The Romantic.com

My boyfriend had told me that when I was home from school over the weekend he was going to take me out to dinner in Champaign, the nearest town with good restaurants.

I asked if we could go the “The Bread Company”, where we had gone on our first date over 2 years before.  It is a cute little restaurant on the U of I campus and they have the best fondue!  It sounded nice to share fondue, a bottle of wine, and a nice relaxing evening together, especially since I hadn’t seen him in a couple of weeks.  He agreed and it was a date.

On the way to the restaurant he was kind of quiet, but he had a cold and isn’t the most chipper when he is sick so I didn’t think anything of it.  For dinner we ordered the cheese fondue with bread and veggies and a bottle of wine.

And of course, then we ordered the chocolate fondue for dessert (my favorite part!)  When we were there two years before the chocolate fondue was served with a variety of fresh sliced fruits and cubes of pound cake.  This time the fruit was arranged nicely around a large piece of chocolate cake or something.  We started eating the fruit and I mentioned that the chocolate centerpiece was new and wondered if they had gotten rid of the pound cake.

After a few more minutes of dessert and conversation my curiosity got the best of me and I had to know what this chocolate thing was.  I began picking at the corner with my fondue fork and noticed it had a solid chocolate shell.

My boyfriend was entertained at my curiosity and interesting use of my fondue fork as I stabbed the chocolate trying to break through.  Finally I managed to chip off a small corner of the chocolate to reveal something white inside, maybe a cream or something?  I looked at my boyfriend to ask what he thought it was and he reached over and picked up the piece of chocolate off of the plate as he stood up from his chair.

He then knelt down on one knee and placed the large chocolate cube in his outstretched hand as he told me how much he loved me and asked me to marry him.  The first words out of my mouth were, “You put a ring in chocolate?!?!?!”  Then of course I said yes as he stood up to give me a hug and a kiss.

The whole restaurant clapped and cheered and continued watching.  I was crying and shaking as he helped me chip off the rest of the chocolate to reveal a cellophane covered ring box.  He unwrapped it, removed the beautiful half carat solitaire diamond and placed it on my finger.

He then asked, “Did you know you were on tape?”  “WHAT???” I replied, just as one of the waiters walked over to our table and placed my fiancé’s video camera in the empty chair at our table.  I hadn’t noticed a thing, but I have one of my favorite memories captured on film!  We’ve been married now almost 2 years!