The Missing Piece

I've been waiting to tell the missing piece of my trip to Hawaii.

A few days before leaving on my trip I confided in a friend that I was in love. A friend from long ago had walked into my life and much without my knowledge had swept me off my feet.

We'd spent more than a year re-developing a  friendship, which meant his having to hear all the complaints of a single gal in her mid 20's trying to make it on her own. He was 'friend zoned' a long, long time ago and I had no intention of taking him off that list. He often heard about my [mis]adventures in the dating world, financial struggles, career aspirations, hopes, dreams and all that other crazy mumbo jumbo that comes along w/ being friends. I never caught the flinch in his reaction every time I'd tell him about another date I'd went on, or when I finally went on several with one whom I thought had 'potential,' but it was there. Typically being oblivious to most signals from men, I found it completely absurd when Brian & I hung up the phone one night and I sat down on my bedroom floor, put my face in the palms of my hands, and admitted to myself that I was completely in love w/ that guy.

Fast forward through all the letters to Afghanistan, e-mails, phone calls, Facebook messages and visits and I am standing on a moonlight beach in Hawaii. Brian had long before acknowledged his feelings for me, but I am, well, a little slower moving than most. Before I knew it, the words were out of my mouth. There was no turning back, not that I would even want to at that point.

Brian had other plans with those three little words.

A horseback trip on the beach at sunset was so much more than just an ordinary horseback trip on the beach at sunset (I mean really, as if that weren't awesome enough?). It was the stage being set to the grand finale - a proposal.

Of course I said yes.