Chapter 140. Just This Once

It was no grand gesture, no big declaration of love. He’d just opened the box in front of her, and she’d gasped at the sight of the diamonds. The necklace was made of a silver chain from which hung little diamond drops. At the very center of it, the part that would rest at the top-center of her sternum, just below her collar bone, hung a large flower embedded with many diamonds. It was a relatively simple piece of jewelry, but it was beautiful in its simplicity.

She looked like she just might cry. He asked if he could put it on her, and she agreed, so he did. He slipped the necklace around her neck and hooked it at the back while she held her hair out of the way. She rushed to the mirror when he was done and wouldn’t stop whispering the words, “It’s beautiful” and “Thank you.”

He thought she really might cry when she found the inscription on it. She hugged him tightly, and he went along, going through the motions, pretending that this was the truth and the only reality.