“Why? It’s only noon on a Tuesday.” Then another thought hits, and I lean into her. “Are we celebrating something special?”
“Maybe,” she hedges, and I check her finger. She’s been dating the same guy for the last few years. Has he finally proposed? But thinking of marriage has my throat tightening once again. I swallow down the knot. I am not about to let my own misery take away from her happiness.
“Spill,” I say.
Before she can answer, our server steps up to us. She has a plate with one oyster on it.
“From the gentleman,” she says and places it in front of me.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I mumble under my breath as Michelle orders a bottle of champagne. A very expensive bottle. She definitely has good news. I glance around the restaurant, trying to figure out who would send me a single oyster. No one is staring back, so I’m a bit confused.
“Are you going to open it?” Michelle asks.
“No, it’s probably some creep who trying to get laid and thinks oysters will put me in the mood. What a jerk.” I push the plate away, and a worried look comes over Michelle’s face. “What?” I ask.
“I think you should open it.”
I eye her. What the hell is she up to. Is this part of her surprise? “Okay fine.” I grab the shucking knife, and our server comes back with our champagne. I take a sip first, then pry at the oyster with the knife.
“I’ve never done this before. Oh, wait, it looks like it’s already been opened.” Michelle sits up a little straighter in her seat, and unease moves through me. What is going on with her? I slide the knife in, twist it, and the shell easily pops open. What I find inside has me completely confused.
“What the hell,” I say, and glance around the restaurant a second time, thinking the server made some sort of mistake. The engagement ring inside must be for some other woman. But when I see Luke coming toward me, tears fill my eyes. Is this really happening? I must be dreaming, or at least hallucinating. I briefly close my eyes and open them again, but Luke is still there, closing the distance between us. He comes up to our table, and drops to his knees before me. Everyone in the restaurant turns our way, and a few start snapping pictures, but Luke, private guy that he is, seems oblivious to everyone except me.
“Luke, what’s going on?” I ask.
He takes the engagement ring from the oyster shell and holds it out to me. “What’s going on, is that I want to marry you, Katee.”
“You want me to marry you?” The water in my eyes turns to a steady stream of tears and soaks my face. “I don’t understand.”
“What’s not to understand. I love you. You love me. I want us to get married and have a family together.”
I stiffen in my chair, and look around. Am I being punked? “Is this some kind of joke?”
The entire restaurant goes quiet, listening to our very intimate conversation. “It’s not a joke, although I’ve been a fool.” He lowers his voice, for my ears only. “Ari never broke off with me. I broke off with her. She wanted to save face, and threatened my career. I promised her I wouldn’t say anything. She gave me a week to think it over. I took that week, hoping she’d come to her senses and realize we weren’t right for each other. You’re the girl I wanted to be on my honeymoon with.”
“But…but you said nothing about u
s being in Italy was right.”
“I did,” he says and pulls two tickets from his pocket. “Because we should have been in Bali.”
I choke on a big fat hiccup. “Luke,” I say, trying to wrap my brain around this.
“I haven’t been completely honest with you, Katee. You need to know that the lovemaking wasn’t really all about me teaching you anything. I was hoping you’d fall in love with me. See how good we could be together.”
Lovemaking…
“We are good together, aren’t we?” I say quietly.
“I wanted to tell you the truth. I don’t like keeping secrets from you, but I was afraid. I was afraid if you didn’t feel the same way as I did, that I would ruin our friendship. Losing you would destroy me.”
“It would destroy me, too.” I put my hand on his cheek. “I’m sorry about our last night in Italy. I never wanted to be with that guy. It’s just, after Ari called—”
He presses his finger to my lip. “None of that matters now.” He holds the ring up. “This is what matters. Will you marry me, Katee?” he asks, his voice now loud enough for all to hear.
I glance around, take in the spectators. “I can’t believe you did this, went through all this trouble.”
“I would have done it sooner, but it took some arranging.” He smiles at Michelle and that’s when I realize she was in on this.