Non Merci
I was 17 and A was 23. We met at a salsa club in my hometown, and soon after, I moved halfway across the country to go to college. We stayed in contact via very frequent texting, and fell for each other, to the point that he told me he loved me.
So I was overjoyed when he said he was flying out to see me and take me dancing for my 18th birthday. The night started out great. He picked me up, looking swanky, and we headed out to a salsa club. He was so happy to see me again that he turned to me while driving and asked, “Will you marry me?” Assuming he was kidding, I replied “of course!”
Unfortunately, he managed to get lost within about five minutes despite having a GPS. Before long, we were bickering like an old married couple about how to get there. Eventually we found the place, but our potentially wonderful night of dancing was ruined by the fact that the club was a over-21 place, and despite A’s sweet-talking the bouncers in Spanish, they wouldn’t let me in.
We went to a restaurant/bar in the neighborhood instead. For some reason, he called an old friend of his to meet us, and soon this woman in her late 20s joined us. She looked surprised to see me there as well, and even more so when A kept making romantic gestures towards me. She must not have known that she was coming along on my birthday date! The next hour or so was very awkward. She and I drank sodas while he had a mojito, and we tried to force natural conversation. She kept shooting me pitying looks as A began to talk louder and gesture more wildly. I was confused until I realized that he was completely drunk, after one mojito!
The other girl left, looking happy to get out of there, and I had to support A back to the car. It’s a good thing I knew where we left it because he certainly didn’t. We couldn’t go anywhere because he was drunk and I didn’t have my driver’s license, so we started kissing and fooling around a little bit. He spoke to me in Spanish, his native language, and asked me to speak to him in French. I said a few words, and lo and behold, he came in his pants! I hadn’t even touched him, it was just the French that did it.
The last thing he said to me before falling asleep was how glad he was that we were getting married. Apparently his offhand comment in the car earlier, the one I had taken as a joke, had been a real proposal! On my 18th birthday! I left him, taking the metro home, and sent him a text for him to wake up to. I also firm broke off the accidental engagement.
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