to give a basic idea of what agriculture is” he replied smiling at her. “Let’s do it” she smiled back at him. “Ok I have to get home bye” he stood up and walked out of the door smiling. “Ok bye” she waved and an hour after he left she  fell asleep.

Another year went by Sedona was now thirty. 

Her and John were still together and had started an agriculture class for kids, ages nine to thirteen. 

That night they were sitting together, watching a movie it was valentine’s Day. John paused the movie and looked at Sedona. “we need to talk” he said as he walked across the room. Sedona had a flashback of five years ago when she got a text from Derek on her balcony. “John are you ok” she said worried. He looked back and smiled at her. She smiled but was confused. John walked back over holding a small box as he knelt to the ground, pulled out a ring and said,”Sedona you are amazing and I love you you make me a better person Sedona Peterson will you marry me.” He said with tears in his eyes. Sedona now crying with joy didn’t know how to respond she knew she loved him but she didn’t know how to tell him. “John of course I’ll marry you.” He jumped up and kissed her as they looked at each other with love.

After that night they bought a piece of land and a house. Sedona opened up a dairy farm with John they would have family and friends over for dinners. They had a wedding with not many people, including their closest friends and their family. A year after their wedding they had a son  Jonah. They didn’t know what the future would bring them, but they promised each other to remember to stay in the present and the future will come soon enough.