Precaution

It was September tenth and absolutely perfect.

There were stars outside and a big fire over the coal pit. The flames reflected and danced against the unnatural blue of Marc’s pool, the water dark in the night time. Around the fire sat many folding chairs which were inhabited by various members of the Pittsburgh Penguins and their families.

Little Rhys Adams and Jack Cooke were sitting on the floor, eating cake, while their parents laughed in conversation. Kris and Liz sat together across from Marc and Max, the two of them being one another’s date for the night. Chloe sat next to Sidney, but it was expected and I was okay with it. At the top of our circle, Jordan and Lucy sat with big paper birthday crowns on. A red solo cup was placed firmly in her hand, the contents mysterious. But knowing Lucy, it was probably just beer.

I was alone, but it didn’t bother me. Derek had a meeting he had to go to and I wasn’t even planning on dragging him along. It was Lucy and Jordan’s birthdays, neither of which particularly liked Derek. I’d even venture to say Lucy probably liked him more than Jordan did—which really tells you something.

I just sat in my chair, with my knees pulled up to my chest and my hands clasped over a red cup. It was just diet coke inside, nothing particularly special considering I was driving myself home.

Occasionally, I would look down or talk to someone and I could feel Sidney’s eyes on me, watching me from the other side of the fire. I wanted to kiss him, to just leap over the flames and grab him and hold him but I didn’t. I remained glued in my seat with a cup in my hand and a plate of chocolate cake.

Everything about tonight was easy.

“Someone needs to make a toast!” Deryk Engellend yelled suddenly and everyone shouted in agreement. Nobody got up for a few seconds so I grabbed my solo cup filled with diet coke and rose to the occasion.

“I can’t believe it hasn’t even been a year since we’ve all met. It feels like I’ve literally climbed a mountain with all of you. You are all the best of friends to me, you’ve made Pittsburgh feel like home. But there is one person in particular who made it all worthwhile and that’s Lucy.” I looked at her, smiling. She beamed back at me, her cup pressed to her chest.

“Lucy, you are my best friend. You’re my sister. You better have at least a hundred more birthdays after this so that we can grow grey and ugly together. So we can chat in the nursing home about the good old days back in college when we were super cool.”

“And Jordan, you better have at least a hundred more birthdays because we don’t have any ‘good old days’ memories and that needs to be fixed.” I held out my glass to the both of them and everyone else followed.

“Happy Birthday, Jordan and Lucy!” Everyone shouted before drinking, Marc’s backyard alive with energy. It felt good, it felt like we were all apart of this one giant family.

We all sat back down and I saw Marc stand up, walking near the end of the property in the wooded area. I didn’t know what he was doing, but suddenly I could feel myself standing up to follow him.

“Hey there.” I said, putting my hands in my back pockets as I walked up to him. He was just standing there in an enclave of birch trees and black oak (Lucy would have been impressed at my tree reference), looking off into the distance. He turned to face me when I strolled up, giving me one of his signature grins.

“Hey. I just had to get away for a second. To think, you know?” he said and I smiled back, nodding.

“Yeah. I do.” I replied back and shrugged casually. “What’s on your mind?” I asked and he turned his whole body towards me, looking at me for a second. But then he reached in his pocket and pulled out a small Tiffany-blue velvet box. When he pulled the lid, my face burst into a huge grin.
“I want to ask her.” He said and I looked up at him excitedly. “I love her, I really do.” He added and I nodded, patting him on the shoulder.

“I know you do.” I said, staring at the ring. It was beautiful. It wasn’t too large of a diamond, but it was definitely big enough. Three carats, cushion-cut with a platinum band and surrounded by bead-set diamonds. It was simple but elegant and glamorous and stunning. It was unique.

I thought of my ring—the missing ring—and frowned slightly. It was beautiful, don’t get me wrong. But it wasn’t me. Derek just picked the biggest, most impressive diamond. In its ostentatious beauty, it was typical.

He thought I was typical, he thought I was average. Sidney made me feel like it was just me, like there was nobody else. Like I was special, not typical. I smiled to myself and nodded.

Marc looked at me, knitting his brows together as I was lost in my thoughts. “Do you think she’ll like it?” He asked me and I looked back up at him, nodding.

“It’s perfect Marc. She’ll love it.” I replied back and he beamed back at me, happy, before stuffing the box back in his pocket. We wandered back over to the pool area, where most of the guys and their sleepy kids were headed to leave. We both waved them off and wished them a safe drive before walking back to the fire.

It felt a little like survivor at this moment, with only a few of us left on the island. It was Kris and Liz, Marc and Max, Lucy and Jordan, Sidney and Chloe, Deryk, and Ben Lovejoy. We all sat in a happy hum, content with the silence of the night.

That was, until I saw Chloe pull a very large and very familiar ring out of her pocket.

“So Violet, when were you going to tell me you were sleeping with my fiancé?”