'Engagement Eve'

When I last left you John and I had a disastrous first date. I�m glad to say that things improved from there. We became inseparable in a very short period of time to the point where he was practically living in my flat with me. Which was all well and good, but he did have to return to his parents house at weekends when his daughter was staying over as I didn�t have enough space for her aswell.

So we moved into his grandmother�s house in a caretaking role as she had gone into a nursing home indefinitely. It was in a very bad state of repair, and in a rough area of the city, but it was home and we loved it. We were only around the corner from his daughter and things were going extremely well. Our first Christmas in our first home arrived and it was a season of firsts; we also had his daughter, Rebecca for Christmas Eve for the first time. John promised me a keyboard for Christmas and as far as I knew had been saving for it for months, because I�d my heart set on one since my birthday in June.

Christmas Eve we went to my parent�s house for tea and he then insisted on calling into his parent�s house to collect my present. He wouldn�t let me drop in to say hello, so I waited in the car with Rebecca, who was singing �Jingle Bells� to beat the band. John walked out of the house empty-handed with the most tormented expression on his face I�ve ever seen. He got into the car, barely talking to me, but where was my Christmas present? He turned to me and said:

J - �Do you want the good news or the bad news first love?�

My heart sank, I knew there was something wrong.

Me - �Bad news first please�

J - �Well the bad news is that one of my brother�s mates borrowed your Christmas Present for a gig�

Me - �WHAT!!!!!!�

J - �Eh, the good news is, I�ll get you something better in the sales�

That was when the tears started, the thoughts of nothing under the tree for me was terrible. I�d built myself up to a wonderful first Christmas living together and it felt like it was all crumbling down around my ears. We got home and we put Rebecca to bed, and after reading her the bedtime story, I crossed the hall to our bedroom and lay down on the bed. I just didn�t feel like getting up and organising Santa at all, I just needed a few minutes to myself to pull myself together, it wasn�t John�s fault after all.

John ran up the stairs to see where I was, and started to laugh.

J - �What story did you read for Rebecca?�

Me - �Her favourite, Sleeping Beauty�

J - �Did you not read her The Princess & the Pea?�

Me - �No, she doesn�t have it�

J - �You know, you�re my Princess, I�m surprised you haven�t found the Pea�

Me - �What do you mean?�

J - �It�s under your pillow�

I reached under my pillow and closed my hand around a small box. I turned back around to John and he was on one knee beside me.

J - �Caitriona Wallace, will you marry me?�

I swallowed hard, looked into his eyes and started to cry again! My poor man, he must have thought I was going off my rocker completely. There was no doubt in my mind though, of course I would accept.

Apparently, John had asked my father for my hand over a month before. I couldn�t figure out why my mother was obsessing about what I was wearing on Christmas Day, and that explained it all. Telling Rebecca the next morning we were engaged had absolutely no affect, but telling her that she would be a flower girl and she could wear a princess dress got a massive response ;-).

That Christmas, Santa officially brought me my best present EVER!