The Proposal - Full Version

> get the condensed version here

From Chris’s perspective

“How did he propose???” seems to be the first question people ask after they find out you’re engaged. I thought that just any old proposal wouldn’t do because it wouldn’t make much of a story.  Well, it ended up being more of a story than I bargained for…

It was during the summer of 2005 that I thought to myself this year would be a perfect time to get engaged.  We survived the test of living together and even purchasing a house so I was convinced that it was time I got my act together in the marriage department.  The plan was to go somewhere tropical in the fall and I thought that would be a perfect place to propose.  September came along and that was a little rough.  First my friend Josh proposed to Monica in front of the Taj Mahal and a couple weeks later my friend Thomas proposed to Paula in a secluded picnic spot on a lake in Vermont.  I felt like everyone, especially Monique, was waiting for me to pop the question.  In the mean time, I started secretly looking for a ring.

We booked our trip to Cuba at the start of October and the trip was at the end of November which didn’t give me much time to pick a diamond, a ring setting, and have it made.  Most of the places that sold diamonds and rings were downtown and didn’t have convenient hours where I could go without Monique being suspicious.  Not to mention, work happened to be extremely busy so I couldn’t take time off to go shopping.  So I did what came naturally to me and bought the diamond and ring on the internet.  This had its own complications especially because I wanted a custom design and I wasn’t there in person to describe it.  In any case, it all came down to the wire and the ring arrived to work by courier a few days before we left for Cuba. 

According to Monique, a friend had asked her if she thought I was going to propose to her in Cuba.  Her response:  “I don’t think he could get organized enough to do that.”

I had to hide the ring from Monique’s prying eyes during our trip.  I didn’t want to carry it on me in case I got stopped at security and had to take it out.  Instead, I taped it (still in the box) to the bottom of my carry-on suitcase under the zipper fabric lining.  To anyone looking through the suitcase, it just felt like another bump of the suitcase’s structure.  I thought this was very clever and considered switching to a career as a spy, but instead we just went to the airport. 

At the airport our good friends at Air Transat said:  “Sorry, but your carry-on is too heavy.  You’ll have to check it in.”  My whole life I had always flown on larger airlines, so the concept of weighing my carry-on suitcase was completely foreign.  And then to top it off, Monique says:  “Why don’t we just check in your suitcase and I’ll just transfer my heavy things into your luggage.”  Because I didn’t want to let anything on, I just had a blank look and said, “ok”.  Our luggage disappeared down the conveyor belt…  with the ring inside.  Let’s just say I was a little uneasy on the flight.

We arrived in Cuba and our luggage showed up!  Yeah!  My next worry was to see if the ring was still there.  So under the disguise of ‘putting away my jacket’, I opened up the suitcase and…  I felt the bump.  The bump in the bottom of the suitcase was the box that contained the ring.  So it was all good.

We arrived at the hotel and my next thought was to put the ring in a safe place in the room.  I couldn’t keep it on me because we spent too much time at the beach.  Luckily the room had a safe.  While Monique wasn’t looking, I removed part of the fabric liner at the bottom of the safe and tucked the ring and box underneath it.  Then I replaced it.  It just looked like a bump in the safe. 

Monique had noticed the bump at some point while getting money out of the safe.  She dismissed it as just part of the safe’s structure.

As the week went on, I decided to propose to her at least a day before we left Cuba.  While I “went to get our snorkeling gear” I spoke to the guys that ran the shop on the resort to see if I could get the catamaran out.  My plan was to take it out (with a guide steering as we couldn’t take it out ourselves) and stop up the coast a bit at a secluded beach.  This was where I was to propose.  I considered proposing in the middle of the ocean, but I kept visualizing the ring sinking to the bottom of the sea…so scratched that idea. I asked the guys if they could get me some flowers too.  “Flowers at this time of year in Cuba?”  I told them to see what they could do.

I told Monique that I had booked an afternoon catamaran ride for the day before our last in Cuba.  We also planned to rent a scooter that same day and drive around in the morning through the countryside.  All was set to go.

Then things started ‘deviating’ from the plan.  I found out the day before that the catamaran guys were unsuccessful at getting any cut flowers.  So I asked if they could get the gardener to clip some flowers from around the resort.  They looked sceptical, apparently there weren’t too many blooming at this time of year. 

Then on the morning of, before we went for our scooter ride, I fiound out that the weather wasn’t looking good and we might not be able to go out for our catamaran ride.  Though there was a chance that the weather might get better. 

In any case, we decide to go for our scooter ride. The resort scooter-rental guy informs us that we might need to buy some gas en-route as he didn’t have any.  So we’re having fun zooming through the countryside on our little scooter.  Sure enough, the gas light came on so we stopedp at a gas station. The attendant told us that because we had tourist plates, he can only sell us premium gas.  I didn't think that was a problem because the scooter only needed a few litres.  But then he told us that he didn't have any premium left.  In fact, no station in the town had any premium at this time. 

I thought that maybe my Spanish was so bad that I had completely mis-understood him.  Nope.  So to get past the law that says that tourists can only buy expensive gas he asked one of his customers to give us some gas.  The customer drove his car to the other side of the street, sucked some gas out of his tank into a canister, and then poured it into our tank.  As one can imagine, this whole process ate up a lot of our time.  We were cutting it very close to our catamaran departure. 

Eventually we were on our way again.  Luckily the scooters in Cuba can go 80km/h (which is very scary) so we made it back very quickly to our resort - only a bit late.  At this point, Monique didn't quite understand why I was in such a rush to get to our catamaran ride. 

We got to the shop and the guy said:  “I’m sorry but the waves are too rough.  We can’t go out today.”  But then he turned to me and said, “Did you want to look at the cigars I have.”  I say, sure and Monique asks if she should come with me.  Knowing full well what the guys has in store, I say, “No, I’ll be out in a second.” 

I returned from the back room a minute later with a plastic bag with some stuff in it.  I suggest to Monique that we go for a walk down the beach.  I had a backup plan in mind, which was to walk to a rocky point that jutted out into the ocean. 

As we approached, we noticed a stranger hanging around.  He started up a conversation, wanting to be our ‘friend’.  Monique was getting a little uncomfortable but I hoped that he would eventually leave.  Nope, he stuck to us like glue.  With no privacy available at my planned spot, I figured we might as well walk back towards the resort.

As we walked back, I told Monique that we should have a seat on a log on the beach and relax for a bit.  When she sat down I asked, “Do you want to look at the cigars that I got?” “I guess so.”  Monique started looking through the bag thinking “What does he need more cigars for? He doesn’t even smoke!” and said:  “I think you got taken. There aren’t any cigars here, just a bunch of newspapers and some flowers…” 

At this point, I was on one knee with the ring out in front of me with a look of despair on my face.   I told her that things on our adventures don’t always work out as planned, but would she still marry me.

Monique adds "I always thought I’d have something smart to say but the distressed look on his face, as all his plans had not turned out, made me say “Of course.”