My heart skips a beat and the end of my fingertips get that familiar tingly feeling.

“What are you doing here?” I ask, opening the door. Aiden smiles and shrugs his shoulders. A few strands of hair fall into his face, making his eyes even more mesmerizing. He leans on the doorway and runs his tongue over his luscious lips.

“I should’ve never left,” he says slowly. “I’m sorry.”

I nod. I’m about to invite him in when he takes my hand in his and pulls me toward him. Aiden wraps his arms around me and suddenly all my worries melt away. I know that no matter what, we’re going to be okay. Everything is going to work out. Slowly, he runs his fingers up my spine, eventually settling at the nape of my neck. I let my head drop into his hand. Holding me up, he presses his lips onto mine. It’s a slow, passionate kiss that seems to last forever. It’s one of those kisses, which you remember for a lifetime. When I’m ninety and I find myself sitting on my front porch with my granddaughter and she asks me what it means to be in love, my mind will immediately go to this kiss.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers again as he pulls away.

“No, I’m the one who should be sorry. You had such a hard day and you still went to dinner with my folks. But why did you? We could’ve rescheduled.”

“Eh, I don’t know. I promised you that I would. But I should’ve told you about getting fired sooner. I was just…embarrassed.”

I give him a warm hug. I can see that admitting this fact made Aiden grow weak at the knees.

“So, why did you come back?” I ask.

“I don’t know. I made it a few blocks before it hit me. We both had really shitty days, so why the hell should we be apart? I mean, I thought I wanted to be alone, but that’s just because that’s what I’m used to doing when I have a bad day. But the further I got away from your house, the more I realized just how much I missed you.”

“I’m glad you’re back,” I say. “I didn’t want to be alone either.”

I stand on my tiptoes and kiss him. I bury my fingers in his thick hair and pull slightly until he gives out a moan.

“Caroline is in the living room,” I say, pulling away. The warning is not really necessary since he’s going to find this out momentarily anyway.

We walk to the living room holding hands.

“Hey, how are you?” Aiden asks.

“Oh hey,” Caroline says, turning around on the couch. “I’m okay, I guess. Better.”

“Glad to hear that.”

Caroline flashes him a small smile. We sit in the living room with her a bit. I want to take Aiden back to my room, but since she’s out here, we both feel like we should spend time with her. Caroline flips through the channels and then settles on a re-run of The Notebook.

“Oh my god, what a cheesy movie,” Aiden says, helping himself to a spring roll.

Caroline’s eyes grow wide and she looks from him to me and then back again.

“What?” he asks.

“I don’t know if you know, but this is your girlfriend’s favorite movie,” she says, bursting into laughter.

“It is not my favorite,” I say quickly. I don’t know why I feel the need to apologize or explain except that I know that it’s sappy and romantic. And that’s why I love it.

“Okay, one of her favorites,” Caroline concedes.

“Okay, I’ll give you that,” I say.

“Seriously?” Aiden asks.

I nod and shrug.

“Is it all because of Ryan Gosling?”

“Well, yes, and no. I mean, I just love him and Rachel McAdams together. And this movie…it’s perfect.”

Aiden laughs. “I have no idea how we made it this far into our relationship without this coming up. But now that I know…I don’t know if I can keep this thing going.”

“Oh please,” I wave my left hand at him. Aiden grabs it and pulls me close to him.

“Oh my God, please. You two are so cute and in love, you’re making me gag,” Caroline says. “Don’t you know that I just got out of the hospital?”

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry. That was my fault,” Aiden says and pushes me away from him. “Oh hey, wait a second. Where’s your ring?”

He looks at my hand and then up at me. I shrug.

“I took it off because we were going to my parents’ house. And I didn’t want them to know until it was the right time.”

“Wait a second,” Caroline sits straight up. “Ring? What ring?”

Aiden and I exchange looks.

“What ring?!” Caroline demands to know. Finally, I smile and cave.

“Aiden…asked me to marry him,” I say.

“He did? You did? And what did you say?”

I walk over to my purse, fish out the ring from the inside pocket and put it on my finger. Then I walk over to the couch, holding my left hand in the air, to showcase the ring.

“Oh my God! Oh my God!” Caroline squeals and runs over to me. “Ellie! Oh my God!”

She keeps going back and forth between hugging and kissing me and admiring my ring. From her reaction, you’d think that she was the one who got engaged. I glance over at Aiden and he’s equally surprised.

“Wow, I had no idea you would be so happy,” I say. “I mean, I knew that you would be happy for me…but still.”

“Of course! This is the most exciting thing that’s happened…in a very long time. And this ring…you did good, Aiden. Really good,” she says. “Oh Ellie, you have to let me help you plan your wedding.”

I inhale deeply. Plan my wedding. Wow. Of course, this is the natural next step after a person gets engaged, but somehow the idea of actually having a wedding didn’t occur to me. My heart skips a beat. I’m not a huge fan of parties and the thought of having one where I would be the center of attention makes me sick to my stomach.

“I’m sure you already know what kind of dress and venue you want, but I really want to be there when you make all the arrangements,” Caroline gushes.

And that’s where she’s wrong. I actually have no idea what I want. To tell you the truth, I have devoted exactly zero thoughts to this subject.

“Are you sure?” I ask.

“Yes, of course!” Caroline’s eyes light up.

“Ellie, I think you have to let her do it,” Aiden says. “I mean, look how happy she is.”

Caroline grins from ear to ear. “But honestly, Ellie, in all seriousness. I’m really happy for you, both of you. And it would be just the biggest honor to help you plan even a few aspects of this momentous event.”

This brings tears to my eyes. Before I completely break down, I wrap my arms around my friend and kiss her on her cheek.

“I’d love for you to help,” I whisper into her ear.