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The Proposal
After discussing the subject of marriage off and on with Sammi, a year and a half on tour made Jon come to realize just how much he wanted to propose. So, In December of 2004, he summoned the courage and discussed the idea with his parents. The break schedule from tour being what it was, an opportunity to ask Sammi's parents was harder to come by. Eventually, he did find a time to ask them for their permission. Which was a good thing, since he had already purchased the ring. That weekend, under the guise of going Christmas shopping, Jonathan went into downtown Chicago, to Jeweler's Row (the two block section of jewelry wholesale merchants under the El). He looked at loose stones, three at a time, for about three hours. By the time he made it home, he had to pretend that it was mall traffic that made him late.
That next weekend, Sammi assumed they were heading to a nice Christmas dinner, for just the two of them. Jon was flying out on December 26th, Christmas dinner was in Naperville, Christmas Eve in Bloomington, and his sister's birthday was on the 23rd. Thus, the 22nd was the last day he could get away with having this dinner. Sammi probably started to get suspicious when they got to the interstate. Moreso when they reached downtown Chicago. By the time they were in line for the express elevator to the top of the Hancock center, not much more could have surprised her. Now, this wasn't all too surprising, since the rare occasions that Jon and Sammi had been able to spend together, there would be one really nice restaurant each time: a Ruth's Chris steakhouse in DC, the Chart House in Malibu, so on.
Now, the Champagne at the beginning of dinner might have been a tip-off.
Jon sweated his way through dinner. When it came time for dessert, Jon excused himself to the restroom, and the ring hand-off occurred. When he got back to the table, they ordered a dessert to split, and the next thing she knew, Sammi was speechless. The 1-carat, white-gold diamond solitaire was in the open box on a dessert plate with a couple of flowers and the words "Will you marry me" drizzled in chocolate sauce around the rim. Before she knew what was happening, he was down on one knee, giving a full proposal speech.
When they left the parking garage after dinner, it was snowing.
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