Subterfuge

You know, you guys are way better than anything. I told my parents I was going over to my friends' Bobbie and Joanne’s to study, but I didn't. I came here, instead. I'm stooping to subterfuge for you guys!

I was not made for lying. Or deception. Or secret-keeping. Well, nobody was. (Except maybe for Crissy up there.) But me especially? Not so much.

David contacted me two weeks ago with the idea of coming to Texas to surprise Ginger and propose to her here. (I’ll let her be the one to give you the full story, don’t worry!) It was the morning I was leaving for SXSW. It’s all that was on my mind during that four and a half hour drive down to Austin. I was particularly perky that morning, and why not? Ginger! David! Surprise engagement! Grins all around!

But. This is when the lying had to start. I somehow had to keep my mouth shut during a five-day trip with co-workers and friends. I had to go out into the hotel hallway to make a purposely vague phone call, and checked my phone constantly for new texts or emails from David, as more and more news came in for what his trip was going to look like.

I also had to endure the hardest thing so far: a very long phone call with Ginger, listening to her talk about her relationship, when she thought the proposal might possibly come, and find a way to be my normal self of question-asking and hmmm-ing and somehow not telling her IT’S GOING TO HAPPEN WHILE YOU’RE IN TEXAS! IN TWO WEEKS! HE’S GOING TO SURPRISE YOU GAAAAAH!

After that weekend I had to work hard to do everything I could to keep this secret from somehow getting out. And that's when the lying really took off. SO! Apologies to you if you were one of the people whose face I lied directly into. Annie, for sure, who I spent an entire weekend with and wanted nothing more than to just let it all out and jump on the hotel beds in excitement with over the whole thing! Stacy, my co-worker pal, who asked very innocent questions about things I was doing and received a handful of mushy falsehoods in return. And especially my own BROTHER, who asked if I thought there might be a chance that she'd fly in and surprise US by already having a ring, and I had to just vaguely say something like "I don't thiiiiiiink so.... Oh look! A bird!"

The hardest person to lie to though was, of course, Ginger. Particularly once she was in Tyler, enjoying the backyard weather with my parents and I, as I told her I had to “go back to work” and avoid her gaze as she grilled me about “DO THEY KNOW YOUR FAMILY’S IN TOWN?!?” and “WHY DO YOU HAVE TO GO IN?” and I mumbled something about my boss and his kids and okay bye.

Because.

I was on my way to meet up with Him*. To show him possible proposal spots. (PS—He is so awesome, because I took him to my favorite place first and he simply high-fived me and said he didn’t need to see anywhere else. Brother-in-law WIN!) We talked about Ginger, and how we both say WIN, and about how I had the hardest job, because of all the LYING! I mean really. All he had to do was ask her a question!

Me? I had to lie to her face again on Sunday morning and tell her that Mom and Grandma went over here, let’s go meet them! See? This is not strange at all! Here, listen to this great song. Sing along, why dontcha?

And suddenly all of the paranoia, the evasion, the heart-clenched feeling, the worry, the sleepless nights, the lying, and everything else, were all worth it. Because then I left, and five minutes later when I came back, she was sparkling (both in jewelry and demeanor) and bouncing and happier than I’ve ever seen her.

More so than when we got a trampoline that one Christmas even.

*David. Not the Lord. (Though I’m sure He was there too.)