How He Proposed

Since I know you all want to know how Jacques proposed, and I don't have time to sit down with you all individually...I figured I would just write it all here :)

It all began when I got a call from my roommate, Madi, asking me if she could take me to get my nails done for my Christmas present. Since Jack had just arrived in town after being away for work, I told her I would ask him first to make sure he didn't have any plans. I gave him a call and, of course, he said "Go ahead! I think Madi is having a bad day anyways, she probably needs a girl's day". When I asked him what had happened with Madi he said he wasn't sure, but that I should go with her because she probably wanted to talk to me about it herself. So, after I hung up with him I texted Madi and told her we were good to go!

A few hours later, she picked me up from work and we were on our way. She then told me about how "horrible" her day was...the guy she likes ditched her on their date,  turned out to be a real jerk and, to top it all off, her dog ran away. Needless to say, I felt terrible...her and that guy seemed perfect for each other and I was devastated for her that he turned out to be less perfect than we both thought he was. The fact that her dog ran away just added to the sadness. No wonder she needed some "girl time", I thought.

The first salon that we tried wasn't taking any more people because their last nail girl was leaving for the day, literally, as we walked in. Not to worry, that didn't deter Madi at all. She was already on her phone trying to find another salon that was close by. She found another one a few miles away, but that one was closed too! Thinking she was doing all this for me, I said "We can just do this after Christmas, Madi, we don't have to go anywhere tonight." But, she ever so gracefully denied and said "No, Tori, I really want to be pampered tonight, and I need some girl time, and I didn't get you a good enough Christmas present, so I want you to come with me." So there we were, off to salon #3 in Bradenton.

On our way there, we kept talking about the argument Madi had with the guy she likes. When I asked what Jack said about it (since I knew he was at the apartment earlier that day) she told me that he gave her advice and basically apologized for the stupidity of mankind. That sounded like Jack. A few minutes later, he called me asking how it was going and how Madi was doing. 

Jack - "Did she tell you what happened?" he asked.
Me - "Yeah, she did"
Jack - "Oh...What happened?"

---Now, you can see how this puzzled me since Madi had just told me that she and Jack had a big conversation about what happened between her, the guy, and the dog---

So I said - "You know what happened...Madi just told me of a whole conversation you had about it!"
Jack - "What?! No she didn't tell me. Give her the phone, I need to talk to her"
Me - "YOU GUYS ARE CONNIVING SOMETHING"
Jack and Madi- "No we aren't."

Then, Jack talked to Madi and they hung up the phone.

For the rest of the way to the salon, Madi asked me if Jack liked her since he "didn't listen" to her when she was "pouring out her feelings" earlier. Of course, I reassured her that he did and he thought of her as a little sister. I said he was probably in the middle of doing something so he didn't hear her and she said "Yeah, well he was playing Playstation...he even hit a home run." This seemed to make her feel better...so we continued talking about her bad day, trying (and failing) to point out all the terrible things about the guy she likes.

We arrived at the third salon and, thankfully, this salon was open and we were able to sit down right away. Throughout the time we were there, Madi, the ladies who were doing our nails and I were talking about Madi's bad day and what she should do about the whole situation. She even told me the guy she likes texted her saying "sorry" when we were in the salon...just one word...which made us all even more angry. (She is a very good actress)

Then, it dawned on me. Jack mentioned wanting to go see Christmas lights that night (which he never outright offers to do)...then, he "didn't know" what happened with Madi...and now I was getting my nails done? Jack KNEW I wanted my nails done when he proposed. There is no way this was all a coincidence.

So, I asked Madi, "Am I getting proposed to??". Of course she said "No", even sister swore that I wasn't getting proposed to, and apologized that I got excited when all she wanted to do was give me a Christmas present and vent. (Again...a great actress). The lady doing my nails even jumped in and said she thought I might be getting proposed to (which Madi later revealed made her very angry). But, since Madi was so adamant that I was not getting proposed to, I dropped it and we continued talking about her bad day.

After our nails were done, we left the salon and drove back to the apartment where Jack was waiting so we could go see Christmas lights. Madi, then, made a big scene about how she was going to go to the guy's house and demand answers. I tried to convince her not to go, but she was adamant, and ran out of the apartment. Then, I told Jack to run after her to make sure she didn't embarrass herself, so he ran out after her and then came back in and told me it was too late, she left. (Later on, I found out he really ran after her to make sure she had the camera).   

Afterwards, I told him to give me a second so I could change out of my work clothes. When he saw me grabbing my jeans he said (all cute-like): "Why don't you wear a dress?". The light went off again, so I responded with, "WHY? AM I GETTING PROPOSED TO OR SOMETHING?" He (a very, very good actor too) said no and played it off. He said "I just like you in dresses, wear the black one, that one looks really good on you and I just want to show you off." Of course, I did (I am a sucker for his big doe eyes after all) and we left.

On the way there, I was so convinced I was getting proposed to that I took my purity ring off my left hand and switched it to my right. That way he would be able to put the engagement ring on my left hand. But, in the car, Jack seemed so normal and not nervous at all (I am still astounded at his acting skills) that I was convinced that I was NOT getting proposed to so I put my purity ring back on my left hand. 

Then, we got to Marina Jack and there were no Christmas lights to be seen. I told him I didn't see any and he said "Don't worry, they are over here". I was still convinced there were no Christmas lights...but, hey, I didn't mind walking around with this handsome guy by my side, so we walked in the direction he pointed. He then said "Hey, let's go take a picture by the kissing statue like you've always wanted to" and I asked "But how will we take a picture? There's no one over there to take one for us". Of course, he said "Don't worry, we will take selfies!" I didn't see how that would work, but I thought maybe he saw a place to set his phone up so he could put it on a timer or something. So, I didn't argue. 

NOTE: Marina Jack is the place where we had our first "real" date. It is also famous for the WWII kissing statue. I had wanted to take a picture here for prom back in high school, but a few weeks beforehand a lady ran into the statue with her car, so it had to be taken down and repaired right before prom. It had been a while since it was put back up, but we never had the chance to come back and take pictures.

Back to the story...

We walked over to the statue and I was looking up at the woman's hair and noticed there was a bee's nest in it. I was laughing about that, then when I turned around, there he was, on his knee! And I yelled "No you are not!!". He went on to say a lot of nice things, some of which I cannot remember because it was such a blur of happiness and tears, but it went something like this:

I love you. These past 5 years have been the best years of my life and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?

Of course I said "YES!", we kissed and then  Madi, my sister Mackenzie and her boyfriend Nic jumped out of the bushes. They had been taking pictures!

All in all, the night was perfect. I would not change anything about it. We called our families and everyone was so happy for us. Then, we went to dinner with my family at Olive Garden.  The next day, we left to see his family in South Carolina.

Everything is such a beautiful blur and we couldn't be happier.

Thank you so much to my family for being so supportive and to his family for loving me as a daughter already and for being so excited to add me to their family! I can't wait to be a Mrs. May!!!


Oh, Madi and the guy she liked were never fighting, her dog never ran away and there were never any Christmas lights...just to clear a few things up ;)

(P.S. We are taking 1 month to just enjoy being engaged with NO planning. So, please don't ask about the date - we just got engaged on 12/16/14 for goodness sakes! - All we know is it will probably be sometime in November of 2015.)