I had to let a little time pass before I wrote about this. It was just too painful and embarrassing.When honey #3 told me she was moving, I knew the clock was ticking and I needed to act fast and deliberate. I was in love with this woman and I didn’t want her to get away. But at the same time, I knew she had another dude on her mind. So, I wanted to give her time. So, what a bad situation. I needed to give her time but I needed to act fast. Well, I am often accused of not doing the right thing and I guess this was no exception. I hoped in my truck and I made two stops.
The first one was Home Depot. There is this bench outside of where she lives. We would sit there sometime and drink a beer or have a glass of wine and we would talk. We had a lot of cool times on that bench. It was a pretty cool bench! But I wanted to meet her and I couldn’t take a chance on this bench being occupied so I went to Home Depot and I bought one. I put it together in the back of my truck. 2 hours later, I had a bench just like the one outside of her apartment. My next stop was a little tougher. It was the jewelry store. I have only bought two rings for women in my entire life. This was the second one. The first time I proposed, I had known her for almost 3 years. I knew her mom, dad, family and friends. This time, I had known this lady for 4 months. I didn’t know any of her family and I had met 2 of her friends. All I knew was that she meant so much to me and that I didn’t want to let her go. And she gave me that weird feeling in my stomach that said to me that I didn’t want to be without her.

How do you know when you have found the right person? And what are the chances that the person that you THINK is the right person for you feels the same way? I mean really…what are the odds? They have to be astronomical. Anyway, after spending another hour in the jewelry store I left with a ring. Was this going to work? Honestly, I had serious doubts. But I had to try. Normally, when a person proposes, you do it when your relationship is at its best. Things are going so well that you want to take it to the next level. This was not the case with me. I was making what guys would refer to as a Hail Mary. It was a last effort to let her know I was ready to make this real. And like I said, I didn’t want her to leave town.

So, what was next? I second-guessed myself. Instead of the bench thing, I was thinking I would make a video…what was I thinking there? I spent another hour or so trying to write a song. And then, I record it and I would play it for her. It would be something that we would have to look at to remember the date. After spending another hour doing that, I decided against showing it to her. She has never seen it. I went back to my original plan. The BENCH!

So I called her and asked her to ride with me. But before I got there to pick her up, I went and put the bench at this park, right by this awesome waterfall. I had to park ¼ or a mile away and carried the bench to the perfect spot. There… it was done. Then I went to pick her up. She came out and hopped in the car and she had no clue what was happening. We parked and walked to the spot where I had left the bench. The first clue that this wasn’t going to be the night to remember was… when we got to the spot, the bench was gone. The bench I had spent an hour putting together was gone.

I can’t tell you how devastated I was. Then again, it was funny. I couldn’t help but laugh. We walked around the park a short way and found another bench. We sat and talked. After about a 30-minute talk, I found the nerve to ask the question. Her response was classic. “What are you doing?” not exactly the response I was looking for. Bottom line, she said no… so at this point, it was time for the awkward ride home. Guys, here’s a word of advice. If you are going to propose and you aren’t sure what she’s going to say, take separate cars. The ride home after a no is a bitch!