Who Knew?

“Come on,” I coaxed my girlfriend of two years, “Carl said he had something to give you.”

Maddie shook her head, “It’s late, he’s probably upstairs sleeping.

“He said to drop by anytime.”

“Anytime to an old man means before 7PM.”

“Come on,” I pulled her out of my car and toward the diner.

We turned the corner and I felt her hand drop from mine. I heard her gasp, “Claude…”

I turned with a smile, “What?”

She shook her head at the window of the diner that now had twinkling, white lights around the frame, “What is all this?”

I reached out for her hands, “Come with me and you’ll see.”

She hesitated, but soon I was pulling her into the diner. I watched her reaction when she saw the white Christmas lights along the edge of the counter and the pictures from the past two years lined up on top of the counter; it was priceless, completely worth the two hours I’d spent trying to figure out which light was out in the string of them.

I watched as she slowly approached the counter and walked it, looking over all the framed pictures of the two of us. There was one from our first date, after the third morning I had spent in the diner, another from when she came to Ottawa to visit me that same summer, a couple from my friend’s cabin, but most were from Philadelphia when she came to visit and then moved down last year. I had mixed in a picture of her and I before a game against the Penguins with her in the rivals’ jersey. She had been a Penguins’ fan, but now I was pretty sure she was Flyers’ girl. The last picture on the counter was the same one I had given her the morning I asked her on our first date, the one her grandfather had told us about from when we were two. I made a copy after finding it in my grandmother’s house and wrote on the back:

What do ya know, we did meet before. Meet again? tonight at seven outside the diner?.

That evening, I paced around from 6:30 until she showed up at 7:05, nervous that I had made a complete ass out of myself and wouldn’t be able to return to Hearst…ever. But when I saw her walk down the street in a cute little sundress, I knew I would be coming back soon.

Maddie looked up at me with tears in her eyes as she turned it over and read the note again, “You were so smooth with this.”

I nodded as I approached her slowly, “I was afraid you’d turn me down and tell everyone in town how lame I was and I’d never be able to come visit Grandma again.”

“No,” she shook her head, “You were so cute, I would have probably just stalked you until the last day you were in town.”

“Glad we didn’t have to start out on a restraining order,” I took out my phone.

I took a quick picture of her holding the picture and trying to hold back the tears. She looked so
sweet and so shocked when I pulled her into my side and snapped a picture of the two of us.

I let go of her and typed something on the screen before handing it to her. I bit my lip as she read it and gently lowered myself to my knee, “Oh God,” she registered the message and then looked for me in the same spot.

When her head finally lowered the tears fell, “Claude…”

“Let me take you away from all this,” I was trying to be funny, but it might have been inappropriate for the moment. Maddie laughed anyway. “Will you marry me?”

She nodded, “Yes Claude.”

I slid the diamond onto her finger and rose from my spot. She caught my face between her hands,
“I love you,” she kissed me.

I kissed her back and brought my phone up to take another picture, making sure to get the ring in the frame. She leaned into my side and watched me type out the words:

She said yes! We’re getting hitched, ya’ll!

Maddie giggled as she buried her head into my chest, “Who knew I’d end up loving Hearst?”

All of our family and friends emerged from the kitchen and dark corners, clapping and cheering. Maddie buried herself further into me and I wrapped her in my arms, “Who knew,” I whispered to her, “I think this place tops Disney World.”