Gaby has been my best friend for more than 4 years now. So, you can imagine that if anything was bothering him, emotionally or physically, I would do anything to help. That’s why when Gaby started complaining of chest pains at the beginning of March, I was immediately concerned. Seeing as though I am an x-ray technician I agreed that we could meet up one afternoon after work so I could take his chest x-ray. However, despite my efforts to invite him to take the x-ray, many weeks had gone by, and still no x-ray.
Finally it was April 9, 2003, the night before our 4th year anniversary. “So what do you want to do tomorrow night, Gab?” “Well, let’s go for dinner and then we can catch a movie.” Typical, but good enough for me. “Hey, Stef, maybe tomorrow night I can pass by your work and before we head out,you can take the x-ray, would that be good?” “OK, that would be perfect.”
Five o’clock finally rolled around on the afternoon of our anniversary. Anxious about the evening, and totally forgetting about the x-ray I promised Gaby, I quickly closed all the x-ray machines at just the same moment the maintenance man came in for our semi-annual “tune-up.” As I swung my bag over my shoulder, the phone rang. Gaby was letting me know that he would be coming up in a few minutes for his X-ray. I had completely forgotten! I immediately tried to convince him out of the idea. Under the circumstances, it would have been easier to do it another night. What was one more night, after all?
Gaby let me feel guilty for not keeping the promise and said it wouldn’t take long. I felt ill at ease for asking the maintenance man to hold off on his job so that I could just take 2 more x-rays. Gaby finally arrived and I hurried him into the stall, told him to throw on a gown and pretty much rushed him into the room.
I finally brought him into the room. I had noticed Gaby was acting a bit strange. Firstly he didn’t put a gown on but rather kept his undershirt on, and secondly he gave a bit of a hard time while I was trying to position him for the X-ray. Frankly, I was a bit annoyed, again under the rushed circumstances and also because of the hint of uncooperative behavior that I was sensing from Gaby. After opening all the machines up again, I quickly slipped the film into the developing machine. In the meantime I wished Gaby a happy anniversary. Ninety seconds was up and my fingers were feeling the processed film making its way slowly out. I grabbed the 14 by 17 inch film and placed it on the lit view box.
It took me a few minutes for my eyes to fixate, but when they did, I was astounded! Instead of the usual set of black lungs that would appear on the view box, there was something different about this picture. Anything made of wire or metal would appear bright on an x-ray. With that in mind, Gaby had molded 5 pieces of wire into the words “WILL YOU MARRY ME” and taped it onto his bare chest so that when the X-ray came out, those words would be written right across the black set of lungs!!!! I was ecstatic. In the middle of my work area, Gaby knelt down on one knee, opened up a tiny box which held a promise ring and then asked, “Will you make me spaghetti with mushrooms even if you don’t like mushrooms?” “Yes!!” “Will you grow old with me?” “Yes!!” “Will you make me the happiest man and marry me?” “YESSSS!” Gaby got up to his feet and I jumped into his arms. I had tears in my eyes. Attached to the promise ring was tag which read “Together we will choose a diamond ring to celebrate our Engagement”.
Being completely shocked, I followed Gaby into is car where he drove us to the viewpoint of the city, where we had gone on our first date. He even picked up 2 Rockaberry pie slices and one liter of milk, the same as we had done 4 years ago. But it still wasn’t over. There we were, eating pie when Gaby pulled out a laptop he borrowed from work. The movie we had gone to see on our first date was downloaded on the screen. I just couldn’t believe it. Gaby had completely relived our entire first date, I couldn’t have asked for anything more. I was sitting on top of the city, with my x-ray in the back seat, stuffing my face with banana chocolate pie watching a romantic movie (well, sort of) in the back seat of a car with the man I adored and with whom I was going to spend the rest of my life. He even went so far as to wear the same clothes he wore on our first date. He’s a true romantic and that’s one of the reasons why I love him so much. I had it all except the diamond… well, not everything in life is perfect…
Proposal Story By:
Stephanie T
Montreal, PQ
Country: CAN
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