A weird yet loving proposal

Ryan has an old Honda civic that I make him drive me around in when we go out together even though my car is from 2019. My car warms up faster and doesn’t make noise. It hardly ever has any problems I have to worry about, except for when the battery died this Christmas. Anyways, I was riding in his car, as usual, on a very rainy New Year’s Eve, 2022.

We were headed out to celebrate our anniversary at the location of our first date five years ago, Olive Garden. We weren’t even five minutes away from our apartment when he drove through a puddle so big that I thought it might swallow the tiny car whole. Thankfully, we didn’t drown, but the car’s swim in the puddle was followed by an unnerving noise. “Don’t worry, it’ll go away, this is a normal,” he assured me. But then came the unnerving sound of scraping. “Maybe you should pull over,” I suggested.

Being that it was New Year’s Eve, the lights were off at the gas station just around the bend. I am glad Ryan is a flashlight collector, because without it, he probably wouldn’t have been able to inspect the piece of plastic on his car that was hanging off, hitting against the pavement.

Springing into action, Ryan was determined to get to our destination by any means necessary. I, on the other hand was weighing the risks of walking home even while watching a guy trying to tempt fate by walking into cars across the road from us. That was weird.

Ryan started moving things around in the car, looking for his work bag filled with tools, but it wasn’t there. He lifted the car up on a jack and told me not to move too much. I tried to tell him I wouldn’t be upset if we just went home. We could make it special.

Ultimately, he sawed the plastic off with a knife. I felt bad because he was in nice clothing, kneeling on wet rough cement. That’s got to hurt, I thought.

When he officially declared victory against the piece of plastic that threatened our night, I asked if I could see it. Instead, he stayed there, kneeling on the pavement, reaching up with a box in his hand. “Laura, will you marry me?” Of course!

I had half suspected this could happen that night, so I brought a pack of tissues in my purse just in case. I didn’t need them, because I was laughing, giggling and wondering what the heck had just happened!?

I didn’t even see what the ring looked like until we safely got to the restaurant.