Our Story
there was a first date.
in the morning we walked to the deli with the dog. i had a tummy ache. "quit your belly achin'" he said and rubbed it while we watched documentaries on the couch. we made dinner plans at the family wash, which had advertised a $10 pie and pint deal. he ate a traditional shepard's pie; i had baked macaroni. walking out, he said "i think that was a real date." and looped his finger in my belt.
there was also a proposal.
29 october.
michelle's account:
as per plan, we drove to our bar for a drink and kiersten called us a cab. destination was downtown for the weekly shelton williams show at layla's bluegrass honkytonk. the fear of downtown sting police was in us so nothing would do except for a taxi trip. i loosely estimated our destination was 3rd & broad(way) and instructed the driver. max said i was blocks off in my estimation but we'd walk. off on the corner and started hoofing up toward the tonks. we knew we'd be going in the back door through the alley so turned up fourth avenue. the ryman auditorium loomed heavy above us and i started talking about it and stumbled on my boots. we kept walking past the alley and i stumbled again, "hey isn't that our alley?"
"yeah it is." and he kept leading me on.
i knew what was up then. he pulled me up the back steps of the ryman courtyard. "i'm only going to do this once, so stop me if you need to..." i stayed silent. he went on to talk about me and him and love and things like that and took a knee in front of me. it was dark and chilly outside. i didn't cry. i covered my face, hiding the ridiculous smile that was twisting on it. there was a man not far from us talking on his mobile phone and pacing. i wanted to beam him out of there to make the moment a little more ours, but you know.
so i hugged max after saying of course or something like that and we headed down to the hank iii show.
after we got home, he decided we needed to be somewhere different for the night. so he called and made a late night reservation at a fancy pants hotel and we went. on the drive down briley pkwy, max kept talking about how i'd remember that drive perfectly if i actually did go through with marrying him. all i can remember about it is that he kept pulling cds out and playing the singles off of them.
the suite was giant. had two large rooms. the bed had a million soft pillows and after a bath, i died in them.
we checked out at noon, and for some reason the neighbor that lives across the street that i don't know so well was there and said if we want to stay there again, he'll get us a good deal.
