Story of my life

Chapter 18

In part three, the story left off just after our week of

first dates and Matthew's return home from

California, and just before Valentine's Day two

years ago. I was at work that Valentine's Day

evening when a special delivery arrived for me via

Matthew's mom! I was too busy to chat with her

much when she arrived, but she dropped off my

gifts along with a gorgeous dozen white and red

roses from Matthew. He had arranged all this

before he left!

I waited to open my gifts until the restaurant was

closed for the evening, but believe me, I thought

about them ALL NIGHT LONG! Once the last

customer had finally left, I sat down at a table with

my roses, a large yellow manila envelope, and a

wrapped gift. A note on the outside of a card

instructed that I open the wrapped gift first.

In order to understand the significance of what

comes next, you have to first understand my

obsession with New York City. During those few

weeks that we had know each other up until this

point, Matthew and I had discussed how much we

both loved it there, and how it is my absolute

favorite place on Earth. So I opened my gift and

found this adorable New York picture that Matthew

had hand decaled with romantic little words:

I was tickled by that, of course, but what was in

the big manila envelope was the real kicker.

Matthew had created this full page invitation (with

a beautiful photo of a bridge in Central Park faded

in the background), and it read: