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Dominic sat at the very pleasant table in the very pleasant restaurant and waited for his very pleasant girlfriend to come back from the, undoubtedly, very pleasant toilets. He ran through what he was going to say one more time in his head. Was this the right approach? It was what he’d planned all along, but now she was half expecting the question was it enough? Should he be doing some all-singing, all-dancing affair and posting it on YouTube? Should he have hidden the ring somewhere, in the wine maybe? It was too late now. He’d picked this restaurant and this night, and he’d asked her father like he was supposed to, and if he didn’t do it soon then questions were going to be asked about what on earth he was playing at.
Emily came back to the table and took her seat opposite him.
‘Emily.’
‘Mmm?’
‘Emily, you know that I’m very fond of you, don’t you?’
‘Very fond?’ She sounded underwhelmed with the sentiment.
‘What? Well ...’ Dominic paused. He was so much his father’s son. Warm words and effusive gestures were not in his repertoire. He was proposing though. Finding the right words mattered tonight. He tried to think of what he ought to be saying. ‘Sorry.’
She shook her head slightly. ‘It just sounds a bit formal.’
‘Sorry.’ This was going badly. Dominic took a breath. Say the right thing, for goodness sake. ‘Of course, I’m more than fond of you. Emily, if you’ll let me you know that I would never let you down, don’t you?’
She nodded.
‘I’ll take care of you. I’ll do whatever I can to look after you and make sure you have everything you need, and maybe one day, if we have children, well you know I would care for them too, don’t you?’
Another silent nod.
He reached into his pocket and found the ring box. He flicked it open and held the open box out across the table.
She took a deep breath in.
‘I was hoping that you would do me the honour of becoming my wife?’
Emily was still staring at the ring. She nodded quietly.
‘Is that a yes?’
She nodded again.
Behind Dominic a small volley of applause broke out. He looked around. He hadn’t realised that the adjacent tables were quite so aware of what was going on. He raised a hand in acknowledgement and tried to look nonchalant.
‘Right.’ Dominic lifted the ring out of the box and moved to slide it onto his new fiancée’s finger. ‘It fits.’
Emily was staring at her finger. ‘It’s not very sparkly.’
‘You don’t like it?’
She nodded and then shook her head and then stopped. ‘It’s very pretty.’
‘I mean we can change it. You can choose something for yourself if you want. I don’t mind.’
Emily stared at the ring. ‘No. It’s lovely. It’ll be just right.’
His lips formed a smile. ‘So that’s a yes?
Emily gave a tiny nod. ‘Yes.’