Published on August 16th, 2008.
Viewed 188 times.
Story rank of 10.
One boy. One girl. True love.
Drew and I were very good friends throughout high school. You know, the type of relationship where I did all of the homework and studied for the tests and Drew reaped the benefits of all of my hard work? Yes, that's the one! The years flew by like a blink of an eye, senior year was over, and the graduation celebrations came to a stop. Drew and my family helped move me into my dorm room at Slippery Rock University. A few months later, Drew took a flight out of Pittsburgh to join the Air Force and slowly are friendship faded away. The years were filled with attending fraternity parties, hanging out with my friends, and of course working on academics. As the semesters went on, I still found myself wondering how Drew was doing. Did he ever think of me?
At the beginning of my senior year, I went through a devastating breakup. During this time I kept myself busy by filling my time with friends. Soon after, I discovered that Drew's best friend had moved into an apartment close by. All of my friends went home one weekend, so I decided to pay a little visit. We spent a little bit of time playing catch up, and slowly by surely the conversation moved to Drew. Dan said that Drew always asked me and that I should give him a call. Who knew that one phone conversation would lead to so much more?
Drew and I began a long distance friendship between Pennsylvania and Alaska. We spent months rearranging our schedules to ensure that we would be able to talk since there was a four hour time difference. When Drew finally came home in May of 2007, all of the high school feelings came back to us. We knew it was meant to be. At Drew's sisters wedding, we finally made it official.
A little over two years later, Drew asked me to go hiking on a Friday afternoon at a state park about 45 minutes from home. I thought this to be strange since he normally works the typical five day week. Drew told me that he would take care of the picnic and that I should not worry about it. Well, as a female, I did worry because I was expecting the worst. When we got to McConnell's Mills, I quickly discovered that I would have to walk down a steep hill. Becoming frustrated and annoyed, I began to picture this great lunch that Drew had decided to pack. He began to tell me he packed crackers, cheese, and some pre-made hoagies from the local grocery store. Sounds delicious, right? As we descended the hill, we saw a beautiful waterfall before us. We decided it would be a great place for a picnic. We began to lay the blanket down, and I was quite surprised when Drew began to lay out gourmet cheeses, hummus, olives, a cutting board, and a wine opener. Not realizing what was going on, Drew told me that he figured we would have some wine even though we were not allowed in a state park. He handed me a bottle of wine, and before I knew what hit me, Drew was down on one knee with the ring in his hand. I was so shocked that I never even read the bottle that said, "Autumn, Will you marry me?" with a picture of the two of us. To get the full effect of why the wine was so important, it has to be understood that his family makes homemade wine. Weeks prior to the engagement, Drew and I blended the wine that was in this very bottle. The name of the wine says it all...Marry Me Merlot.
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