Guides for the Pre-Engagement Life

When 2010 pranced right in without notice, I had completely forgotten that within that year, there was something happening later in that year.
To be honest, I completely forgot about it.
And it wasn't until I went to a red carpet Charity Event in Los Angeles with Michael that I was reminded by a few other attendees and reporters about when the engagement ring would pop up. We didn't answer the question - we just both laughed and changed the topic.
I originally didn't want to go to that event, but because of his undefeatable persistence, I played dress up. It wasn't my first time going to those types of events, though it was that particular one that I didn't want to go to.
Why?
Because two weeks before the event, the both of us were caught making out at Central Park on New Year's Day, and our Parents all saw it, so did our extended family, and I guess, the rest of the world saw it too. I was embarrassed by it since it lasted a whole week before it went away, and when it did, the attention went back to when Michael was going to go on one knee. He always told the press that he didn't want to say anything because he didn't want to ruin a good plan - drove me crazy.
That was our first public appearance together since then.

Advice from the Experienced Couple

Mom and her new husband lived in Sheridan Park, Chicago, in the same house she moved into when she moved from New York, and with my Younger Brother out of the house and in University, she had been complaining about having an empty nest, so my Older Brother occasionally jumped between her and Dad since he no longer served the military, but he mainly stayed with Mom. So when I went to visit my Mom and my new Step-Father, I found out that both my Brothers were there for the weekend, and it was a bit hectic with the whole idea of getting engaged being the topic on everyone's lips.

"I hate how I have to share a room with Ralph again, can't you just sleep in the couch? I lived here before you," Ricky grumbled on and on as he took the things that he needed to the room across the hallway as he bunked with our Older Brother, Ralph.

Hah, yeah, our Parents thought it was cool to name all three of us a name that started with R, and we were taunted when we were younger for being the 'R Trio'. That R would be replaced by any insult in the book. Because I didn't want to be taunted, I went under Anne for a while, thus the creation of my nickname - the origin of that nickname was from Lia and everyone just followed right after. When I told Michael about that, he thought it was cute and stated that going under another name was something I would definitely do.
So, my Older Brother was Ralph Miller - he was named after our Grandfather on our Mother's side. I'm Roxanne Miller. And our Younger Brother was Ricky Miller.
Another fact about the three of us: we were four years apart in age. Which meant that our age at the time was 27, 23, and 19 -- ah, my Parents sure knew how to plan things out!

Michael wasn't able to come along because he a busy schedule with magazines and endorsements and what not. He was back to busy ol' Michael Phelps, and since Bob was out of the country with his Family, the Olympian was stuck doing other things that he was good at. And he constantly bothered me to apologize to my Mom about his absence every single minute. Even when I touched down in Chicago, my phone wouldn't stop vibrating from the multiple amounts of text messages he sent for me to tell my Mom.
I called him to end the spam and he apologized to my Mom for the hell of it.

"Your boyfriend is such a gentleman," Mom complimented the moment I reunited with her in the living room. She gave me a mug of hot chocolate as I watched Nick the Step-Dad poke at the flame to heat up the house, it was freezing. My Older Brother wasn't home, because he was out to send his girlfriend off as she went to Canada for the rest of the month to visit her ill relative. I took a seat beside my Mom and cuddled closer to her.
I may be 23 years old, but I was still my Mom's daughter.
"You know, the other day, I saw another magazine again," She revealed as she wrapped the blanket around me and we shared it. "Every time I go to work, I always checked if you were on the cover or they talked about you because I really wanted to know if you were alright, since you don't live anywhere near me, Pumpkin."
"What did the article say?" I curiously asked.
"The usual, when will he propose, and that type of stuff you see everywhere about you two nowadays. I guess it was since your trip to New York."
"Mom, I'm not going to get married until I'm 25, I promised you that."
"Yes, I know," She smiled. "But what I actually wanted to know is when he will pop the question." My Mom was as curious as everyone else.
"If only I was psychic, I would definitely read into that man's head."
Nick took a seat next to me. "You know, Anne, proposals take up a lot of thought," He admitted. "It's pretty much double the pressure as to when a guy asks a girl out on a date. I bet that Michael didn't know what to do when he saw you and wanted to ask you on a date, and it may not have seemed like it, but that boy was definitely celebrating when you agreed on that date."
"Do you know how helpful you are sometimes, Nick?" I pushed myself off of Mom and sat up. I turned my attention towards my Step-Father while sipping on the hot chocolate. I really felt like a teenager again, getting the 'talk'.
"I only aim to please the children of my soul mate," He played along.
"Well, can you tell me more?"
"Just be patient," He advised. "Seriously, you're like your Mom. When she heard that I might be proposing, she was constantly on my case about it with her obvious hints and blunt questions. But guys do think hard about a way to propose to the love of their life."
"Even when it's just a simple, 'will you marry me'?"
"You may think that it's simple, but when we say those things, our hearts are actually on the verge of blowing up, especially when the woman pauses."
I laughed. "Wow, but what about engagement rings?"
"I bought mine a year before I proposed to your Mom, but I don't know about Michael."
"But like, what's the average amount of time that a guy usually keeps a ring?"
My Mom gave me a pat on the back. "Pumpkin, Nick isn't the representative of all the men in the world. He wouldn't know how your boyfriend would think." She interrupted.
Ricky had strolled right in and sat right in front of the fireplace. "Anne, if it were me, I would buy the ring the moment I knew that I was going to marry her," He bluntly answered the question. "Like when I'm certain that I would marry the girl."

