Chapter 01: The Realization

Charlotte's spires glint below us as the city's night life wakes. As I look out the window, the sounds of Netflix reach my ears from behind me. Emily, nestled under the covers, is the picture of contentment, with her computer in her lap, a bottle of wine, some cotton candy and the bed warmer on. I've escaped to avoid being baked alive in the reptilian conditions that women seem to favor. We're fourteen floors up in the lovely Omni hotel, in the middle of the Epicenter. The name couldn't be more appropriate for what's nearly happened. You see, I've just caught myself. Three words nearly boiled out of me just now, a combination of "Emily," "me," and that last one, supremely powerful when spoken in the correct order, "marry." What the hell?

We've been together two years now, in the spring of 2011, and looking at the situation like that, those three words - "marry me, Emily," would on paper seem entirely reasonable. But Emily and I have been proceeding with caution. We've both been hurt before in prior dating relationships. We know the value of reason. But that's the thing. Love isn't a perfectly rational concept. Love, by definition, is spontaneous. Uncontrollable. Weird. And at times, it will surprise you. I hadn't even had marriage on the mind until it nearly boiled up and out of me like that. The words lurk somewhere between my tongue and my larynx. They're probably hiding in that hole where my tonsils used to be, waiting for the moment I let my guard down.

It's then I realize that I can see this one aspect of my life stretching before me, a rail of light. It's like the taillights of the supercars that race the streets of Charlotte below us. Perhaps like that train ride scene from "Tron." And as I follow that rail, there's no deviation, no track to switch. It's dawned upon me that I will propose to Emily, because there's nobody else in the world with whom our lives could be complete. One other thing is certain: Emily is both intelligent and perceptive. Hazardously so. And I am not necessarily a creature of subtlety. I very nearly derailed the whole plan right here, without warning. If I'm going to pull this off, I'm going to need a hell of a plan. I'm also going to need an accomplice.