A ‘Flawless’ Proposal That Took a Few Tries — and the Fire Department
In 2021, during the holidays, Michael Greene bought a diamond ring and decided he would pop the big question to Tomika Anderson on New Year’s Eve. But after Ms. Anderson “whooped his butt in Monopoly so bad,” she said, he was no longer in the mood to propose. He decided to wait until the next day.
But things went awry the following day, as well. He proposed to her on Jan. 1, 2022, while she was coming out of the shower with her hair “half wet, half dry,” she said. He pulled the ring out of a velvet bag rather than a box because there was an inventory shortage at the time.
“I was looking at him like, ‘Are you serious? This is how you want to propose?,’” she said.
“She was about to beat me up,” he added.
Additionally, when she tried to take the ring off the following day, it would not budge — “not with butter, not with soap, nothing,” she said. They ultimately went to the fire department, and a firefighter clipped it off.
After a disappointing proposal, and a broken ring (they were able to salvage the diamond), she asked him for a “do-over,” she said, which took place on Valentine’s Day.
The do-over was “flawless,” Ms. Anderson said.
Together, they chose a new band for the diamond, and Mr. Greene arranged for a makeup artist, a limousine, a red carpet and a private suite decorated with roses at La Vie in Washington, Ms. Anderson’s favorite restaurant.
