Agreements

I stared at Sean kneeling in front of me with complete shock on my face. A few seconds passed and slowly turned into an uncomfortable silence. Sean’s face showed surprise, recognition, and then sadness at my silence and terrified expression.

“Oh,” he said quietly, lowering the ring box, “I see. Uh. Forget I ever asked.”

He stood up and continued packing his suitcase in silence while I just sat there not knowing what to say. After a few more, extremely awkward moments, Sean announced that we needed to go to check-out and pack the car. I quickly zipped up my suitcase and followed him out of the room to the lobby. While he checked us out I loaded the car, got in the passenger seat, and waited for him to get in the car.

“Sean, listen, I-”

“We don’t need to talk about it.”

“You didn’t even let me answer you.”

“Your silence was enough, Faith.”

“I don’t know what to say. You took me off guard, Sean. Like REALLY off guard. Don’t I get some leeway here?”

“Are you really surprised?” He asked while starting the car, “We’ve been together for almost a year.”

“Yeah, and we’ve been going through a lot of rough stuff for months! You never gave any hints; we’ve hardly talked about this subject in detail. Am I supposed to read your mind? Was I supposed to see this coming? Are you doing this because you’re worried about leaving for the tour?”

“What? No!”

“Are you sure? I know that you’re really unsure of how things will go with the distance, Sean, but we will get through this. You don’t need to do something like this just to get a commitment from me. I’ve had loved ones gone for months my whole life.”

“That’s really not what this is about, Faith.”

“How long have you had that ring?”

Sean wearily sighed and pulled the car to the side of the road before he turned to me.

“Since early November. I’ve been waiting for the right time.”

“November?” I asked wide-eyed.

“Yeah, I was planning on asking you around your birthday but then your apartment got broken into and the Kevin thing happened so I decided I would ask you over Christmas with your parents. But then we got into that huge fight and I didn’t end up going so I wanted to do it on Valentine’s Day but I thought that would be too cheesy and you would have hated it.”

“You’re right, I would have hated it.” I said smiling to myself.

After awhile Sean said, “It’ not about the tour, Faith. It’s just…you’re The One. You give me things that I’ve never gotten from anyone else…I’m a better person when I’m with you and I’m ready to make it permanent.”

“Okay. Well…in that case I’m going to have to say yes.”

At first Sean didn’t really comprehend what I said but when he did the smile that broke out on his face made me swell inside. He reached into his coat pocket and whipped out the ring box before sliding the ring on to my finger. It was gorgeous. The diamond was an oval on a simple, silver band. It was very “me”. He certainly did a good job picking out a ring.

“But…we’re going to have to have a really, really long engagement period and my mother will have a conniption fit if she finds out we’re engaged before she’s even met you.”

“Fair enough.”

Sean kissed me over the console between us before getting back on the road. I haven’t told Zoey, Molly, or Anna yet because I’ve been swamped with work and sad because Sean left on Tuesday after we got back. I’ll tell them this weekend.