It was the Friday after Thanksgiving. Aviva and I had been going out for about a year and a half and we were working together at BevAccess. We were planning on taking a vacation starting that Sunday. We were flying to Miami, where we’d stay for day, then we were taking a three or four night cruise to the Bahamas. When we returned we were going to spend two more days on Miami Beach and then we were driving to Disney World where we would spend the remainder of our two week trip.

I suggested that we “start our vacation early” and go out that night for a romantic evening of dinner and dancing. We made reservations at Bistro Latino which is where we really started dating.

While we were looking for parking, our co-worker Pat called my cell and told me that our lead salesman, Jim was on a big sales meeting and he couldn't dial-in to the office to give a demo. I told him a few things to try and we continued on our very difficult time finding parking.

About a half hour later, we had just parked and were walking to the restaurant when Pat called again. None of my suggestions resolved the problem. I thought of some other things he could try and into the restaurant we went.

While we were eating dinner Pat called a third time. He said that none of my suggestions fixed the problem and that our boss Todd had said that if we couldn’t fix the problem remotely, he wanted one of us to go to the hotel where Jim was giving the demo and fix the problem.

Aviva and I discussed what we should do. Here we were on a romantic evening out and as far as we were concerned we were already on vacation. On the other hand, this was a really big sales presentation and Pat lived in Staten Island. The hotel was Central Park South and we were on 54th and Broadway.

After a while we agreed that we would go to the hotel, but only after we had finished our dinner and had our fill of dancing. Soon after Todd called and I told him what we would do. Then Jim called and said that he was going to take his potential clients out, that he would leave the key downstairs for me, and asked that I page him after I fixed the problem.

When we got to the hotel we had a hard time getting them to give us the key. Eventually, they did and we went upstairs. When we got inside it was dark. When Aviva turned on the lights there were roses and rose petals strewn about the room. I got down on my knee, told her how happy she made me, and asked her to marry me. Of course she said yes (as I’ve said, she’s very smart ☺).