Be Mine Forever!

On Friday, May 28, 1999, we met up for dinner near his apartment, like we sometimes do on Fridays, nothing special at all. After dinner, we stopped by the video store to rent a movie. To my surprise, he actually suggested that we rent "You've Got Mail". Without any hesitation, I agreed. Then, we went back to his place, plopped on the couch and popped in the video. After the FBI warning, and where they usually show movie previews and commercials, the "De Beers" engagement solitaire commercial started playing -- Except this time, the guy in the commercial was Paul, the ring was "mine-to-be", and the words "Marry Me Debbie" appeared at the end of the commercial! The commercial still had the De Beers logo, except instead of "De Beers" it said "Deb Bies," and instead of saying "A Diamond is Forever" it said "Be Mine Forever."

Actually, two days prior was our four-year anniversary, and Paul had made plans to take me to a really romantic restaurant called "One If by Land, Two If by Sea." Supposedly a lot people get engaged at that restaurant, so I thought that he was going to propose to me there. My friends didn't help either; they kept teasing me about getting engaged that night. I got really excited when I met up with him for dinner because I thought for sure that it was going to be that night. Shortly after we got seated, given the menu and ordered our drinks and appetizers, a waiter walked in our direction with an arrangement of white lillies (my favorite) with a balloon. My heart skipped a beat as he approached us, then, the waiter made a sharp turn and put the flowers on the table next to us!!! The table next to us was celebrating some girl's graduation and the flowers were for her. Sigh!!! Then I thought, maybe, he'll propose after dinner, during dessert. Well, that came and went and nothing happened. Well, maybe , after he takes me home….. the night came and went and no proposal.

At least that threw me off guard … I really wasn't expecting it to be on Friday though. Actually, Paul told me later that he wasn't either. He was going to do it on my birthday, but he said he was stressing out (between planning our anniversary dinner, the proposal, filming the commercial for the proposal, and organizing my surprise birthday party on that Sunday) and just wanted to get it over with. Plus, he really like how the edited version of the "De Beers" commercial turned out and was excited about showing it to me.

He said he was nervous. He said his whole body tensed up when the commercial started playing and could hardly move. And I didn't even realize that it was a proposal until the words "Marry Me" appeared at the very end. I didn't recognize that it was him in the commercial until we re-wound the tape and played it again. I was kind of shocked when I saw those words (even though I was expecting him to propose two days ago), and forgot to answer his question. I finally said "okay" after watching the commercial 5 times. As of today, we still haven't watched "you've got mail".

Paul and Debbie