We had been together 6 years and I honestly didn't think it would ever happen.
I had been on night shift on Christmas eve 2014. I worked in A&E at the time and to put it lightly, it wasn't a quiet shift. I was absolutely knackered come Christmas morning but being the absolute Christmas freak that I am I was determined to have a good day so I headed off to Gary's house (we both still lived with our parents at this point,) to swap gifts before I went home for the annual gift opening with the whole family at my house.
As I pulled up outside his house I noticed his car wasn't there, very strange. I went in, said merry Christmas to his mam and she told me that he wasn't here, he had gone to 'get petrol.' By this point I was beyond confused, why would he get ready at 8am on Christmas morning to go and get petrol?
She then handed me an envelope and told me that he had given this to her last night to give to me. I opened it and it started with "Do you wanna play a game." My initial thought was what sort of jigsaw shit is he up to when I've just finished a 12 hour shift? The first letter then went on to explain that he just wanted to cheer me up as he knew that I was gutted to be working all Christmas and that he had just planned a little treasure hunt and would be waiting at the end with my Christmas presents. He said that he would describe three locations, all of which mean something to us, and that I would have to guess which one he would be waiting at.
Gary's mam then handed me 3 more envelopes labelled one, two and three.
1. The note inside this letter described a place where we had spent the majority of our relationship being lazy, eating junk food and watching films. Obviously I knew straight away it was his bedroom. I ran straight up the stairs and found another envelope on his bed. The note in this one read "don't be so stupid, do you really think I would go to all this effort just to be in my bedroom?" ha!
2. I cant remember the exact words of this note but it basically said that it was a place where we had pictured ourselves living eventually. I knew exactly the big beautiful houses that he was talking about as we had drove past them so many times dreamily imagining one day owning one. Although we had talked about it lots, I didn't feel like this would be the place.
3. As soon as I read this note I knew he'd be here. It described the place where we had shared so many 'moments.' The place where he had told me that the first time we went there was the first time he realised that he had fallen in love with me. To anyone else it would have just been an ordinary car park, but it was in a spot on the coastline, on top of a cliff, where we used to come and watch the waves, listen to David Gray and talk for HOURS.
So off I jumped in my little car and drove down to the seafront. I have to say at this point it had still never crossed my mind that he would propose... he just wasn't that type of person.
When I pulled up next to Gary's car he was crying... he will kill me for saying this! Ha! He told me it was just because of the severe case of man flu he had for the previous week. yeah right! I jumped in his car and he gave me my Christmas presents, a lovely Nike coat and some converse, then he said "Shall we go for a little walk since we are here." Baring in mind this was about 8.30am on Christmas morning, absolutely freezing and I was still in my work uniform, which to be honest could be sporting half of South Tyneside's bodily fluids after that night shift. But he was being cute and romantic and this was a rarity so I happily agreed. We got to the cliff top where there is a little bench overlooking the beach and pulled a ring out of nowhere and got down on one knee! The first thing I said was "F*CK OFF!" but of course that was quickly followed by a big fat YES!
I'd like to say that the day continued as lovely and romantic but the honest truth was that after present opening and Christmas dinner I had to go to bed for another night shift. So that was the story of the most romantic day of our ten year relationship. Maybe our wedding will be the next one... if we ever get around to it!
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