That had me thinking. Michael once showed me a box during one of our video chats before I moved in with him, and not once have I seen that box ever since.
Did he already buy the ring?!

The Waiting Game

"To be honest, I rummaged through every inch of the house..."

And I was very guilty, I knew it was very wrong of me to scavenge throughout the whole time he was gone, and my conscience killed me when I finished. But Michael was gone for a few days with his Mom and Hilary to visit Whitney, so I went a bit crazy with the growing buzz about his proposal - well, I did go crazy.
It all started when a tabloid magazine published photographs of the Olympian walking into a rather expensive store that sold certain types of jewellery with Hilary, and after a few hours, walked out with a bag, and that was three days before he left Baltimore with his Family. At first, I thought it was a present for Whitney or for his Mom or whomever. But then, for some reason, the idea flooded my thoughts and I ended up with a messy home.
I couldn't even sleep or work properly because of the thought he bought a ring already.
Was he going to propose early?

"Anne, look at the mess you made, what the hell is wrong with you?" Lia shook me as I sat there prodding at my bowl of spaghetti. She slept over that night because Derek stayed back in Miami to spend time with his Mom, and my best friend didn't want to stay there with him because she felt rather intrusive when all her husband's Mom wanted was Family time - that was how I felt when I was with Michael's Family from time to time.
Although her Parents planned to visit her for a week anyway and that actually saved her from being suspected of avoiding her In-Laws on purpose.
"I told you, I spent the whole day cleaning," I grumbled with an agitated tone. I placed the bowl onto the coffee table and turned towards Lia, my face rather serious and my eyes focused on her. "I'm troubled."
"No, you're just suspicious. This is normal."
"Normal... Were you like this?"
"No, let me finish," She hissed. "This is normal for you. You're always like this, especially when you know that you're going to get something, but you don't exactly know when," She continued. "Do you remember your 18th birthday? When you knew a surprise was coming, but you didn't know what, so you were getting moody and got angry at everyone because no one would tell you?" She recalled.
I crossed my arms. "That was the most annoying week of my entire life," I confessed.
"You're impatient. You just hate the fact you don't know when things are coming. Anne, you're probably a bad person to ever plan a surprise for," She pointed out. "But then it's all worth it when you get all teary from being surprised."
"Then what the hell am I supposed to do...?"
Lia placed the bowl on her lap and nibbled on the fork. She peeked towards the TV for a second before she returned her gaze to me. "Why don't you just ask him?"
"Don't you think I've tried that?" I groaned and leaned back against the sofa. I covered my face and shook a bit on the spot, having some sort of tantrum. My best friend only laughed at my frustration and commented, "I can see why Michael loves the idea of not telling you."
"I'll cry," I threatened. "I know you know something, tell me!" I whined.
"When's he coming back?"
"Tomorrow morning," I answered as I sat back up and glared. "Don't change the topic!"
She laughed. "God, Anne, I'm not, geez." She placed the bowl next to mine and reached for my shoulders, she had a tight grip on both of them and shook me. "Calm down. You know what, just go straight up to his face when he walks through that door and ask him, 'Michael Phelps, what did you buy in that store?', and if he doesn't tell you, then you have no other choice than to lie back down in your bed and hibernate until the day he proposes."
My head drooped down. "Lia, I hate the fact that you know and you won't tell me."
"Anne, I hate the fact that I don't know anything and I'm oblivious to what boys talk about in those locker rooms after practice. Besides, we don't have training until next week, so I can't even eavesdrop on their conversations." She sounded like she was being honest with me.
I placed my hands on top of hers and shrugged her hands off of me. I clapped her hands together as I looked back up into her eyes. "Fine, I'll do that. I'll ask him tomorrow."
She nodded with a bright smile. "So, about New Year's Eve, did you really just find out that you kissed Michael at Stefanie's party?" She changed the topic.
"I didn't know. People were telling me different things!" I owned up. "I felt so bad afterwards because Michael looked a bit hurt that I didn't remember."
"Didn't I tell you?"
"Yeah," I sighed in defeat as I picked up my bowl and spun my fork around in the middle of it. "But how could I believe that I kissed Michael Phelps?" I questioned as I took a bite.
"And yet you ended up with him. Ah, Anne, your moments are so adorable. I bet your boyfriend loves it about you whenever it comes out."

