Katie & Justin

[stag_intro]SPOILER ALERT: I said yes. [/stag_intro]Every year between Christmas and New Year’s, Justin and I visit Captiva Island in Florida with Justin’s family. We’ve made it a tradition each time we’re there to sneak into the resort’s pool area at night for a dip in the hot tub. Usually we can easily get in to the pool through a side gate right by our timeshare, and then enjoy the rest of the evening in the water without notice.

This year we ran into a few roadblocks.

First, our key cards no longer worked for the side gate, so we had to walk around to the pool’s main entrance, only to be met by another locked gate.

“Ah, here we go,” I said, spotting a stool behind the empty security desk. Using the stool, I started to climb over the gate and was about halfway over when we noticed a beam of a light bouncing towards us.

“You guys trying to get into the pool?” a security officer yelled, moving his flashlight directly on us.

Uh-oh, I thought. Busted!

“Uhhh, no?” I said as I sat on top of the gate, in my bathing suit and towel.

“The pool’s closed,” he said, coming closer to us.

But Justin pleaded with him. “I promise we won’t drown or do anything bad,” he said.

Little did I know, Justin had the ring in his bathing suit pocket and had planned to propose once we got inside — that is until the security guard interrupted.

“Well, I’ll tell you what,” the guy responded, as I climbed back down to the pavement. “I’m about to lock up and head out of here, so if you wait a few minutes, I won’t see anything.”

No way! He’s letting us go in!  

I couldn’t believe it, but the guy was giving us a free pass. We quickly thanked the man and then waited at a nearby picnic table for him to leave. Justin sighed in relief; his plan was back on track.

“Have a good night,” the guard said a few minutes later as he walked out. “And just so you know, there’s a sign on a gate in the back that says alarm will sound. No alarm will actually sound.”

Wow, this guy is the best!  We thanked him again and headed towards the hot tub, which is set next to two big pools and the ocean, and surrounded by palm trees, fountains and flowers.

Still laughing about the encounter we just had, Justin immediately pulled out the ring once we got inside and proposed! I said yes, and it was a lovely moment. The bizarre circumstances from the night made it even better, and true to our style. We celebrated the news for a bit in our private paradise — but we weren’t in the clear yet.

Sure enough, we saw another flashlight darting around and before we knew it, there was another security guard — only this guy wasn’t as nice as the first one. He told us to scram, and Justin apologized to him as we ran out of there in a hurry. There was no need this time for Justin to beg; the mission had been accomplished!

Perhaps it was from all the excitement, but when we got back up to our room, we suddenly realized that neither one of us had our key card.

“We must have left it by the pool,” I said, dreading the thought of sneaking back in and running into the nasty guard again. “He’s going to think we’re just trying to get back in the water!”

But without any other option, we went back down, again grabbing the stool and again climbing over the gate. Once inside, we searched everywhere for that key but couldn’t find it. Using our cell phones for light, we hunted around until it seemed like we had nowhere else to look.

Eventually Justin reached down towards his feet. “I wonder if it’s in my shoe,” he said.

Before I could even question that notion, Justin pulled out the key card!

“WHAT?! No way!” I shouted. We burst out laughing, and continued laughing all the way up to our room — where we discovered that our door hadn’t even been locked. Turns out we didn’t even need that card after all!

What a night it was! :-)