Romance Still Lives

My then boyfriend, now fiancé, Jorge lives in New Jersey, I live in Denver and we have been a long distance love for over five months. Jorge has come out to Denver for every holiday so that I am not alone and changed my idea of not needing family or someone close with you for the holidays.

He told me he was coming out for Valentines Day, but that we were supposed to look at rings when he came out (so, I pretty much gave up my hope of a Valentines engagement). We went to Cheyenne Wyoming to visit my friend Chris on her small ranch. She told me she was planning a scavenger hunt for our Valentines Dinner. Chris and her boyfriend Kurt joined Jorge and I as we started off on the scavenger hunt. The clues to where we were going were written on the back of large candy hearts. For example, the first clue said, “Uncle Chuck got shot, hot damn.” We went to Uncle Charlie’s bar and had shots of Hot Damn. There we were given gifts and more clues to put together which led us to several bars, a balloon store, and our final destination, The Carriage Court Restaurant in Cheyenne.

February 12th the snow fell very heavily all night. We sat and enjoyed dinner by candle light and watched the snow fall outside. Finally, at the end of the dinner, I was given the last clue of the night. I poured the hearts out on the table and immediately picked out “roses are red, violets are blue….. but after all the drinks and fun, I wasn’t in the mood to figure this one out. Jorge reached over and put the hearts in order and I read them. “Roses are red, violets are blue, your lover has something to say to you.” My friend Chris looked at Kurt and asked him if he had something to say to her. He said, “No.”

Jorge turned to me and said, “Ann, who is your lover.” I said, “you are, me hombre lindo.”(my handsome man). He then said, “Well then I guess I have something to say to you.” He got down on one knee and pulled out the ring. I must have exploded in tears out of shock because he had to ask me again to answer him. The neatest part of the story is Jorge had the ring for 3 weeks and was planning this behind the scenes with all of my friends and none of them ever let on that they knew (this is amazing in itself).

So, romance still lives ladies. I am lucky enough to know it personally. I guess Jorge brought romance and innocence back in my life!

Ann Vermilyea