Sharon and I were now officially engaged. She called her family and broke the news. I think her brothers were happy for her. I am not sure how her mom and dad took the news. They were probably still reeling from the sequence of events that had transpired. She told her close friends and cousins. Some of her friends were surprised at how quickly our relationship was moving. Maybe it was more that they were "alarmed" rather than surprised. Some were really questioning why I wanted to marry her so fast. I guess they didn't see what I was looking at. First, there was the age difference and then I was the "new" office romance. The immigration issue was mentioned, although they didn't know that I was already a U.S. Citizen. I guess we just took it for granted that most people would be happy for her and us. She did tell some of her friends that she met "this great guy". Sharon made it clear that I was "the guy" for her. I believe that it happened so fast because we both knew that we were meant to be together. Everything that happened before led us to that moment where we knew we were in love and it wasn't just the newness of it all, but something deeper.
The first day back at the office, we weren't really advertising our engagement. We weren't hiding it, but we weren't broadcasting it either. We never really told people that we were dating. We were both low key people. Sharon was the assistant to our Chief Information Officer and there was a big management meeting. I guess some of the female managers noticed her ring finger as she was taking notes. I guess they noticed the diamond that was now on her finger. Apparently there was quite a bit of commotion during the meeting. A lot of excitement. They were all congratulating her. Sharon told me that they seemed geniunely happy for her and told her that I was a great guy, I wasn't at the meeting but in my area that was in the opposite side of the building. I never heard all of the commotion during it all as it was behind closed doors. After the meeting several of the female managers and directors headed straight to my work area. They were all screaming and congratulating me. They commented that I waited for the right person to come along and then moved very quickly when I found her. They told me that they had no idea that we were dating. Our company had a lot of employees that were single and there was some inter-office romances and dating going on. I had managed to stay out of it until Sharon came along. Not everyone was happy for me. There were some guys that were giving me cold stares after the news came out. So I am sure some of them were upset with me, but I knew that I met the one that I had been waiting all my life for. I doubt that any of them wanted a long term commitment. People at the office seemed to be observing us even more, just watching. For us, nothing really changed. We both knew that we were right for each other. We felt it and we both knew that this was different, it was special. Being together was like breathing, something we had to have, but something that was natural.
