Storytelling Week 12: I'm Banking On It

Arian was a young, attractive, and hard-working twenty-three year-old. She worked part time for J.P. Morgan as a bank teller, as well as was finishing up her Masters in Counseling from SMU. She was the most genuine and honest girl in the world. 

Her and Carter had been dating for almost three years now. They met at the bank where she worked when they were both juniors in college. He graduated with a degree in Sales and Entrepreneurship and his one-man startup business he started the week after graduation has turned into one of the most successful small businesses in Dallas.

Carter fell in love the moment he met Arian, and knew he wanted to marry her immediately. Though he could afford one from Tiffany's, her dream engagement ring was a simple gold band with a simple small diamond on it. She also absolutely loved surprises, so he knew he had to go big since her ring was so small! But surprising Arian proved to be no easy task.

He knew that popping the question at a fancy dinner wasn't really what she would want, so he took a different approach. 

His office building was right above the bank where she worked, and she would occasionally come help him out with the smaller tasks if she had some time off. One day, she went up to visit him and asked if she could help in any way before work.

"Yeah, actually, I need to put something in my safe at Chase downstairs," Carter said in a pretend stressful tone. He handed her a briefcase full of signed documents and legal papers that are integral to the operation of his business. 

Taking them downstairs, Arian realized that she didn't actually have clearance to the safe itself, even though she worked there. I'll just get my friend that does have clearance to do it later, I don't want to stress Carter out. She left the briefcase under her desk and went back to do some teller work.

Minutes later she got a call from Carter. "Hey honey, were you able to get the documents put in my safe? They are really important!" 

She didn't want to stress him out, but had to be honest, "No, sorry Carter, I don't have clearance. I'll have to get my coworkers to do it later."

"Is there any way you could ask now? I just really need to make sure this is done right away." Carter said, his plan working perfectly. By this time, he was downstairs peeking around the corner. Ready to spring into action.

Arian approached her coworker, asking if it was okay to deposit Carter's briefcase even though she doesn't have clearance. Her coworker knowing all about the plan, told her she could go ahead and deposit it herself. Carter was right behind her, and got to watch everything play out perfectly.

Arian went to his safe, about the size of a microwave, and typed in the code. It opened with a click, and sitting right in the middle was a picture of her and Carter with her dream engagement ring with a short note telling her how much Carter loved her. She began to cry and turned around to see Carter down on one knee. 

"YES!" she screamed as all of her office mates clapped and cheered!

It may not be the most romantic, but it sure surprised and was perfect for Arian!

Image Credit: Etsy

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Author's Note: This story is very loosely based on The End Of Arthur from the King Arthur unit, original story written by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H.J. Ford in 1902. In the original story, King Arthur asks Sir Bedivere to throw his sword Excalibur into the nearby lake. He doesn't want to do it, but tells the King he did. King Arthur knew he didn't and told Sir Bedivere he HAD to go throw the sword into the lake. I wanted to kind of use this same concept, where Carter asks Arian to do a task for him that takes a few times to accomplish. That's basically the only thing I kept the same, though. I wanted to write a happy story where there is a happy ending and the story is more relatable. Where, in the original story, everyone dies.