I brought my hoverboard along (I carried it over in a bag! I swear I didn't ride it in public!) so everyone could try it out in the privacy of the apartment.
Meredith got up to leave well-before the game was over and as she got on her coat I asked her, "Headed out to another gathering?" "Nah," she replied, "just don't give a shit about who wins." Haha.
Before she could answer, I got down on knee and popped the big one! She was so surprised that at first she didn't say anything. She just kept looking around totally surprised trying to process what was happening.
As the surprise wore off, she just started laughing and laughing. Her first words back to me after my proposal were inspired by Bret Michaels and VH1's awesomely terrible Rock of Love. She asked, "Will you stay in this house and continue to rock my world?" Hahaha.
While Meredith sat on the couch, all of the roof guests quietly sneaked into the apartment but stayed by the door out of Meredith's sight. With everyone in place, I took a deep breath and tried to pretend that I was just casually joining her on the couch. As soon as I sat down next to her, the noisy party instantly went completely silent and Meredith noticed that everyone at the entire party was looking at the two of us and aiming cameras at us. Before she could ask what was happening, I asked "Remember four years ago when you asked me out on this couch?"
We started walking over to Sarah's house at 5:30. I secretly texted the party and told them that we were on the way and that anyone who was there from out of town should go up on to the roof and hide for a while so that Meredith wouldn't get tipped off to the fact that something was up!
Indoor grilling in June in a NYC-sized apartment = 1,000 degrees Farenheit. Meredith was like "It's so hot in here, let's go up on to the roof" and everyone had to keep making up excuses about why we were staying in the roasting-hot apartment.
After successfully getting settled in to the party without Meredith suspecting anything, Catrinel initiated the next stage of the plan and got Meredith to sit down on the very same couch that she'd been sitting on four years ago when we decided to go on our first date! (Cat was like "It's really hot - come sit here on the couch with me and I can fan us!" Smooooooth.)
Here's the whole thing captured on video courtesy of Siege. (My favorite part is after all 15 seconds of kissing and the room yelling of the word "woo," it gets quiet for a second and Sarah goes "WAIT, DID SHE SAY YES?")
