Thursday afternoon my husband attempted to surprise me by picking me up in his classic 1989 Camaro Iroc-Z.  This black beauty of a car has always held a special place in his heart.  It is the first car that he purchased with his money “back in the day.”

He held my office door open for me and then escorted me to the passenger side of the car.  As he opened the door, I saw a balloon that said “I love you” along with a large box of chocolates and a card!  How sweet!

Once inside the sports car, he leaned in to kiss me.  This was going to be THE greatest start to Valentine’s Day EVER!

Until …

The roaring thunder of the engine quieted as we began losing power.  My husband was embarrassed as his plans, in his mind, were ruined.  We coasted into the nearest parking lot which just happened to be by the bank’s ATM machine across the street from my place of employment.

He got out of the car and attempted to find the problem.  Although we had just recently put a fuel pump on the car, we feared this was where the problem was stemming from.  Since it is a classic, this isn’t a car that we drive every day.  Sitting up did not help this car, and unfortunately, this was the result.

My husband became more red faced by the minute as his embarrassment turned to anger.  His best laid plans were falling apart at the seams.  I tried to reassure him that it still hadn’t ruined what he planned and we just had to make the best of it.  Easy for me to say, right?  But, it was true.  Getting mad wouldn’t do a single thing to solve the situation we were in.

People were waiting in line behind our car, and he waved them past at this point.  I was surprised by the lack of people that actually cared and tried to help.  There was NO one at first.  Then, as he tried to push the heaviest car in the universe out of the exit lane of the bank and into a parking space, someone got out of their vehicle and came running over to try to help him push it.  I volunteered, too, but he insisted that I stay inside the vehicle since the car was so heavy.  Another gentleman got out of his car at that time and helped push, too.  My faith in humanity was restored at that point when those two people tried to help us!   The first one worked at a part’s store and suggested what might be the problem, which was the same as my husband suspected; the fuel pump!  They suggested that he could beat on it to loosening up any “junk” that had gotten trapped in the fuel pump, so my husband went to the hatchback and pulled out his tools.  Nothing seemed to work, so he went to put the tools back in the hatchback only to discover that the hatchback would not close now!  Frustration was mounting as he attempted several times to close the hatchback.  I tried, in between slams, to ask him to come sit beside me in the car.  He would have none of that as he continuously slammed, slammed, and slammed some more with each time feeling as if my ear drums were going to burst as I was still sitting inside the car!

Finally I just yelled over the slams in my sweetest voice ever … “HONEY … we have AAA!”

A look of bewilderment swept over his face as he didn’t seem to really grasp what I said.  He paused for a moment, then slammed some more.  The hatchback just was not going to close that day!

I took out my cell phone, nervously noticing that the battery was dying!  Ugh!  Of all days NOT to charge my phone while at work … ah, but I would use it until it stopped working completely.

I dialed the number for AAA roadside assistance, told them of our location, what car we were in, and they reassured me that someone would be there within the hour.  I was dreading telling my husband that we would have to wait an hour, but knowing that it was an hour we were together was all that truly mattered!  I finally got him to sit down beside me in the car. I hugged him, and despite temperatures in the 40s, I joked that he had worked up quite a sweat!  We laughed at that, and then he looked at me almost in disbelief again and asked, “We have AAA?”  To which I replied, “Yes, remember I told you that I signed us up last year?  It won’t cost us anything to have the Camaro towed.”  The look of relief on his face was priceless as he teased, “Why didn’t you just SAY so?!”   Um, I TRIED!!  We got a good laugh out of this, and within a few minutes my dying cell phone rang.  It was the wrecker service calling.  They were right down the street from where we were stranded at the bank ATM parking lot.  It wouldn’t be an hour after all.  Instead, they were going to rescue us in just a few minutes.  GREAT NEWS, which I immediately passed on to my husband who was smiling by now.

When the wrecker service arrived we were actually smiling and joking with each other.  As they were loading the Camaro on the roll back, I got inside the cab of the wrecker.  My husband immediately took a picture of me, and I was quite impressed that my phone hadn’t completely died yet!  It was still hanging in there, just like us!  My husband later joked that this was my white limousine.

Within 20 minutes we were home, and I, of course, had to take a picture to mark the occasion as well.   Notice his lip poking out in this picture as his precious Camaro is being lowered off of the roll back.

And that, ladies and gentleman, is what you call SAVING VALENTINE’S DAY!

Thank God for AAA!