Getting proposed to isn’t supposed to be a surprise. I always imagined getting proposed to after being with the person that I love for several years, and having many discussions about how and when it would happen.

But for some reason, that didn’t happen. My best friend and I just moved in together as housemates. He just broke up with his girlfriend and my lease was up, so it made sense for us to bunk together until we get our lives back in order. The house that we’re renting is very old and run down, and so we had to discuss a lot of issues with the landlord. My best friend is kind of shy and so I did it, and was as assertive as I could when telling the landlord we need replacement windows ASAP.

You may be wondering why that bit of information is relevant to this story, and this is why: my best friend cited that instance as the moment he realised that he was in love with me. He said it crashed over him like a tidal wave and he felt like he couldn’t breathe until he told me. You can imagine my absolute shock when he knelt to the ground next to me. I thought he had momentarily fainted or something. But then he looked at me with this expression I had never seen before, and asked me to marry him. I laughed because I thought he was joking. I thought he was just happy that I had organised us to get new windows. But he was serious.

If you’re wondering, I said no. We’re both twenty five years old and he just got out of a relationship. I also had no idea that he had feelings for me, because he didn’t know either. I told him that maybe we could go on a date after we get the timber window replacement. Melbourne is a fun city to go on dates in. It’s weird that I’ll be going on a date with my best friend though.