We found each other on the pathetically-named website, Plenty of Fish, and met up shortly after connecting online, in January 2014.
Our first date was at a Wetherspoons.
I chose the venue, because I honestly thought I’d be paying for my own drinks, and, as it was mid-January, I was already broke.
I will never forget that first date.
We translate the minefield that is modern dating. This is what your date really means. Post continues below.
We didn’t stop talking, and I loved how he got excited when he spoke about his favourite comedians, gesturing wildly and nearly knocking the drinks off our table.
Fast-forward a month, and he told me he loved me.
Still, hands down, the best moment of my life.
I started planning our wedding on Pinterest immediately.
Five years later, we have a cat, a mortgage, a car, and a lot of married friends.
You know where this is going.
It’s 2am on New Year’s Day, the first few hours of 2019.
My boyfriend and I are singing karaoke at home, after everyone else at our house party has gone home (we often sing karaoke together — we’re no good, but it’s fun).
I won’t lie to you, I’m slightly sloshed — we both are — but I’ve been thinking about this for a while. Five years, in fact.
We’ve just finished singing I Would Do Anything for Love by Meatloaf — one of our favourite duets.
Something clicks in my head: this is the perfect moment.
“Will you marry me?”
The words hang in the air, and his face is bemused.
“Aren’t I supposed to ask that question?” he replies.
I’m surprised; I wasn’t expecting him to be so traditional when we’re in an equal-partnership relationship.
“Do you not want to?” I ask, genuinely wanting to know the answer, but hoping I’m not pressuring him.
He quickly explains that of course, he wants to, but he wants the moment to be magical, and I know he’s a meticulous planner.
It’s one of the many things I love about him.
He also knows how I grew up watching Disney princesses and their happily-ever-after moments, and he knows that, secretly, I want one of those moments for myself.
I want to be swept off my feet.
I want to be surprised, and answer “Hell, yes” to his question.
Paraphrasing legendary feminist Deborah Frances-White, I’m a feminist, but I want to be proposed to by my boyfriend.
I’m glad he rejected my proposal — or rather, postponed our engagement (rejection sounds far too strong).
Knowing my sensitive tendency to cry at pretty much everything, I’m surprised that I haven’t shed a single sad tear at my proposal being ‘rejected’.
Maybe this is a case of ‘good things come to those who wait’.
I suppose we’ll have to wait and see.
This post originally appeared on Medium and has been republished with full permission.
Top Comments
i just lost 2 minutes of my life readying this.
An unnecessarily clickbait-y title...