The Engagement That Was Not: A Las Vegas Story

Let me preface this post by stating that I always ruin my own surprises. I assure you I am not exaggerating. A couple of years ago, I spoiled every one of my Christmas presents from Mr. Seal and it wasn't because I physically saw them—I'm just impatient and...figured them out. I am suspicious by nature, and have an innate sense of when someone is trying to surprise me or lie to me in an effort to throw me off track. I'm pretty sure if I were a superhero my superpower would be exposing secrets! Okaaay, that would be a pretty lame superpower, but that's the unfortunate talent I was born to bear.

In the following situation I promise I was trying my best to remain ignorant, but it wasn't made very easy...

The month was November of 2009. The place? Las Vegas. Mr S. and I, along with just about every other member of my family, were on vacation. He and I spent the first couple nights of the trip getting romantic—we wined and dined at fancy restaurants and attended the Wynn's Cirque du soleil-esque show Le Reve.

Mr. Seal on our walk to the Wynn:

We reconvened with the family on the third night. Daddy Seal, a musician, was playing at the Hard Rock Hotel and Mr. Seal suggested we spend some time with him before catching his show. While we were backstage, I excused myself to use the restroom returning to hear that my father and Mr. Seal would be back soon—this was obviously suspect, but I pretended to not notice.

When they returned, Daddy Seal turned to me, put his hand on my shoulder and announced (no lie!), "[Mr. Seal] has just asked for permission to ask you for your hand in marriage."

Silence.

I, absolutely shocked by this brazen disregard for secrecy, glanced at an equally bewildered Sealman and responded to my father with, "Uhhhhh...am I supposed to know that?"

Realizing that he had perhaps said too much, he said, "Oh. I don't know?"

The thing was, I did actually know that a proposal was coming. Mr. Seal and I had casually talked about marriage and I could tell things were getting extra serious—my spideysenses told me he was ready to "seal" the deal. And now, thanks to dad's silly slip-up, I could be outwardly excited. Right?! Well, maybe not.

After the concert, we decided to hit the casino with the family and have a few drinks. Mr. Seal was knocking them back more quickly than usual and I started to get a bit anxious. Given the evening's events, however, I knew I needed to cut him some slack...so I did.

It was on this night that Mr. Seal's intoxicated alter-ego "Bernie" was born. John-Michael, my little cousin/groomsman (in white and gray stripes below) and our friend Chris (also below), call Mr. S by the name Bernie because of basic arithmetic:

Personal photos/"Weekend at Bernie's" image source

So, while Bernie was stumbling around the casino floor, kissing people on the neck and declaring his love for everyone, I was awkwardly receiving comments like, "Congratulations! You're gonna get engaged!" Say what? That just sounds weird. Not expecting the emotions I experienced upon hearing these comments, I couldn't help but want to paraphrase Beyonce and say, "WHERE'S MY RING!?"

Don't get me wrong, I was THRILLED, but how do you celebrate something that, 1) hasn't happened yet and, 2) you're not technically supposed to know about?! I thought I would be relieved to not have to play dumb anymore...but I was wrong, and thus confused!

Here's Bernie, before he started dragging his legs around and involuntarily closing his eyes (he was clearly still on top of the world at this point):

Eventually, I was gifted the task of getting my nearly comatose (and nearly affianced) boyfriend back to our hotel. This involved a less than sober Miss Seal, a 10 minute cab ride, a long walk through our hotel's lobby and casino floor, and an elevator. The cabbie even asked us if we needed to have a wheelchair waiting at our hotel but thanks to a swift elbow jab in Mr. Seal's direction, this proved unnecessary.

The next morning, after my brain fully registered the previous evening's happenings (and my stomach digested the $100 worth of room service), I woke up excited—excited, yet fully aware that I was not engaged...yet. Now, all I had to do was wait and hope that I could keep my investigatory thoughts at bay. There was no way I was going to let my curse superpower destroy a girl's ultimate surprise!

Did you know your fiancé was going to ask you before he asked or was it a total surprise? Do you have a superpower too!?

Up Next: The ACTUAL Engagement

Kisses and Cuddles,

Miss Seal

(all personal photos unless otherwise stated)