The Next Chapter (Part Two of Two)

I don’t know how it is that I can be a writer, so creative, and still be so hesitant with life. Amy was so free and spontaneous that I envied her. She didn’t need a plan to start her day, she planned as she went along. I decided right then to take a page out of her playbook. I was going to ask her to marry me. However, I wanted to wait until just the right time. The tricky part was going to be buying the ring without her knowing about it. I devised a plan to take a day off from work and go ring shopping. This is the devious part of my plan. I would get up and pretend to go to work at the same as I always did. Amy would be at her job and I would be free to look for the ring in secret. Then all I would need after that was the perfect night.

The next day I got up just like I normally would. I didn’t want her to hear me make the phone call to work, so I went outside to make the call. However, as it happened, she saw me coming into the house. She looked at me a little startled.

“Jenny girl, what were you doing outside?”

“Oh that, I thought I heard someone knocking at the door.”

Still puzzled she said to me, “That would be really unusual if someone was knocking on the door this early. So, why go outside if all you were doing was answering the door?”

“Yeah, you know, when I didn’t see anyone I went out  to make sure no one was there.”

Amy looked at me not really believing anything I had just said, but still at the same time the offense was not worth the pursuit of the truth. She just simply made that ‘whatever’ gesture and walked away. At this point my plan was in full motion. All I had to do now was to get dressed and leave for the office at my usual time. I think if I was to admit it, I rather enjoyed this slight skullduggery.  leaving the house it was still too early to go to the mall. So I decided to go to Chrystal’s, that breakfast spot that Amy took me to that first full day we had together. I made sure I got seated at the table with our favorite waitress. By this time Amy and I had gotten to know her. Her name was Gladys. She had a husband, two small children, and was a huge Harlequin Romance consumer. Gladys noticed me from across the room and she smiled when she saw me sitting at her table. She came over to the table with a cup, and coffee pot in hand already.

“Where’s the Mrs.?

I was bursting to tell someone, and since our waitress had been there from that first day I decided to let her in on my plans.

“I snuck away this morning without her. Gladys, can you keep a secret? I am going to ask Amy to marry me, that is if she will have me. So I told a small fib and took the day off from work without  her knowing it so that I could go ring shopping without her knowing it.”

“Excuse me? ‘If’ she will have you? Amy is absolutely crazy about you. I’m serious, that girl

loves you.”

I was completely filled with butterflies as I genuinely began to grasp the gravity of the situation. Amy was in love with me, and I was about to make a promise before God that I would forsake all others for as long as I had breath in my body. I mean it is one thing to make plans, but I was really about to do this. Still that didn’t change the fact that I came here to get breakfast and do a little research before I wandered blindly into the mall.

“I know Amy is in love with me, and for the life of me I can’t figure out why. Anyway let me order before I waste away from anorexia. I’ll have. . .”

Gladys interrupted me, “Two eggs over easy, ham, and the cake doughnut with cinnamon caramel sauce. I knew that before you even sat down.”

“Is it any wonder that you are our favorite waitress?”

I rolled my eyes a little and handed her my menu. Then I took a sip of coffee and placed my phone on the table in front of me. It was time to make a plan. Okay, I lied about being spontaneous. Spontaneity was just not coming to me so easily. I had my breakfast and searched for sales and other deals on rings online. Just because I wanted to be romantic didn’t mean I couldn’t be frugal at the same time. I  saw an advertisement for a jewelry store called Tony’s Fine Jewelry Extraordinaire. They promised the best jewelry at the best prices, and they claimed to have the largest selection of wedding rings available. According to my phone’s maps, It wasn’t inside the mall but rather about a block away from it in what I thought was a strip mall. I decided that this is where I would begin my search.

When I got there I discovered that it wasn’t a strip mall, but a group of attached brick buildings that had been built up over a period of years. I parked in front of Tony’s. The building had an air of class to it, but the elegance had seemed to be tarnishing with age. It had wrought iron bars over the windows and fading blue awnings over the windows and the front doors. The doors were inset into the building making more room for the window displays. As I walked into the store I felt as if I had stepped back in time to the forties. The first thing that caught my attention was the smell of the air conditioner. It had the smell of mildew that suggested the age of the building. The floors had red carpeting and the room was arranged with crackle varnished wooden display cases and a few tufted round back chairs.

I was greeted by a very attractive young blonde lady. She was wearing an off the shoulder blue pencil dress that she filled out very nicely. She had ample cleavage and was obviously dressed for the male clientele.

“Hi my name is Stephanie. What can I show you today?”

Being an attractive girl; the innuendo was there, whether it was intentional or not. However, with great restraint I let the comment go without my usual dubious sense of humor.     

“Hi Stephanie, I’m Jennifer. And I’m here to buy a ring for my girlfriend I hope that doesn’t bother you?”

“No, that doesn’t bother me at all. Love is love, right? Did you have anything in particular in mind?”

Shyly I had to admit that, no I didn’t.

“Honestly I don’t have a clue as to what I’m doing. Also I will be wanting  two engagement rings. One for her and one for me.”

