by Melody Bowen
Our anniversary celebration had to wait until Saturday, it seemed, because Ned had a gig to play in Nashville on Friday night. Because we didn't get to see each other that day, Ned sent me a beautiful arrangement of yellow, white, and lavender daisies from my favorite florist, which included a card that read: "It's been a year - I love you more than ever, Ned." [Say it with me.... Awwwwww...]
Ned arrived Saturday morning, got a few hours of sleep, and then we decided to go out to celebrate our year together by feasting on a couple of delicious steaks. We chatted and laughed over our perfectly-cooked steaks just like we'd done at Las Palmas a year earlier. Toward the end of the meal, he looked at me and said something like, "OK, there's just no way to make this a surprise. You know I want to buy you a ring." (He was right. I did know.) "I"m not asking you to pick it out, but would you go shopping with me? Maybe you could just pick several of them. Just to give me an idea of what kind of ring you'd like. If I know what you like in general, then when I shop for a ring on my own, I'll be able to find one I think you'll like." Then he added, "I just don't want to pick the ring that will make you throw up," which was a reference to a favorite episode of Sex & the City when Aidan bought Carrie a ring that was so awful that, upon seeing the first time, she ran to the sink and tossed up her cookies (Cosmopolitans, whatever). [By the way, how cute is it that he knows my favorite Sex & the City episodes so well he can use them in casual conversation? How cute is that???] Obviously, I agreed to go shopping with him.
We decided to take a little road trip to Tulsa on Sunday to do some jewelry "window shopping". When we got to Woodland Hills Mall, we started at James Avery, which is one of my favorite jewelry stores. I love their silver charms, which are very intricate and beautiful, but it's not the sort of place one normally looks for engagement rings. In fact, we were there to look at a beautiful gold-and-silver wedding band that Ned really liked (it looks kind of like a banjo strap), and we were considering it for him. After James Avery, we wandered through a few other stores, then prepared ourselves for the jewelry hunt. Ned held my hand and said, "Well, are you ready to start looking at the jewelry stores?" I took a deep breath and smiled. "Sure."
At the first jewelry store, the suit-wearing gentleman asked what sort of ring we wanted to see. We stammered a sort of we're-not-really-sure response and stared at the display case a little blankly. He extracted a $10,000 chunk of ice that could rival the iceberg that took down the Titanic, and I slipped it on my finger. I thought it was pretty, and I said so, but it was way over the top. A little too 'Puff Daddy bling-bling', I thought, and I handed it back to him. We stayed at the first store for quite some time as I tried on ring after ring. Ned said very little, offering only a few comments from time to time. I could tell he was drinking it all in.
Before we went to the first store, in the back of my mind I thouht the perfect ring for me was probably a very simple, not-a-teeny-little-chip-but-not-a-big-rock solitaire -- maybe a simple princess or emerald cut stone -- set on a white gold band. I thought the white gold would make the stone really sparkle, and I always loved a simple, beautiful ring. By the time I tried on several rings, it became clear that my original wish list was not really what was inspiring me, and Ned didn't like the solitaires on white gold at all. Finally, the one we liked best was a simple round ("brilliant-cut") diamond on a plain gold band. Didn't get much simpler than that.
Afterward, we headed to a few more stores, where we continued to agree that we both liked a plain round stone on a plain gold band best. We were even more certain that we knew what we *didn't* want: No rings with multiple stones, no elaborate settings, and definitely no platinum (we wouldn't even look at anything set in platinum because I thought it was just ridiculously expensive). We continued shopping and saw plenty of beautiful rings, but only one had made me draw in my breath and say, "Wow, that's really pretty..." It was the simple solitaire on a gold band, but it had a "ring wrap" made of tiny diamonds and sapphires that gave the solitaire an extra little bit of sparkle. At that point, I think Ned and I both had pretty much decided the ring he bought me was going to be exactly that -- round diamond, gold band, pretty little ring wrap with sapphires on the sides.
As we walked toward the exit hand-in-hand (after having our pictures taken in one of those photo booths -- a photo meant to make us look like we were standing beside President Dubya), we chatted about what we'd seen, and I mentioned that we might try one more store. I told Ned that we'd seen some beautiful things, but I felt that the prices were *way* over the top, with some stores asking as much as $8K for a simple, mid-range-quality, one-carat solitaire. It was late in the day, we were getting hungry, and we thought the last store would just be a quick stop. It almost was.
Yes, we discovered that we could buy a much higher quality diamond (and larger, frankly) for less money at a store outside the boundaries of Woodland Hills Mall. Ned and the saleslady (Rebecca) discussed the process for ordering the stone we wanted in the setting we wanted and the size we wanted and blah, blah, blah, and we thought we had it settled. We glanced at a few other rings in the display case, tried a few of them on just for fun, and still agreed that the simple solitaire (round cut, single stone, gold band, absolutely no platinum, etc,) was the way to go. Rebecca wrote down all the information for Ned, should he decide to come back and order the ring.
Then, it happened. Just as we prepared to walk away, Ned glanced into the case and said, "Wait. Could we see that one, please?" and pointed to a ring in a platinum setting I hadn't even noticed (remember I'd written off platinum much, much earlier in the day). Rebecca put the ring in Ned's hand first and they both commented on the weight (it was quite heavy), and then Ned handed it to me. I agreed that the platinum made it feel much different (heavier, more substantial), and I slipped it on my finger, just to the first knucke. That was when I felt the tears welling up in my eyes and my hands started to shake. My jaw dropped, my stomach did a little somersault, and I drew in a breath. Rebecca said, "You can always tell when a woman finds the right ring, because her hands start to shake." Ned said, "Wow... what do you think of it, sweetheart?" I found myself unable to speak. (No, I'm not exaggerating. No, I'm not being melodramatic. I was honestly -- perhaps for one of the first few times in my life -- speechless.) After 30 seconds or so that seemed like minutes, I blinked back tears and whispered, "I think it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
Rebecca smiled, and threw away the card with the information she'd written earlier and began writing down the details of this ring for Ned -- certified, pre-appraised, 1.5 carats, three completely colorless near-perfect princess-cut diamonds set in platinum, and a price that I don't even want to think about, despite the fact that it was a great deal for something so beautiful. As we walked away from the counter, Ned held my still-quaking hands, and I still hadn't completely regained the ability to speak. Just as I thought we were about the leave, Ned stopped walking, looked at me, and drew in a breath...