The Proposal is where this particular story begins.
John's brother was staying with us, down from Auckland for the weekend, which happens from time to time, so nothing I saw as particularly unusual. Neither was it overly unusual for our best friend Heather to be staying over on a Saturday night, after a yum home cooked meal, a movie and a few drinks.
What was slightly odd was the strange sort of insistence that we had to go to the Roxy Cinema in Miramar for brunch the next day. Odd because we had planned to all see Hitchcock together, and Hitchcock wasn't even playing at the Roxy?? But a little subtle persuasion, and the promise of a British chick flic, was enough to see me convinced.
I really started to think something was up as John got paler and paler on the drive to the cinema. He had received a few phone calls that he had to take in private and seemed incredibly stressed. I remember thinking that once we are alone again I would have to see what was going on! Little did I know, he was about to undertake a proposal that had been in the planning for several weeks, and also relied on the involvement of others.
It went down something like this:
After being seated, John suddenly realised that he had left his credit card in the car and went off to get it. Keith, Heather and I were debating what to eat, when I was approached by a man, dressed all in black and wielding a large sword, which he placed at my throat 'taking me hostage'. I did accompany him, but really only because I recognised him as one of John's old fencing friends, and because both Heather and Keith stood up and simply followed us...not really the kind of behaviour you hope your friends would display in an actual hostage situation!
I was 'dragged' up the beautiful stairs at the Roxy, when out of nowhere John appeared with his sword and he and the 'bad guy' proceeded to dual for my honour up the stairs with their swords. I learnt later that the theatre staff were fully on board with all of this, which is awesome, but all I could see at the time was how close those swords were getting to really nice furnishing and wood work! Oh...and at this stage I had kind of figured something was going on, and that everybody but me knew all about it!
After a dramatic battle, John 'killed' the bad guy, who then subtly retreated to the corner while John got down on one knee, said some lovely words (which will stay between us), and then proposed!
Suffice to say, I said yes! Then there was champagne, flowers, and celebrations with Keith and Heather, and lovely Roxy Theatre staff!
Afterwards, I was able to hear about all the planning that had gone into the proposal, and how it had almost all gone wrong on several occasions. I think John's friend locking himself out of the house, and then running late, was the most stressful of all these. He could correct me in this though.
From my perspective, it was different and surprising and romantic all at the same time. And as we both love movies, old and new, and especially love the Roxy, it was perfect for us!
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