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“Can you be back here around 2 o’clock?”
“…sure.”
She kissed my cheek, then left for her flat, or house, or wherever the fuck it was she lived.
I was a little unsettled by how unenthusiastic she was, but I told myself it was because she had no idea what I had planned. For her, it was just a regular Sunday afternoon.
At 1:45 PM, I got the ring box out of my safe and nervously put it into my pocket. I paced back and forth, practicing what I would say to her once we got to St. James Park.
Rachel, it was right on this spot that I told you I loved you the first time… so I wanted it to be here that I told you I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I love you more than anything. Will you marry me?
I thought I only had ten minutes or so to practice my speech.
Turns out, I had almost 45. Rachel showed up late at 2:30 with no apology or explanation.
We had until six to get to the restaurant, so I refused to let it bother me. Instead, I ordered an Uber on my phone.
“I can drive,” she said.
“It’s okay.”
“My car’s right there – ”
“I want to use an Uber.” I didn’t want to tell her where we were going.
“…okay. Whatever.”
I still didn’t let it get to me.
We didn’t talk much on the drive over. I tried chatting her up, but she mostly replied with one-word sentences.
When we got out at St. James Park, she looked around. “Why’d we come here?”
I didn’t want to tell her it was because it was the first place I’d said I love you, so I replied, “I don’t know… we hadn’t been here in a while. I kind of wanted to come back.”
If she recognized the significance of the place, she didn’t let on. She just walked next to me, hands shoved in the pockets of her camel-hair coat…
Not holding mine.
St. James Park was mostly empty. People with good sense had stayed inside where it was warm.
Not me.
No, I was going to propose to a woman in a bad mood.
I looked at her searchingly. “What’s going on?”
“I was about to ask the same of you,” she said dourly.
“What are you talking about?”
She looked like someone who was psyching themselves up to jump into freezing cold water and didn’t want to do it –
But then she took the plunge.
“How did you get out of the military two years early?” she asked.
My frown deepened. “I told you, I took a new job. They work with the Swedish military, and – ”
