The Ring Part II

When I last left off, we'd found my ring in the place where we'd least expected it. It was missing the center stone, though.

Luckily, Zales was having a "gem fair" in a few weeks that would include an on-site jeweler. If we came back then, we could find a stone and have it set the same day (instead of them having to send it away to be set). Though it would probably be more expensive, it would also be warrantied for life. We decided to go ahead and do this.

The gem fair was on a Thursday, so S. took a long lunch and I took the afternoon off of work to go in. I got there first and tried to contain myself outside the jewelry store. S. had insisted on bringing the ring himself, which involved him showing it off to everyone in his office beforehand.

We went in, and despite several phone conversations during which we had specifically mentioned a price range of not over $X, and that we wanted an aquamarine, they proceeded at first to tell us they had no aquamarine. Then, they magically found and decided to show us two aquamarines that, while gorgeous, were $1800 and $1500 dollars. Finally, I let go of the "we're really disappointed, took time off of work to be here, explained what we wanted a million times," speech that I'd been holding in, seething, for about 20 minutes. They cut through the rest of whatever they were going to try next and went straight to their cases, took out a couple of other pieces that had aquamarines in them in the general size and shape we wanted and this time, the price was much more reasonable. So I picked the one I wanted, and the jeweler got to work while we went and ate lunch.

When the ring was done, the store manager walked it over to us, and I had to turn away super fast. Part of the deal was that I would not see the final product until S. proposed. Of course, all three (him, the manager, and the salesman that had helped us buy the ring originally) therefore proceeded to oooh and ahhh over it. And of course, he then re-showed the finished ring to everyone at his work again later that afternoon. Phooey.

And it was done! Thus began my long, long crawl through the desert of impatience until he proposed.

Next week, on Hitched 10-10-10: he pops the question in a totally sneaky (and really, really awesome) way!