>>stripped of natural charm

They decided to exchange presents a week early because taking the presents to Bend just to bring them back again is ridiculous, and also because she likes to give presents the minute she buys them and his have been sitting under the tree for three whole days, which is about two days, twenty three hours, and forty minutes too long in her opinion.

He opens his first: a wok, an Asian cookbook, and a huge book about World War II. He loves World War II, and would get up early on the weekends to watch documentaries about it. He spends a long time thumbing through the book; too long. He chatters about this picture and that map and she senses a nervousness about him she hasn’t felt before.
“Your turn,” he says. “Sit on the couch.”
She obliges.
“Close your eyes.”
He goes to the spare bedroom that they’ve turned into a little office.
“Are they closed?”
She takes a quick peek. He’s still in the room.
“Yep.”

He walks out of the office. She can hear him walking towards her and suddenly can feel him on her right side. He’s not on the couch, but crouched beside her.
“Here.”
He hands her a small red package with a yellow bow on top. She opens it hesitantly, knowing and not knowing what’s inside.
A box. A small box. The small box gives way to another, smaller box. It’s navy blue.
She opens it. Shocked and thrilled and so many things, she doesn’t know what to say so she defaults to her manners and says “Thanks.”
“So…?” All of the words that he’d saved for this occasion leave him suddenly. He didn’t think he’d be so nervous, but there he is. Nervous and speechless.
“So what?”
“Will you marry me?”

She looks at him. Looks at the ring.
She leans over and kisses him, breathing “Yes” before their lips meet.

She doesn’t know the appropriate amount of time to wait before calling her friends, and she sits next to her new fiancee for a solid three minutes before jumping up and calling Kelly. She’s talking so fast that he’s laughing, happy that she’s happy, excited that she’s excited. She crams more phrases into five minutes than she has in her entire life, including “I don’t know where we’re going to have the wedding, but will you be my maid of honor?” She’s delighted when Kelly says “Of course!” It would be no other way.

She walks outside to call Jackie and she can hear him inside on the phone with his mom.
She wants to call her own mother and tell her, and goes from happy to sad in point-three seconds. She wants to see her mom. Talk to her mom. It’s midnight in Florida and her parents have been asleep for a good two hours. She talks to Jason’s mom, her soon-to-be mother-in-law. They are both very excited.
“Did you know when he was going to ask?”
“I had an idea. I figured it was either going to be Christmas or New Year’s.”
“I’m glad he did it sooner rather than later. I already bought you a card that said ‘daughter-in-law’ and I didn’t want to have to get a new one.”

She plays with her ring as she talks. It feels weird on her finger. Weird in the best way possible.

Later, as they lay in bed, he turns to her.
“There was a lot I didn’t say because I was so nervous. I had this whole thing planned out because this is a big deal and then… I love you. I can’t imagine spending my life alone or with anyone else but you. I want you to be there. I want us to be there for each other. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you be my wife?”
She’s crying now, tears of happiness streaming down her cheeks and making the pillow soggy.
“I already said yes once.”
“Will you be my wife?”
“Yes.”
A few minutes pass as they lay there in a small cocoon of happiness, her head on his chest and her arm around her waist. He kisses her forehead, she kisses his cheeks.
“You can go blog about this if you want to.”
It was then she knew she made the right decision.