I landat JFK four hours before her flight gets in. Four hours to turn my apartment into something worthy of the woman I married in a government building at midnight. Because Collette St. Pierre, or now Collette Crawford, deserves better than a plastic ring.She deserves everything.And tonight, I'm going to give her the proposal she should have had.
I start with candles, a lot of candles. Thankfully, they are all LED because I do not want to burn the building down. Every surface in the apartment gets a candle. Then I place vases of roses everywhere else, it’s a sea of red. I scatter the petals along the corridor to the living room and then to the bedroom. I’ve ordered pizza from the same place I ordered from after we slept together for the first time. I have a bottle of champagne chilling for us to celebrate with. Then there’s the final piece. I go to the kitchen and pull out a box of her favorite cereal, the one she eats straight out of the box like a gremlin. I open the box carefully, reach inside, and place the plastic bubble holding the ring into the cereal. I wanted it to look like the plastic bubble we bought at the convenience store. I step back and look at the apartment, candles flickering, roses everywhere, and pizza on the table. Abucket of champagne, and a cereal box on the fireplace mantel where I’ve scattered rose petals.
My phone buzzes.
Collette: Just landed. On my way. See you soon.
Fish: Doors open. Let yourself in.
Collette: Should I be worried?
Fish: Just come home.
I dim the lights and wait.
The door opens,and I hear her suitcase wheels on the hardwood. Then silence. My heart is literally about to burst through my chest.
"Justin?" Her voice is small. Surprised. "What is this?" She follows the rose petals, and then looks up and finds me standing in front of the fireplace. She gasps as she takes in the romantic setting.
"Welcome home," I say, dropping to one knee.
“Justin!”
“These past three days of not being with you have made me realize even more that I never want to spend another moment without you in it.”
She walks slowly toward me. “I don’t either.”
I stand up, grab the cereal box off the fireplace mantel, and hand it to her. She frowns but takes it.
"Open it, see if you have won a prize.”
Her eyes narrow on me, but she does what I ask, opening the box and rummaging around in the cereal until she pulls out the pink bubble.
“No.”
“Yes.” I nod.
Her hands shake as she cracks the plastic bubble open, and inside, nestled in tissue paper, is the ring. The massive diamond catches the candlelight and throws tiny rainbows across us.
"Justin ..." Tears are already streaming down her face.
I grab her hand and slide the ring on. “Now everything is perfect,” I tell her.
“It’s so huge.”
“That’s what she said.” I wink. Which earns me a glare. “Do you like it?”
“I love it. It’s so big. I mean … wow.”
“You deserve the perfect ring,” I tell her.
“Thank you,” she says, wrapping her arms around my neck, and then kisses me.
Fuck, how I have missed her. "Will you keep being my wife?"
She laughs through the tears. "Yes! I’m all in.”
“Good.”