I sat by the window of Ethan’s and my house, watching the wind gently sway the branches of a large tree opposite. In recent days, Ethan had seemed preoccupied.

He seemed distracted and busy. We’d been living together for almost a year now. He and Martin seemed to have patched things up for the most part. I thought things were going great, then, all of sudden, Ethan changed. He grew quiet and seemed to avoid me most of the time. I became even more nervous when I walked in on him and Martin talking, and the conversation instantly ceased.

I tried asking Martin whether he knew anything, but he just shrugged me off. I felt terrified at the thought of losing Ethan again. Whenever I spoke to him about his recent withdrawn attitude, he only reassured me that he was ok and that he was just stressed with work. Since he’d returned to his job a few months earlier, he had been working a bit too much. I sighed as I heard the door open and glanced over my shoulder to see Ethan. He kissed me on the cheek and wrapped his arms around me.

“How was work?” I asked him, trying to sound more cheerful than I felt.

He smiled at me. “Not bad," he told me as he kissed the top of my head.

In his arms, for a moment I forgot my concerns and savored his touch. He kissed my neck and looked at me for a moment.

“I have a table booked for the two of us, Martin, and Mia for Friday, at Chateau,” he told me.

I smiled. Chateau was my all-time favorite restaurant. It remained elegant, without being over the top, and served a wide variety of international cuisine I adored. It was usually difficult to get a table booked there, as in recent years it had gained a lot of popularity due to some celebrity filming a cooking show there. I turned to face Ethan.

“Hmm…sounds great. What’s the occasion?” I asked him playfully.

He smiled at me and cocked his head to the side. “I didn’t know that I needed a reason to spoil the most beautiful woman in the world,” he told me.

I couldn’t help but laugh as warmth flooded me. I couldn’t wait till Friday. Due to both of us working more often than not, we weren’t able to go out as often as we’d like. My shifts would often get hectic, and we preferred to make a nice and quiet candlelit dinner at home.

Neither of us complained about this state of affairs, but we did enjoy meals out, on our own or with friends. I’d developed some level of a social life with my work colleagues, and I was seriously wondering whether Martin and Mia were sweet on each other. I smiled a bit at the concept. On Friday, both Ethan and I came home from work early, and, for the first time since I’d known him, he put up no resistance to a suit.

I’d asked him to wear something formal, as I wanted both of us to look our best. I decided to wear a dress I’d treated myself to earlier on in the week. I began to feel anxious, as Ethan was even quieter than he had been of late.

He kept triple checking himself in the mirror and adjusting himself in a variety of ways as if he were nervous. I took a deep breath and suppressed the wave of anxiety that filled me as my mind raced through the millions of scenarios that would make him nervous. Instead, I cleared my throat.

“Are Martin and Mia meeting us there, or are we heading there together?” I asked, trying to focus on one minute at a time.

He glanced at me as if I’d startled him with my question. “They’re meeting us there; Mia messaged me to tell me they’re running late,” he replied after clearing his throat.

I frowned, then decided to focus on putting my makeup on. As I started applying my eye shadow, I could feel him staring at me. I glanced over my shoulder to find him standing there with a smile on his face.

I smiled back. For some reason I could never understand, he loved watching me get ready to go out. This time his eyes lit up with affection and desire as he stared at me in silence. He stepped toward me and gently put his hand on my shoulder. I kissed his knuckles and smiled.

“You’re breathtaking, you know that?” he whispered, sending a shiver down my spine.

I dropped my gaze as I felt myself blushing. It was funny how he could still bring butterflies to my stomach every time he complimented me, no matter how many times he did. I looked up at him sheepishly.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

Finally, we were both ready. We chatted about work and day-to-day, mundane things as we waited for our cab. As soon as we settled in the back seat, however, Ethan looked at me for a long while.

“I don’t want us to talk about work anymore. I don’t want to talk about the leaky sink or the screechy gate. I want us to forget about work, home improvements, and everything else for tonight. Just enjoy the evening with each other and our closest friends,” he told me, breaking the silence.

I smiled at him and nodded. “Deal, but only if you can keep talk of your coworker’s adventures with the copy machine to yourself, as well,” I told him teasingly.

He kissed the tip of my nose and laughed softly. “I promise not to mention Joe’s genitals till tomorrow,” he told me, pressing his hand to his chest. He took my hand into his, and we spent the rest of the journey enjoying the view of the city through the car window.

