Page 65 of Standing Still

Elle rolls her eyes, but leans over and kisses me. “I love it.”

“One more,” I say, my heart pounding. I lean down, but the present isn’t there. “Fuck,” I mutter and get off my chair, crouching down to look.

“What’s wrong?” Elle asks, picking up a truffle and putting it into her mouth.

“Rachel!” I shout. She turns with a smile, about to shout out, but I hold up my hands. “It’s not here.”

“What?” Rachel comes over. “I put it down there. Are you sure?”

Now she is on her knees looking as well. Elle leans over in her seat and looks under the table too. She can see I’m frantic about the missing gift, and straightens up and looks around. I can’t fucking believe this. Rachel is turning around, looking all over.

“Oh wait, is this it?” Elle gets down on her knees and crawls under a small table behind where we were sitting. “We must have kicked it over here when we sat down.”

I stand up and move over, just as she sits back on her heels with the small box in her hand. She looks up at me as I stand above her.

“Well, this is different,” Rachel laughs as she turns and walks away, leaving us alone to this fucked up turn of events.

“What?” Elle asks, looking at the box.

When the realization dawns, her head snaps up to look at me. She is down on one knee while I’m standing frozen, looking at her holding the ring box.

“Damn it.” I close my eyes and let my head drop. When I open them again, she’s smiling at me. I sigh with a shake of my head. “You’re going to use this in a book, aren’t you?”

“Absolutely.”