After dating and being in a relationship for over two years, EJ decided to make it official. Many thought he was going to propose when he took me on a fancy cruise ship, or perhaps when we went to Disneyworld around Christmas time. EJ wanted it to be in a place that we could visit often and he wanted it to be a place we could take our future children. He chose Descanso Gardens in the end because he had grown up going there with his family. He planned a picnic as it was something we have done often, because of COVID we didn’t get to do a lot of the traditional dates and picnics became a go-to. He even scoped out the perfect spot to propose the day before and had a photographer hired to photograph the event, but things don’t always go as planned. The day before the proposal the photographer had a family emergency and had to back out. EJ’s friend Eddie stepped in at the last minute to help him out. I wish I could say it was smooth sailing after that, but unfortunately for EJ, it was not.
On the day of the proposal it was quite cold and a little drizzly, I was not looking forward to a picnic and I had no idea what his plan was. I suggested going to a restaurant instead, as eating outside did not look ideal to me. His excuse was that he had all the picnic supplies ready. I suggested a different park, as it was Easter weekend, and thought Descanso Gardens was possibly going to be super crowded. His excuse was he really wanted to see the tulips before they stopped blooming. Once we got into the gardens you might think nothing will get in the way now, but not with me. I saw a train and suggested we go on it, EJ having the ring in his pocket told me the tickets for the train had to be bought days in advance. I jokingly told him he should have anticipated I would want to go on a train ride. Then he suggested we walk through the rose garden, but I really wanted to go see the ducks and know there is a duck pond. He said we will walk to the ducks next, which I found frustrating. I had never seen him so insistent on walking among the flowers, after walking through the rose garden for about a minute I again suggested going to the ducks, thinking we had seen enough of the roses. He said he wanted to do a whole loop of the rose garden. I thought what does he have against the ducks and why is he suddenly so into the flowers. As we were walking through the garden he seemed to be hesitating as this other family was in the same area as us. I wanted to get this loop over with and he was walking super slowly now, it was when he stopped and pointed out a rose for me to look at it that I knew something was up. I scanned the garden for any suspicious activity and spotted a photographer hidden in a bush. Hating the idea of any public attention I turned back to EJ who was now getting down on one knee. I’d love to say what EJ said during the proposal, however, I really didn’t hear it. I was nervous about all of the public attention and simply said yes, hopefully, he actually got the chance to ask me. In the end, as soon as the proposal was done we were finally able to go to the duck pond.
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