The Proposal

Time and time again Derek and I would get the dreaded question, "So, when are you two going to get married?" I know we had dated for a while and marriage was the next "natural" step, but I never thought that we should put a time frame on when we were going to get married. After all, we had started dating when we were 17. We had plenty of time for marriage.

To this day, I'm amazed that Derek proposed to me the day he did. Not only would I not have proposed, but I probably wouldn't have talked to me for a long time...a very long time.

Labor Day weekend 2003. My sister had been planning a Labor Day party for months. I was supposed to work the Sunday before Labor Day, but since my sister was having a party and needed help, I had someone work for me. I woke up that morning to Derek getting ready to go play golf. I was a bit confused because it was supposed to rain, but he somehow convinced me that it wasn't going to in Ft. Worth. That's where the golf course was. Half asleep I believed him and sent him on his way. A few hours later I called Derek because it was raining...everywhere. He told me that he and his group were waiting at the bar for the rain to let up. After a couple of hours Derek called me...plastered. He told me that since it wouldn't stop raining he was going to come home and he wanted to go out to eat. Immediately I told him that he wasn't to get in the car while he had been drinking. I would go pick him up. I also made it very clear that we weren't going out to eat. My sister was having a party and I had told her we'd be there. Anyone who knows me knows that my family comes first and when I give them my word there's no changing the plan. Derek wouldn't tell me where he was...instead he told me that he'd wait a couple of more hours before he left to come home. He was going to let the alcohol wear off. He was dead set that we were going out to eat. I hung up with him and immediately called my mom. She listened to me complain high and low about how Derek was acting. Her response..."Why don't you just go eat with him and then you can come to your sister's afterward?" What?! How could my own mother be on his side and not mine. So I asked to speak to my father and started complaining to him. "Well Maria, you know that sometimes it's okay to compromise. Talk to him when he gets home and you two decide what you're going to do." Compromise? Talk? No thank you! I was going to my sister's house and that was that. In walks Derek. He asked me when I would be ready to go eat. I told him that he was a big boy and could go eat by himself. I left and went to my sister's house.
I was helping get everything ready for the party. The rain had finally stopped and I was with the one person in this world who ALWAYS had my back. As I was venting to Ange, the phone rang. It was Derek. He was trying to convince me to come home so we could go to P.F. Chang's. No thank you! I put him on speaker phone and my sister mocked him as she liked to do. "Haha! My sister chose to come help me instead of going to eat with you. Hahaha!" Suddenly I hear my brother ask, "What are you doing here? Aren't you and D going out to eat?" I had no clue Peter was even there. Regardless, I stood my ground. No way was I going to eat with Derek. Derek asked to speak to me on the phone, alone, so I turned it off of speaker and my siblings walked inside. Within a few minutes they came back out, and my sister told me she had a change of heart. She wanted me to go eat with Derek. She didn't want to be the "bad guy." I told her no...she told me I wasn't welcomed at her home unless I did...I called her a bad word and stormed away.
I walked into my apartment more pissed than I had ever been before. Derek looked me up and down and told me I needed to change. I couldn't go eat dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. Some nerve, right?! I grabbed some clothes and walked into our roommates bathroom to change. Matt was in his room and I was venting big time. The next thing I knew...I was talking to myself. Matt had left. What the heck was wrong with everyone?
I don't think I said anything nice at dinner. I was so furious with everyone...especially Derek. So much in fact that as soon as I was done eating, I walked out of the restaurant. Derek paid and chased after me. I had been wearing a ring that my cousin had bought me and Derek asked to see it. I gave it to him and he started talking about how he didn't really think I should be wearing that specific ring on that specific finger. It wasn't his favorite piece of jewelry I had. With every word that came out of his mouth, I became more and more irate. I got to the truck, told him I didn't give a rats behind about what he thought of my ring, and I stuck out my hand and told him to give it back. I didn't feel my ring in my hand...instead I felt a box. Right there, in the back parking lot of P.F. Chang's, Derek got on one knee. He told me how much he loved me. He told me that the past 6 years we had been dating were the best years of his life. He told me how much I meant to him and how he wanted to make me his wife. "Maria, will you do me the honor and marry me?" My response as my eyes were filled with tears..."I am such a bitch." Derek's response..."Yes, but you're the bitch that I love so say yes and let me put this ring on your finger."
When we got to my sister's house EVERYONE was there. Family, friends, our roommate! You see, Derek didn't really go golfing that morning. Nor was he drinking. When he woke up that morning and saw that I was home, he had to think fast. He made up the golf story so I wouldn't question where he'd be later that afternoon. When I called my parents to complain, Derek was right there with them. He was out to lunch with them asking them for my hand in marriage. He had asked my brother to go along as well. My sister had no idea that Derek was going to propose. He had left her out of the circle in fear that she would tell me. As Derek and I argued on the phone, my brother took my sister inside, told her, and swore her to secrecy. He knew the only way I was going to leave is if she kicked me out. Our roommate walked out on me because he was scared he was going to slip and say something since I was so mad. As for Derek, to this day he thinks the whole thing is hilarious. He had finally pulled one over on me! As for me, I think we have a great story to tell...and I got to marry the one I love!

August 31, 2003...the day I said yes!

"Life is like a novel. Full of suspenses. You never know what's going to happen until you turn the next page."