That day in the park, as we ate our tacos and read our books in the Chicago summer sun, I knew I’d give this ring to Scarlett someday. It was too soon then, but I knew all the same.

I was carrying it with me the day Scarlett turned down JMP’s offer. I had thought we’d celebrate her signing, and I’d give it to her over dinner. Maybe I’d even have ordered tacos. I hadn’t really thought about it, but I knew I wanted her to have it that day. I wanted her to be my wife.

Carefully, I remove the ring from the box and turn it this way and that. It glints in the yellow light from the single lamp next to the couch. The band is worn on the underside because my mom wore it every single day for almost twenty-five years—well after he died. She didn’t take it off until she started dating again. The diamond is a little cloudy, but none of that ever seemed to matter. This was the ring, and Scarlett was the woman. She still is. She always will be.

But now isn’t the time, either. We’re just starting to find each other again, learning all the new ways we fit together. Someday, though. Soon. Because if we can make it through this, I’m confident we can make it through anything.

I put the ring back in the box and snap it shut. For some reason, I had needed to see it, to reassure myself it was still there. Of course it was. Right where I left it.

Turning off the lamp, I find my way through the dark to my bedroom. I place the box in the drawer and carefully climb back into bed. Scarlett shifts this time, then sighs in her sleep. Her hand finds me again, cold against my skin. I hold it in mine and place it back over my chest, where it belongs.

When I leave for work the next morning, Scarlett is still half-asleep. It’s almost unheard of for her to sleep longer than me, but I’m glad. She needs it. So I kiss her temple, whisper to her that she can stay as long as she likes, and head out the door.

The one drawback of working at Anastasios Press is the commute—I drive about an hour each way now that the offices are in the suburbs, though if I took public transportation, it would have taken me that same hour to get to JMP on a good day. Even all of the traffic in the world has been worth the move, though. It’s such a better environment. And it brought Scarlett back to me.

If that’s not fate, I don’t know what is.