Oh, how right she was.

I went jogging with Lia in the morning, we stopped by the port to spend some girly time together and give Herman a break from the lengthy run before we jogged back home. She went straight to her place because she had to prepare for her Parents' visit, and I had to go home to await the arrival of my boyfriend.
I entered the house with my breath starting to catch up. Herman's tongue had practically hung out of his mouth as he rushed towards the kitchen where his bowl was. I called the dog to return because his leash wasn't off when he dashed away from me, and as I made my way to the kitchen, I saw Herman rolled on his back with his legs kicking in the air. I narrowed my eyes and a smile appeared on my face in an instant.
"You're home!" I yelped as I ran towards Michael and jumped up. He caught me just in time and I wrapped my legs around his torso, I placed both hands on the sides of his face as I gave him a big kiss on the lips.
"I missed you too, babe," He chuckled. I heard the dog bark towards us, so I quickly slid off of the Swimmer and returned my attention back to Herman to take off his leash before I pointed to the kitchen, to which he happily skipped off to. "So what have you two been doing while I was away?"
"We had sleepovers. He happily joined Lia and I whenever we watched a movie or had a girl's night. And when we got bored, he was okay with being our model," I listed down as I tossed my arms around his neck.
"Don't tell me you dressed him up again?"
"I might have," I giggled. I pulled him closer to kiss him again. "You want to know what drove me crazy over the days you were away though."
Michael nodded as he left little trails of kisses down my neck.
"That tabloid article about you walking into a certain store," I revealed, which made him stop pecking my skin and he suddenly stood up straight with an eyebrow cocked up. "A jewellery store," I specified my sentence.
"I didn't buy an engagement ring," Michael suddenly blurted out as he walked out of my grasp. I placed my hands on my hips as I followed him to his luggage by the window, and he kneeled down to open the lock and opened it. He dug through it for a while, so I took a seat on the sofa as Herman came in and leaped onto the spot next to me. He actually took a few minutes that I got distracted playing with the dog throughout the whole time, and when he finished, his clothes were piled out of the luggage and there were some other things scattered on the side. He sat beside me and pulled out a box. "Well, impatient Anne, I bought something for your Mom as a thank you gift, since you bought my Mom something last month as a thank you gift as well." He revealed. "And I felt bad that I couldn't go with you to visit her last weekend."
"You know that you didn't have to..." My voice faded.
"You're disappointed that I didn't get you anything?"
"Can I see it?" I changed the topic as I reached for the box. I opened it and saw that he bought my Mom a necklace and earrings pearl set. "Wow, what are they for?"
"A thank you gift," He repeated himself. "Without her, you wouldn't be here."
"Stop spending money!" I slapped his arm. "Mom will love these though."
Michael laughed and lifted the box away from my grasp. "I didn't forget about you, babe," He came clean and lifted another box out from behind him. "But it's not an engagement ring, yet. That comes later."
"You're just teasing now."
I watched him open the box and inside was a set of earrings. "I saw these and thought they'd come great with the engagement ring," He went on as he closed the box and placed it on the coffee table. "So you can't have them until I propose."
"And when will that be?"
"Be patient," He teased.

I wanted to have a mini fit right then and there. Michael revealed that he already had the ring, but he decided that he wouldn't do anything about it until he went on one bended knee. He knew exactly how I felt because he looked at me with a devious look in his eyes and a grin to match. He knew that I wasn't the patient type, and he knew that I didn't like the idea of not knowing, and he also knew that eventually, I was going to go crazy.

"Besides, didn't I tell you that this was the year?" He reminded me as I glared at him and looked away, but he pulled me towards him and held me in a bear hug.
"You just love to torture me," I whinged.
"Kind of, but I love you most of all though." He playfully nipped at my ear. "I hope you're willing to be patient enough for me."
"I don't have a choice, do I?"
"Nope," He chuckled.

Michael Phelps was going to propose... Eventually... Right?
Ah, it drove me crazy!!