Saying Yes

For weeks I've noticed that H was acting strange and silly. He started hanging out with friends without me more often and started going out without really letting me know what's up much. Now keep in mind, I'm all for having alone time and I'm not an advocate of being attached by the hip, but H never really minded being with me most of the time and he never really went out by himself without at least extending an invitation to me beforehand.

I guess that should've been the first red flag!

Then one day, out of the blue H called me and asked me if I wanted to go horseback riding. Keep in mind, neither of us knew how to ride horses.

I said "sure!"--why not?

Then it got weirder. After horseback riding, we were to have lunch with D & J, who we were both friends with, but they weren't exactly the closest friends to one another, so this lunch arrangement struck me as odd.

Me: "Why are we eating with D & J? They don't talk to each other"
H: "Um. J likes D now."
Me: "J has a girlfriend"
H: "They broke up"
Me: "Not according to facebook!"
H: "Stalker."

Darn.

But anyway, I decided not to pursue any further. The night before our horseback riding escapade, H told me we were no longer eating with D & J anymore. J apparently no longer liked D anymore, so now we were eating with J and our friend S. But since we were eating around the corner from D's house, I insisted on inviting D anyway.

Fast forward to the next morning and we set out to get to the horse riding academy. It reeked of animal poop. Not to mention, the weather was gloomy and it was threatening to rain.

Our tourguide ended up being this really racist old man who was apparently really good with the horses and spent his time when he was not leading tours, scaring off anyone who dared venture on to the riding academy's private federal land (a beach filled with horse poop, swamps, and car carcasses).

This session turned out to be a private trail ride along the beach led by our tour guide. It would've been romantic if my horse wasn't overly aggressive and overly interested in my tour guide's horse's butt and if H's horse actually wanted to move a little faster. During the entire tour, H's horse was always at least 10 feet away from mine and my horse was always right up my tourguide's horse's butt. My tour guide later told me that our horses didn't get along and that they often broke out into fights when they were near each other. Oh yeah, totally what I wanted to hear as a novice at this whole horse riding gig.

Toward the end of our trail ride, our tour guide told us he had to conduct his hobo patrol (his exact words) to make sure there weren't any hobo's around. This was when we found someone standing in the middle of the trail, so our tour guide told us to stay put and he'd go check it out.

Unluckily for me, my horse decided that this was the perfect time to wander off the trail into the field, toward the stables. As it started heading toward the fields, it started galloping. Yes. Galloping. I grabbed onto my horse tightly, but the only thought going through my mind was "HOLY SHIT, I'M GOING TO DIE". Of course, as it's galloped, I noticed from the corner of my eye that there was a picnic blanket with a bouquet of roses on it.

"How nice, someone's having a picnic", I thought to myself. But hey, I'm going to die, so I probably shouldn't be paying too much attention to that.

My tourguide finally caught up and yanked my horse back, at which point it stood on its hind legs and I hung on tightly for my dear life.

When my horse finally calmed down, my tour guide told me to get off.

Me: "Here? Right now? Are you sure?!"
TG: "Yeah--that guy has something to say to you"

I turned around and saw H getting off his horse and fiddling with his phone. As he walked closer, I saw his mouth move but I had no idea what he said.

Me: "What?"
H: "Baby, remember this song?"

All I heard were birds chirping and other white noise.

Me: "Umm..No? What is it?"
H: "You don't remember this song?"

I listened closer and finally heard the beginning of Brian McKnight's "Back at One"--our song. H put down his phone and picked up the bouquet.

And that was when he proposed.

And I guess in case you're still wondering -- I did say yes.