Chapter 85
Did they?
Bethany sighed, exasperated. “Hon, we didtalk about it, remember? I told you my mother wanted a legally binding ceremony before she’d even thinkabout accepting you in my life. You said—”
“I said were you asking me to marry you,” Dana reminded her, “and yousaid, not yet. And, honestly? I still haven’t heard you pop the question.”
“God! Semantics, woman.” Bethany laughed. “Fine. I have to go—”
“Uh-huh.” Dana didn’t buy that for one minute. “I told my mother the same thing a little while ago just to get her off the phone.”
But Bethany said, “No, really, my boss is buzzing on the other line. We’ll talk about this when I get home, okay? Love you.”
“Love you, too.” Dana thought of adding that she wanted to be wined and dined before getting a proposal, but just the thought Bethany asking her to get married was enough to curl her toes in delight. Her lover was right—everything else wassemantics.
Dana had to fight the urge to call her mother back and brag, I’m getting married! And you said I never would.
* * * *
At work later that day, Dana found it difficult to concentrate on much of anything. Her mind kept wandering ahead to what would happen when she and Bethany both got home. Or rather, what mighthappen. Would one of them get down on a knee and propose the old fashion way? Was Bethany expecting a ring, or roses, or wine? Flowers and booze I can do,Dana thought, stocking new books to keep busy. But a diamond, on my salary? Even a small one is way out of my budget. I’ve never even owned one myself.
Except that wasn’t quite right, was it?
The year Dana turned twelve, her grandmother in Michigan had sent her a special gift for “becoming a woman.” When Dana first heard that phrase, read aloud by her mother from the birthday card accompanying the gift, she had worried the wrapped box might contain a package of maxi pads, or something. God, how embarrassing would thatbe, to open a box of Kotex in front of the friends she’d invited over for cake and ice cream? In front of her father?
But unless her grandmother had bought those mini pads targeted at teens that were nothing more than oversized Band-Aids, Dana didn’t think the small box could’ve held sanitary napkins. At least, she prayed it didn’t as she carefully unwrapped it. Inside was a flocked ring box, obviously from a jeweler’s, with a name written across the top in gold script so ornate, she couldn’t read it.
Behind her, her mother nudged her, excited. “Open it, open it!”
Like an explorer unearthing a treasure, she held her breath as she opened the box. Inside was nestled a delicate band of gold topped with a heart-shaped chip of stone, cut to dazzle in the light. “Oh God, that’s gorgeous,” her mother breathed.
Dana got one quick look before the box was snatched from her to be fawned over. Her mother oohed and aahed, and tried to show it to her father, who couldn’t be bothered. “Yeah, yeah, I see it,” he snapped. “She got a diamond, big deal. Flashing it in my face won’t make me buy you one any time soon, so put it down and cut the cake already, will you?”
So Dana hadowned a diamond once upon a time, back in the day. She’d worn it on and off when she was younger, but a fear of losing it at school—particularly when she had to take it off during PE—made her start leaving it at home, instead, and eventually she’d gotten out of the habit of putting it on altogether. But she still had it somewhere in all her things, didn’t she? She’d never gotten rid of it.
When she got home from work, the first thing she did was head straight to the closet in her old room. That was how she thought of it, her “old room,” because she slept with Bethany now and the spare bedroom that had once been hers was used only for storage. The bed was stripped bare, the mattress littered with boxes and bags of clothes that hadn’t quite managed to be put away yet. The Christmas tree was stored in the room—still assembled, fully decorated, all they had to do each year was lug it out into the living area and ta-da! Instant holiday cheer. The walls were lined with bookcases and boxes full of crap they couldn’t put anywhere else. The closet overflowed with out of season clothes and things they really should go through and get rid of, but who had the time?
Luckily, Dana had a pretty good memory when it came to where her stuff was amid the clutter. Her boxes were the ones at the bottom of the closet, because they’d been there first; she hadn’t moved them when she began sleeping with Bethany. Over time, other things began piling up on top of her stuff, but the things she’d brought with her to New York all those years ago were the foundations of the life they’d built together.