On Monday a young man approached me with one of those bookseller's dream questions. No, he didn't want to buy all of our unsaleable stock, though that would have been nice. He came in on behalf of a friend who wanted to propose to his girlfriend in our store. She's a customer who loves us. He's a creative guy who loves his girlfriend. And, Brendan, his friend, was a willing and capable organizer.
The idea was that Brandon (confusing isn't it? They really are 2 different people), the hopeful boyfriend, would take Abby, the unsuspecting girlfriend, out to dinner. After dining, Brandon would suggest they go somewhere for desert and walk Abby down the street to our store. When they reached our store, Brandon would suggest they go in to browse. Abby would protest, knowing we were closed. Brandon would say, "Let's just see," open the door, and walk her inside our deserted store to find cheesecake and drinks awaiting. Then, they'd retire to the rear of the store to sit in an environment created for the purpose, watch a video, and Brandon would propose. How could I say no to that?
So last night Brendan and two friends began loading equipment into our store at around 6:00 p.m. A table, couch, video equipment, Christmas lights and electric paper lanterns were hauled in through the back doors. Lights were strung, video was set up, desert stashed. It took two and a half hours in all, and when they were done it looked so very romantic. I killed the store lights and we waited.
About 5 minutes before they arrived, we received a call that the couple was on their way. I unlocked the front door and hid under the cashier desk. Brendan and the boys hid on the balcony. And then a couple walked through the door, a different couple. Since I couldn't see them and didn't know what Brandon and Abby looked like, I was clueless. So Brendon shouted out that we were closed. As the confused couple left, Brandon and Abby approached. The other couple told them we were closed but Brandon and Abby persevered. After they got through the door and picked up their desert, I snuck around the counter, locked the door, went to my desk in the back rooms, and pretended I wasn't here. Waiting was agony. I was jittery and my stomach hurt. When they left, we got an all clear signal. None of us ever showed our faces while Brandon and Abby were in the store. It was their private moment.
I am happy to report Abby said, "Yes!" to Brandon's proposal. I watched the video while the boys tore down. It was dreamy: thoughtful, loving, romantic, hopeful. The whole set up was a fitting start to one of the ultimate acts of hope these days, the public declaration of love and an intention to forsake all others for that relationship.
We at WellerWorld were delighted to watch love bloom in our store yet again. It's always an honor to share moments like this with customers, one of the many things that makes bookselling rewarding. People get to know us and they include us in parts of their lives: relationships, proposals, weddings, births, funerals. And we are privileged in that inclusion.
Thank you and good luck to Brandon and Abby.
House.
2 years ago
1 comment:
I'm so happy about this. I wrote the music for the video, so I was waiting for this to happen forever.
(When Brandon initially approached me for it, he had no spoken-intention of proposing, he'd just written a poem for Abby and wanted to make a video of it. After he sent me a track of him reciting it, I was pretty confident of where it was headed. It sat on the backburner for almost two years after he realized where it was headed, too.)
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