Page 110 of Maddening Fixation

He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “I spent weeks planning today. I wanted everything to be perfect. I wanted you to have one day where you weren’t carrying the weight of the world. When you didn’t come...”

He rubbed the back of his neck, his expression awkward.

“...I let my disappointment speak louder than my common sense.”

He looked directly into my eyes. “I’m sorry.”

The sincerity in his voice was unmistakable.

Even so...

The hurt from earlier hadn’t disappeared.

I stared at him.

“You had no right to speak to me the way you did. And let me remind you—we’re just friends.”

“Were,” he corrected quietly. “That’s about to change.”

Without breaking eye contact, he slipped a hand into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a small navy-blue velvet box.

My heartbeat stumbled.

Surely not...

He looked unusually nervous now.

Almost pale.

His fingers tightened around the box before he slowly lowered himself onto one knee in the middle of the driveway.

I froze.

The box opened with a soft click.

Nestled inside rested a brilliant diamond ring that caught the glow of the estate lights, scattering tiny shards of light across the night.

For several seconds, neither of us spoke.

I couldn’t.

My mind was still at an abandoned warehouse beside a bleeding man who didn’t know I’d saved him.

Now another man knelt before me asking for my future.

Egor looked up.

His eyes were full of hope.

And fear.

“Juliet.”

His voice trembled despite his obvious effort to keep it steady.

“I know tonight hasn’t gone the way either of us imagined.”

He smiled weakly.