It was late in the day; probably around 9:30 pm.  My sisters, Mary Beth, Joy, and Lydia, along with Mary Beth's husband, Brian, and Fiona's sister, Yvette, sat with me in the living room as we all tried to just stay calm and watch TV.  By this point, everyone in the room knew what was coming; I was going to propose to Fiona, and they were going to help.  

I had given each of them a specific job.  They were to line up in order of relation to the fiancee-to-be, with me at the very end.  Everyone was going to read a quote that was important in her life.  During each quote, the music would change to match said quote.  I had it all planned out perfectly: when Fiona got home, she'd be greeted by Brian.  He was going to read to her a quote from Zelda: Ocarina of Time.  Lydia would follow with a Beatles quote (8 Days A Week).  Then, Joy would read a few lines from "To Make You Feel My Love".  Mary Beth would follow up with a quote from "It's A Wonderful Life"... Do you want the moon?  Yvette would round out the bunch with a few lines from Walk the Moon's "Aquaman".  Lastly, Fiona would open the bedroom door to me and our cats (Della & Mowgli), where I'd read her some words written by yours truly.  It was going to be great.

Fiona normally texts or calls me when she gets off work.  That night, she sent me a text that she'd get off soon.  As soon as I saw that text, we all ran to our places.  I turned on the music and took the cats in the back room with me.  There we waited.

...and waited...

...and waited.

We waited for what seemed like an hour (it was probably much less than that).  I had to play the Zelda song over and over again, to the point where we all would've had the words memorized, had there been any words.  During that time, the cats decided to have the biggest fight they've ever had in their entire lives.  They were legitimately screaming and clawing at each other.  I thought "Why me?" as I held one cat and kept the other one at arms length.  "Can you not be cool just this once?!?!?" I asked them.  Eventually, they were cool.

At long last, Fiona arrived home.  It turns out she had been squeezing some lemons at the bar...or something like that.  I don't really remember.  I was too focused on the goal.  

While Fiona was pretty surprised at first, it all went PERFECTLY.  Everyone did a great job with their quotes, the music was just right, and Fiona said YES.  It was one of the greatest moments of my life.

-David