I was a sever at Chili’s in Naples, Florida at the time, waiting to go to tech school for the Air Force and driving a 1988 convertible Ford mustang that was always giving me trouble, mechanically.
On Christmas Eve Anni, my girlfriend and student at the time, came out from Ft Lauderdale, FL to spend Christmas with me since we couldn’t afford to fly home to Montana.
Unfortunately I had to work that evening, so my roommate and good friend, Mike, brought her out for dinner so that she could see me.
After a little while she got a phone call, so I used the opportunity to show Mike the ring and told him I’d be giving him a call later on that night.
It worked out perfectly because I got off work sometime around Eleven PM and because we’ve had so many memories there, I drove down to the beach, which, lucky for me, wasn’t very far from Chili’s.
I then called Mike and told him that I was pretending that my car had broken down again, and could he bring his tool set and my girlfriend.
After convincing her to come with, which was hard because it was cold out and late, he chatted with her and kept her distracted all the way to the beach. She didn’t even realize where she was until they got out.
I had the hood propped up and as they drove up I threw my shoe at the car in a fit of rage.
Anni got out and asked me why I was there and what was wrong with the car. Since she could clearly see that I was upset I told her that I don’t want to talk about it and that I need to go for a walk to let some steam out.
As I was saying this, Mike was getting his toolkit out of his car to “fix” on my car.
So, we walked out onto the beach and it being dark (midnight) you couldn’t really see what was in the sand. So I asked what it was and Anni bent down and touched what she realized to be a rose. She then started walking down reading WILL YOU MARRY ME, spelled out in roses on the sand.
When she turned around with tears in her eyes, I was on my knee….
She said “yes”
- Phil S., Tampa, Florida