“You haven’t heard it.”
“I
know myself. I’ll say yes and then complain about the speech for twenty years.”
Daniel stared at me.
“Did you just say yes?”
I stared back.
“I suppose I did.”
He pulled out the ring.
It was simple.
Gold.
Inside were engraved three words.
THE WORLD SURPRISES.
I cried instantly.
“Robert said that.”
“I know.”
“You stole my d/e/@/d husband’s line for your proposal?”
“I prefer ‘literary homage.’”
I laughed through tears.
Then another voice came from behind me.
“Say yes before he faints.”
Claire.
I turned.
My children stood across the room.
Jonathan stood beside them.
Harold Levin was there.
Martin, the storage manager, was somehow there too.
“What is happening?”
Daniel looked guilty.
“I may have invited a few people.”
The bartender turned up the lights.
At the back of the room hung a banner:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARGARET. THIS TIME WE REMEMBERED.
