The Proposal

Why can't I have a stenographer in my head to document the important parts of my life as they happen? So much blessing has been poured upon me that my meager vocabulary will leave the page starving for meatier adjectives.

I am engaged! Dominick proposed to me on the 10th, and I said yes!

I honestly didn't think that he was going to propose until after December, and neither did he because he wanted to complete some things first. But we went to dinner with Uncle, and he asked Dom why he hadn't asked me yet, and that question stuck with Dom. He also told us that we needed to come up with a plan that would turn the two paths of our lives into one.

The next day, we decided to start working on the plan, but we got into a really intense conversation about Billy. I had mentioned him before, but I hadn't given details. So, we went outside, and I told him all about that situation, and then the conversation turned to Steve.

I started telling him all of the things Steve did and how I was affected by them. I'd never told anyone about my abandonment issues or how unloved I knew I was by him. I had never faced or own my belief that I am unlovable. But everything started to pour out of me. And Dom told me that he loves me, he's never going to leave me, isn't afraid that I'm going to leave him, and that my period of being alone is over.

I felt myself tear up, but my natural response is to just stop the emotion, and my body sucks the tears back in. Whenever I come close to being overwhelmed, my heart flat lines instead, and I become robotic. He saw me retreating and, touching my face, said, "Just let it go." And I did. I broke, and I sobbed.

In my mind, all the memories of things Steve did or said that made me feel unloved popped up but were immediately replaced by memories of Dom doing or saying something that let me know that he loves me. Hundreds of heart-printed band-aids.

I cried on his knee, but looking up, I grinned and told him about the change that had just occurred within me. After hearing that, his eyes changed, and he looked at me as though he had never seen me before. New eyes.

"What do you think about maybe marrying me?"

"Are you asking?!"

"What do you think you'd say?"

"Are you asking me?!"

He nods.

"Do you want to go on a new adventure with me?"

And then I erupted into a stream of giggles like bubbles pouring forth from a wand in the wind. He had to wait at least five minutes before he got my answer.

"Yes, please! I have no objections."

Every time we've taken a step together (him claiming me, him asking to court me), he's asked me to go on an adventure with him. And I always answer, "Yes, please," and let him know that I have no objections.

Dom ended up proposing to me because, in that moment, he had no other choice. It was time, and he knew it. Though he had no ring, there was no photographer, my face was streaked with tears, and we were just sitting in my back yard, it was the most perfect proposal I could have ever asked for because it raged forth from his heart like a bull let out of its pen. He simply had to ask me.

Afterward, we had to wait another half hour for me to gain composure, and then we did a plan for the next eight years of our lives together.

Armed with the plan, he went and asked my mother's permission to marry me. She was so stuck on the plan and how soon we want to get married that she spoke for a half hour without even answering his question, so he ended up having to ask twice!

We told Auntie and Uncle and Marina afterward. Then we drove to his house and woke everyone up at around 11:30 to tell them. Sleepy faces and limp bodies turned to smiles and hugs that swallowed me whole.

The next day, they announced it in church. Dominick and Crystal are engaged. Crystal and Dominick are getting married.

Crystal and Dominick.

Dominick and Crystal.

Forever.