The Proposal: Part II
The Ring
I’ve always thought that buying an engagement ring was one of those things the guy should do alone. Sure, I’ve seen couples at jewelry stores, peering down into glass cases, looking, together, for the right ring.
But, romantic as that is, ring-shopping is a kind of rite; a test of manhood, if you will. And nothing is more romantic than a surprise.
Surprises, of course, can backfire. What if she hates it? What if it doesn’t fit? A bad choice can sour what’s supposed to be one of the happiest moments of your life.
So I did plenty of research. I traded emails with her friends, and the friends of her friends. I showed pictures to them, and to her sister, Lisa, who was very supportive, and pulled no punches in pointing out my poorer choices. ("Uh, that one? Negative.") I even did a little snooping, and peeked at some jewelry websites she’d looked at!
All of this gave me a good picture of the kind of diamond I wanted to get her: a princess cut solitaire with two baguettes. So, armed with this info - and a list of contacts her friends had furnished - I scoured the Southland for the right rock.
I roamed Old Town and the Promenade. I made the obligatory pilgrimage to Tiffany’s, where two months’ pay will buy you a grain of salt and a piece of pipe wire. I got smarter and went to a shop in the Jewelry District in Downtown L.A. - a whole block of jewelry shops, each lined with dozens of counters, each jeweler speaking a different language - Korean, Spanish, Ilocano, Khmer, Farsi - and promising to cut passersby the best possible deal.
Finally, I caught wind of the perfect diamond. It met all my requirements for color, cut and clarity, but was still within my budget. Braving the midday traffic - I was still working graveyard at the time - I slugged my way down the 405 to Little Saigon, smack dab in the middle of Orange County.
It was like another world. The air of the Asian Garden mall was thick with the smell of fried delicacies from the food stalls, with Vietnamese elevator music, and with the incense burning on almost every countertop, presumably to bring the shopkeepers good luck. I found Yuri’s diamond at one of the jewelry shops on the second floor - it was perfect - and narrowed my choices down to a couple of different settings.
I still had to go home and figure out which of the settings I preferred. And I still had to wait for a few weeks after I chose the setting before I could actually pick the ring up. But my thoughts were already turning to other challenges: Where was I going to hide it? How was I going to ask her parents? How was I going to ask her?