I’d planned the day as our own cycling tour of the west coast of Mallorca, an island off the coast of Spain. We would start in Port de Soller and climb about 6-8 km to the poetically-inspiring town of Deia where we would end up around midday. In Deia, I would find a particularly picturesque view in front of which I would lay out my heart and propose to her. I imagined it would go down like an epic Shakespearean scene as interpreted by Kenneth Branagh: I would be assertively eloquent (with a British accent), an orchestra of songbirds would gradually crescendo until I lowered to one knee and the happiest tears in the history of humankind would be wept by my lady. My monologue would be epic as such:
“It’s been…
[some filler words and the proposal]”
But alas, I nervously and quietly stumbled through my monologue with a quivering voice, forgetting a line or two whilst being interrupted midway through by a group of retirees who offered to take our picture for us and who didn’t realize what I was doing until they had passed us and yelled back, “You should marry him!” At least he had a British accent. Even Eva didn’t realize what was going on, initially confused as to why I was talking to her when we were supposed to be posing for a timed photo. As it dawned on her, her eyes grew large behind her sunglasses and her nose gently wrinkled under the strain of the largest most radiant smile I’d ever seen on her beautiful face. Finally, mercifully, I reached the climatic question:
“Can I… be yours forever?”
Thrillingly and emphatically, she gushed:
“Of course, baby!”
And suddenly, a wave of relief and ecstatic joy overcame me, my nervousness subsided, and angels, supported by the cast of Glee, reverberated Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'” in my head. While distracted by all the internal emotional outpourings, and since I’d only rehearsed the whole scene in my head up to the point where I popped the question, it never dawned on me that I actually had to put the ring on her finger. Despite this, Eva and her glimmering eyes knew exactly what should be happening and eagerly grabbed the ring from the box and slipped it on her own finger. She paused to take in the brilliance as the noon sun’s rays exploded forth from the diamond. Coming to her senses, she grabbed me for a giant bear hug.
Luckily I proposed before the steepest climb of the day: a winding 6.2 km ascension averaging 6.2% grade with 2 short, but even steeper, sections of 10%. Eva was a bit tired at the end of this climb, to say the least, and has definitely been happier with me. Not sure if her answer would’ve been different then… Regardless, once we turned around to descend that same hill, her frown quickly turned upside down and the butterflies in my belly awoke with a fury.
