I was at work on April 20, 2012. I worked as a Yeoman in the Navy. My boyfriend at the time just moved to Jacksonville, Florida to be with me. We had enough of the long distant relationship, so he quit his job at Enmark and came to me. Anyway, my phone was receiving more texts than usual that day.

I could not read them, and work at the same time since I had one of those older phones that you needed to erase the text messages in order to read the new ones. I decided to take a break and went to the restroom to clear my text messages, as much as possible, so I could read whatever was being sent to me. I was worried my supervisor was going to get upset at me for hearing my phone vibrate so much.

Since I did not want to take too long of a break, I quickly returned to my desk and never read the text messages. Next thing I know it is five in the afternoon, and I needed to call Johnny to pick me up. I was about to ask him when he answered the phone, but my supervisor told me she would give me a ride. I told Johnny he could just stay home and I would see him in a bit. He asked me if I read any of his messages and I said, “No, work has been busy today, sorry. I’ll be home before you know it, and we can catch up then.”

I get home, and Johnny just got out of the shower. “I need to do something with you tonight, can we change our plans?”

“I will have to call Tom who was supposed to help us. What are we doing? I need to tell him why.”

“Actually, give me your phone,” Johnny says. I am beginning to wonder what is going on. “Take a shower and get ready. Do not worry about anything else. Oh, wait, where are my undershirts?”

“In the dresser, I will get you….”

“No, no, no….Don’t go in there.” Johnny quickly cut me off.

I hop in the shower and know something is up. I begin to get excited because the feeling he was going to ask me to marry him popped into my head. No wonder he was being so mysterious. “No, Andrea, Calm down! You do not even know if that is what is happening or not, and even if it is, he is trying to surprise you.”

I get out of the shower and am getting ready when Johnny comes back into the apartment. “We are getting the bedroom furniture tomorrow. Tom said that worked out better for him anyway.”

“Okay, awesome.” I fight back the urge to ask where we were going again.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

We get in the car and drive to Outback Steakhouse. I walk inside to ask them how long the wait is. They tell me almost two hours. I run back to the car to tell Johnny. We decided to try to go out to eat somewhere else. Friday night is always a hard time to find no wait in a restaurant. I was worried it would be the same way no matter where we went. We came across Texas Road House, and their wait was about an hour and a half.

“I want to stay. Anywhere we go is going to have a long wait. I am hungry.”

We stayed and waited. We sat on this long both waiting as people got called to their booths. We were finally called. They sat us towards the back beside the restroom area. There were pictures of Willie Nelson hanging up where we sat. We ordered out appetizer and then our meal. The waiting was driving me nuts, but I just wanted to know why he seemed so nervous. We were almost full from the food when Johnny changed the subject rather suddenly.

“So, I know you know how I feel about getting married. On the way back from Beaufort, I realized you were the one for me.”

I wanted to scream out, but I waited. I was curious about what he would say next.

“I feel like you and I were meant to be and you make me so happy.” He pauses to grab the ring box out of his pocket then slides it across the table, “Will you marry me?”