How You Get the Girl

Afterward - Five Years Later

Providence and Cambridge were not that far apart, but they weren't exactly next door either. Ben and I managed to see each other a least once every two weeks but it took a lot of effort. I was in a studio art program. You can't just pack up an art studio and take it away with you for the weekend. And no matter how smart Ben was, MIT was still a hard school. He had to study. He even got a B+ once in an art history class. I tried very hard to be a supportive girlfriend about it when he acted like getting a B+ was the end of the world.

My father eventually got over his worries that we were too young to be so serious. He had finally warmed to our relationship or at least he had until Ben and I had announced we were moving into together after our college graduations. It really had not seemed like that big a deal to me. Ben and I had been together for four and a half years for goodness sakes. I had gotten a job in Boston and was really excited to be done with the long-distance thing. But my dad had freaked out. He spent the next few months telling everyone whenever they asked what I was doing after college that I was, "Going to be living in sin in Boston." My mother had finally put her foot down and told him that if he said that to one more person she was leaving him. I was only half sure she was joking.

Ironically, I was the one who went into video game design. I took another class on it during my sophomore year in college and realized I was hooked. I ended up working in the art department of a video game company when I graduated from RISD. Talk about one class changing the course of your life. I probably should have sent a thank you card to Ms. Hamilton who forced me to take the class. Just kidding. Ms. Hamilton was one teacher I was not going to be sending Christmas cards to.  I did still stay in contact with Ms. Alverz. I think she got a kick out of the fact that I ended up creating video games as my career.  Ben took a different career path.  

I had planned on skipping our fifth high school reunion but Ben insisted on going. I could not imagine why he wanted to but it gave us a chance to see our parents and my sisters so I said okay. Our class was holding it in the school library, which was not a bad choice. It certainly beat the gym. It was a beautiful two-story room with large windows and dark wood tables. Ben and I mingled with our classmates. We got a lot of murmurs of surprise that we were still together. Ben was also getting a lot of attention about his company. Apparently, if you start your own internet start up just out of college, everyone from high school wants to say hi at your class reunion. I had to shake my head remembering the hard time I had gotten from so many people for dating a nerd as I had to peel yet another one of my former classmates off my boyfriend. Some women had no shame. You should have paid attention when we were seniors I thought. He was hot then too, you were just too shallow to notice.

The reunion dragged on. I was talking to some people I barely remembered when Ben grabbed my hand and pulled me into one of the study rooms lining one side of the library. I followed him in laughing because it was the study room I remember most fondly. Did he really plan to make out in the library like we had when we were kids? I thought. I turned to shut the door behind us. When I turned back I found Ben down on one knee. My breath caught.

He looked up at me. He actually looked nervous. Did he think I was going to say no? I had been in love with him since I was seventeen! It was all I could do not to shout, "Yes!" before he even started. Instead, I clasped my hands together in front of me and bit my lip to keep from saying anything. I did not do quite well. I waited. And waited. Alright, it was probably only ten seconds. Finally, he started speaking.

"Harper, will you marry me?" he said.

I threw myself at him and he said, "Is that a yes?"

"Yes," I said. "Yes, I'll marry you."

And this time when Ben kissed me in the study room, no one interrupted us.  

The End