Mia and Martin were already sitting at the table when we arrived, both dressed formally as we’d all agreed beforehand. I frowned as I realized that they both seemed to be shifting nervously.

As we ordered our drinks and food, the conversation flowed easy, and we all seemed to have relaxed considerably, but I still couldn’t shake the persistent feeling that something was out of place. Still, we enjoyed a very pleasant meal and the night was nothing out of the ordinary. That was, until the dessert. Ethan raised his glass and looked at the three of us. We all fell silent and fixed our gaze on him. He cleared his throat.

“As you all know, it has been an eventful couple of years for all of us, some more than others,” he began.

From the corner of my eye, I noticed Martin and Mia exchanging glances. I focused my attention on Ethan and what he was saying. After a brief pause, he carried on.

“My life has been flipped upside down and landed back on its feet in a completely different location than I ever expected it to be. I am very grateful for that fact, as it made me realize what is most important in life.” He glanced at each of us and took my hand for a moment, then put his glass down. “It also made me re-evaluate what I want from life and where I see myself in the future.

“And, the truth is, I can’t see myself without you guys, but, most of all, I can’t imagine my future without Opal.”

Breath caught in my lungs as he slowly got down on his knee. The world spun before my eyes. I felt as if my heart was going to leap out of my chest. He took my hand into his and reached into his suit jacket pocket. He looked into my eyes for a moment, then spoke directly to me, making me feel as if I were a giddy teenage girl all over again.

“Opal Evans, you are the light of my life, and I don’t know how I could have survived the last two years without you. I lost you once, and I never want to lose you again, and this is why I would like to ask, will you marry me and give me the honor and pleasure to be yours for the rest of our lives?” He opened a small box in his hand and revealed the most beautiful ring I have ever seen in my life.

I sat there frozen and unable to speak as I stared at the diamond framed by an antique- looking ring made out of an intricate combination of what appeared to be white and red gold. I opened my mouth, but wasn’t able to get a single word out as my voice caught in my throat and I felt tears of joy fill my eyes.

“Don’t keep the poor man wondering!” Mia nudged me in the ribs.

I took a deep breath and looked straight into Ethan’s beautiful eyes. “Yes, I will marry you,” I whispered, trying to keep my voice as level as I could.

He slid the ring onto my finger. As Ethan returned to his seat, things became much clearer in my mind. I glanced at Mia and Martin, neither of them seemed particularly surprised.

As soon as I got full control of my body and vocal chords, I glanced at them both. “You were in on it!” I realized.

Martin and Mia exchanged sheepish glances.

“That’s why you brought up the subject of marriage a few weeks ago! I can’t believe I didn’t figure it out!” I glared at Mia, who nodded.

“Ethan insisted that he wanted it to be perfect, so I had to snoop out what you would consider perfect,” she told me.

I laughed in relief as the recent weeks of Ethan being preoccupied made sense in my mind. I glanced at the ring on my finger once more.

“It’s beautiful!” I muttered.

Ethan smiled as he kissed my knuckles. “It belonged to my grandmother, and, since my mom didn’t have a chance to wear it, I thought that it would be the only ring that could ever be good enough for you,” he told me.

I looked at it, and then something clicked in my mind. “I thought Claire never returned it?” I said slowly as I glanced suspiciously at Ethan.

He shrugged. “She didn’t,” he told me as he inclined his head toward Martin, who gave us a wide, cheeky grin.

“You better make me the best man for my troubles,” he told us and took a long sip of his wine.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “How the hell did you get it back?” I exclaimed.

Martin winced as if he were in pain. Mia opened her mouth, presumably to give us an explanation, but he shook his head and silenced her with a gesture.

“You probably don’t want to know,” he told me shortly.

I glanced at the ring, then at Ethan, and, finally, at Martin. I opened my mouth to protest, then realized that most likely he was right. I didn’t want to know what lengths the poor man had to go to, to get the ring back for me.

“Thank you,” I said instead.

Martin sipped his drink and smiled. “It was worth it,” he assured me.

Ethan kissed me as we sat down to our dessert and let our emotions settle. I couldn’t believe how lucky I was.

Later, I realized I didn't want anything more than to have the man that I'd loved all my life by my side. I fell asleep feeling like I was the happiest woman on the planet or maybe even in the universe.