The story of our engagement began one weekend in November when I decided it was about time I popped the question. During the aforementioned weekend, Niki was wearing a ring on the fourth finger of her right hand. “A ha!” I thought to myself. It was the opportunity I’d been waiting for. Whilst Niki was otherwise engaged I snuck into her room under the pretense of ‘looking for something’ and quickly rigged up a devise made from paper and sellotape that gave me an accurate measurement of the inside of said ring. My hard work, however, was rendered somewhat unneccessary by the fact that Niki left the ring at my house at the end of her stay. Was she hinting at something I ask myself.
One week later, armed with an impossibly small, circular metal object, I journeyed into the town centre for a spot of ring shopping. After several hours I found what I was after. Unfortunately, I was advised that Niki’s finger would be the only accurate measure and I needn’t have gone to the efforts of the previous weekend (except for making it a more interesting story). The ring then spent a rather apprehensive few weeks under my bed until the appointed time arrived.
It was a snowy Christmas Day and I was on holiday with Niki and her family. Having opened our stockings and eventually our eyes too, the seven of us went our separate ways to get showered and ready for breakfast. With Niki safely downstairs and her mum occupied by having a shower, all obstacles were out of my way and I seized the opportunity. I walked purposefully into her dad’s room shutting the door behind me. “Alex,” I said (proving I knew his name - a good, solid start) “I’d like to have a quick chat”. My memory of the conversation is a bit sketchy, due to the stress induced by the situation, so let’s just say I asked for Alex’s permission to ask Niki to marry me and he gave me his blessing. And so, with new found confidence, I awaited the perfect moment to secure the deal with Niki herself.
‘The perfect moment’, however, soon turned into ‘the only convenient moment’. Having lasted the whole day, we finally came to the evening, sitting by the fire opening presents from our families. When the last of the wrapping paper had been neatly folded and stowed away for next years festivities, we all went off to bed. I quickly formulated a plan and put it into action. I dragged Niki, eyes closed, into the middle of the room and told her she could open her eyes. No sooner had the words “Will you marry me” left my lips than came the reply: “Yes!”