“At first I couldn’t speak, I was too shocked. I wanted to say no. I wanted to ask him, ‘What the hell? We never even discussed moving in together, what made you think I was ready for marriage?’ But Richard was looking at me as if I were the most beautiful thing in the world, with his eyes full of love, and I just couldn’t say no. I couldn’t break his heart.”

“Because you love him. You’re just freaked out by the marriage thing.”

“I care about Richard, he’s wonderful. But I never thought about him as The One, the love of my life, Mr. Right. Call it what you like. I mean, who proposes after six months?”

The girl next to us lets out an even louder snort. I can’t ignore it this time.

“Excuse me, you have a problem?”

“Actually, yes, I do.” She stops pretending to be watching her iPad and turns toward us. “Do you have any idea how rare it is to have a bloke ask you to marry him these days?”

“Err, no.”

“No, exactly, you don’t. All guys want to do nowadays is to Tinder you one night and never see you again. And honestly, having to sit here and listen to you complain about your—according to her,” she points at Amelia, “dashing boyfriend proposing after the—according to you,” she points back at me, “most perfect romantic night, is boggling my mind.”

“Nobody asked you to listen in to our conversation,” I point out.

“Hard not to when you’re babbling aloud two feet away from me. You’ve ruined my breakfast. Are you happy?” She gets up and storms out of the coffee shop.

I stare at Amelia at a loss for words.

“What was that about?” she asks.

“No idea. You should introduce her to Flotsam and Jetsam, they’d make a beautiful trio.”

“She did have a point, though.”

“What point?”

“Any girl would be happy, ecstatic, her boyfriend proposed.”

“Even after only six months?”

“Yes. What’s holding you back?”

I bite my lower lip.

Amelia throws me a warning stare. “If you’re about to bring Jake into this, I’m going to scream and get out of here.”

“Says the one who was getting married out of inertia instead of love.”

Hurt appears on Amelia’s face. That was a low blow.

“I’m sorry.” I backtrack immediately. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

She nods her understanding.

“But I have a serious problem here,” I add. “I thought you would’ve understood, seeing as how you almost married the wrong guy.”

“William was the wrong man for me because we weren’t in love with each other anymore, not because I was chasing after a ghost of my past. I thought you had closed that door.”

“I have.”

“Have you? Honey, Jake’s gone. He’s married to someone else.”