I shooed him out the door. “Don’t you have somewhere to be?”

He grinned. “Bye, Lane.”

I answered my phone just in time. “Seriously? Are you trying to make sure every person I work with knows of my BOYBAND 2.0 obsession?”

“You’re the one who set the ringtone. You can only blame yourself for that one. Plus, if you’d answer your phone, I’d only have to call once.”

“It’s a Tuesday afternoon. I’m working.”

“Working, schmerking. A ring on my finger is worth the interruption, don’t you think?”

“What? Are you serious?”

“As a caramel cream puff.”

“Oh, I’m so happy for you, Ran.” She’d been serious with her boyfriend long enough that it was more a question of when they were getting engaged than if. But it was still exciting. “Have you picked a date yet?”

“Probably not until next summer. We’re thinking a destination wedding. On a beach somewhere, maybe. And I’m already planning my wedding cake. Simple white cake, a lavender honey glaze . . . I can see it in my head. Taste it, even.”

“I want you to tell me all about it.”

“That you would even say so when I know you’re working is a testament to how much I know you love me.”

“I do love you.”

“There’s a ‘but’ in your tone. Are you about to say ‘but’?”

I sighed. “Maybe?”

“I know, I know. Work hours.”

“I just have this really tedious event résumé I have to work through and price. It was supposed to be finished yesterday, so I’m already behind, and now I have to gather all these financial documents for our accountant, and then there’s this anniversary party in the ballroom this weekend . . .”

“I get it. You gotta work. When’s your meet-the-boyfriend’s-family trip?”

“Not till after my birthday. And I’m just meeting the parents. I already know everyone else.”

“You nervous?”

“Not really. I mean, I want them to like me, but Jamie says his parents are great, so I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“How are things with Jamie?”

I hesitated a fraction of a second before saying, “Good. They’re good.”

“Uh, no. You hesitated. Why did you hesitate?”

I sighed and sank into my desk chair. “I don’t know. Jamie is amazing. Literally. In every sense of the word.”

“But?”

“But I guess sometimes I feel like our relationship is a little one dimensional. We both love soccer, so we talk about it a lot. And he’s so easy to talk to. But there’s more to me, you know?”

“And you don’t think he sees that?”

“That’s just it. I’ll start to think that, and then he’ll do something that totally contradicts that impression. He brought up poetry at dinner the other night. Mentioned Billy Collins by name and everything.”

“You love Billy Collins. That sounds awesome.”