Stephanie smiled in a very pleasant way and signaled me to follow her to a line of display cases against the wall. She went on the inside behind the cases and leaned in with her forearms on the top glass. A move in which a young lady such as herself should really avoid. She then began to ask a few questions in that practiced charm of the professional sales girl.

“So tell me about your girl?”

It was my turn to smile now. Just thinking about Amy gives me great pleasure, talking about her gives me even more.

“Wow, I’m not sure where to start. Amy is very spontaneous, I would say almost reckless at

times. She is intelligent, captivating, and very beautiful.”

Stephanie gave this thoughtful look before she spoke.

“Sounds to me like your girl is a little more adventurous. I think we should stay away from

the typical one and half carat ring and standard setting. Maybe we  should opt instead for something as unique as she is. How about something in rose gold?”

“I think you are right about Amy’s uniqueness. You seem to be very intuitive. I think

maybe I have come to the right place after all.”

Stephanie gave me this look, almost a wink, “Step over here to this counter, I think we will better find something that suits her in this case.”

I walked with her to the other case. I looked inside and started to look over the rings to see what jumped out at me. Stephanie unlocked one of the doors and slid it open. She glanced at the rings for just a moment and reached in and pulled out a display box of rings for me to look at. I looked them over  but didn’t see anything that I really liked. So I went back to perusing the display case. Then I saw it.

“Let me see that on the second row from the bottom. That heart shaped stone.”

Stephanie sharpened her focus on the area that I was pointing out and pulled out the one that had caught my attention. She sort of cocked her head back and then smiled at me.

“Well I have to admit that I think you have a unique sense of style. Not everyone would go for this type of ring, but I think for your Amy this would be perfect. The band is a 14k rose gold with a 1.6 carat lab grown heart cut diamond. It also has the two smaller stones on either side of the heart.”

As I looked the ring over I had an idea.

“You can customize rings right? I was wondering if we could replace the small diamonds with a

birthstone instead. I think I would like my birthstone on one side and Amys on the other.”

Stephanie was intrigued with this idea.

“Sure we could do that. Tell me what are your birth months?

“Well mine is in January and Amy’s is in July.”

Without hesitation, Stephanie was able to pull out of her head the correct stones.

“Okay, January is Garnet and July is ruby. Does that sound like something you would want?”

“Yes I think that would be perfect.”

Stephanie then reached for a calculator and did some quick addition.

“Okay for what you want it going to be 1,590 dollars”

I have to admit the price took my breath away for a minute.

“That’s for two rings right?”

Stephanie shook her no.

“Each. For two rings it’s going to be 3,180 dollars.”

Suddenly I felt the romance go out of the ring shopping.

“3,180 dollars? I’m buying engagement rings, not a used car.”

“Jennifer, I’m surprised at you. How can you put a price on love?”

I could feel that old skinflint come out of me.

“I’m not sure, but you seem to have managed it okay.”

Stephanie looked at me with that cute smile she had, “Well if it will help make things easier for you; if you open a Tony’s charge card I can take twenty percent off your purchase today, if it’s approved. We also have the extraordinaire guarantee, if you find this exact ring anywhere else, I will give you another twenty percent of the lower price.”

I looked at her and laughed a little.

“Have you ever thought about selling ice to the Eskimos? I think you would be very good at it.”

With that she only smiled and told me to follow her to the back of the store. I was approved for the card and Stephanie told me that the rings would be ready in a week. The next week I was so excited that I forgot about the sting of what I paid for them. Stephane was right, you really can’t put a price on love. Also when you break down the cost over the years we are going to spend together; the price of the ring was a bargain. As the week came to a close I got the call from Tony’s Fine Jewelry Extraordinaire, my rings were ready to be picked up. I could hardly wait to give Amy her ring. I began to practice my proposal and get in mind the things I wanted to say to her. A few days later, I arrived home a little bit before Amy. I got comfortable and made myself something to drink. I sat down on the couch and had just turned on the news when Amy came through the door. I could tell that something was not right with her so I asked if anything was wrong. She answered me, “Not really cupcake, My little friend came today and I’m cramping pretty bad. All I want to do is put on a pair of sweatpants and lay in your lap with a heating Pad.”

My poor baby girl, I felt so bad for her. As she laid in my lap I stroked her hair and did my best to bring whatever comfort to her as I could. Even in this condition I was still in love with her. That’s when it hit me. I told her that I needed to get something from the room. she begrudgingly sat up on the couch and I left for a few minutes and then came back again. I kneeled down on one knee and began the speech I had been practicing since I picked up the rings.

“Amy, I have loved you since that first night together. You are everything I could ever want in a woman. You are my love, my soulmate, and nothing would make me happier than spending

the next chapter of my life with you. I’m asking if you would please marry me and spend your life with me?”

I have to admit that her reaction was not quite what I was expecting.

“Oh Jennifer, how could you!?”

To be continued.

Tags: featured, fiction, Transgender

Category: Fiction