So many choices.  They were all so shiny and glittering and beautiful. 

She wouldn’t want anything too flashy, but it should be unique.  Just like her.   

Jim was standing in Kay Jewelers in the Steamtown Mall feeling a bit overwhelmed.

Earlier that afternoon, in the middle of a call with customer, he realized that he had forgotten something.  He was finishing up an order with a Penny McMillan from the Lakawanna County School Board and she had simply said, “I’ll just give you a ring back with those figures when I find them.”

Give you a ring.  A ring.  I haven’t given Pam a ring.

Just a few days ago he had proposed to Pam, but it was all so spontaneous that he had never even given a thought to an engagement ring.  Do couples who elope get engagement rings? He had no idea.  After he hung up the phone he looked over at Pam.  She was looking at her computer screen with a confused look on her face.  Even with her brow furrowed and lips pouting she looked adorable.  He thought about all of the “presents” that he had given her in the past.  Weird Dwight cards and loaded tea pots weren’t really traditional gifts of love.  One thing was for sure, he had never given her jewelry.  They were planning to take their trip within the next month, so they were only going to be engaged for a few weeks.  But, Jim felt like if they were going to do this, they should do it right.  Also, he had the feeling that Pam hadn’t thought about a ring either, so this was going to be a great surprise.

“Good afternoon, sir.  Can I help you with something?”

Jim smiled nervously.  “Uh…yeah, I’m…looking for an engagement ring.”

~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x

They had spent the evening sharing Chinese food and pouring over Hawaii web sites on Jim’s lap top.  Every place they looked at seemed beautiful and tropical, but no where seemed quite right.  He loved being right beside her.  He could smell her hair and feel her body slowly rising and falling with every breath.  He had the ring in the left hand pocket of his cargo shorts and as cliché as it was to think, he felt like it was literally going to burn a hole in his pocket.

“Oooo, look at this one.  Is that black sand?  I’ve never seen that before.”

“Pam?”

“Yeah?”  She continued to click on links.

“Pam.”

“Yeah.”

“Can we take a break for a minute?”

“Oh, yeah, sure.”  She turned her body to face him and crossed her legs.  She was still smiling and he could tell she that was loving every minute of planning this wedding.

“So…I have something for you.”

Her smile widened and she raised an eyebrow.  “Oh really?  Do tell.”

He laughed and lowered his head.  “No, not that.  But…maybe later.”  He raised his head to meet her eyes.  “Okay, so I proposed to you the other night, but I kind of dropped the ball on something.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I did the ‘down on one knee’ thing, but there’s something I forgot.”

Pam looked perplexed.

“Okay.  Close your eyes and hold out your hands.”

“What?!?!”

“Just do it, Beesly.”

“Okay.”  She closed her eyes and held her hands out in front of her, slightly cupped.  He gingerly placed the box in her hands.

“Okay, open your eyes.”

“What’s…?”

“Open it.”

She looked at Jim with wide eyes and then looked at the box.  She placed the box in her left hand, wrapped the fingers of her right hand around the top of the box and then slowly opened the lid.

“Oh my god, Jim, it’s…,” tears welled in her eyes and a huge smile spread across her face.

“On the way home from buying it tonight, I had all of these ideas on how to give it to you.  I thought about encasing it in Jello, but then I wouldn’t be able to give it to you tonight.  You know, setting time and all.  I also thought about planning some kind of elaborate scavenger hunt, but, it just seemed too convoluted.”

“You really shouldn’t have…”

“Oh, I definitely should have.  Are you kidding me, Beesly?  This is it.  This is the only time you are ever going to be engaged again.  I know we could win the Dundie this year for the shortest engagement, but I wanted to do this right.”

He took the box from her hand, removed the ring and held it up in front of her. 

“Our wedding ring will be a symbol of our marriage.  But I want this ring to remind you of our past.”  He slipped the ring on her finger and held her hand.  “When you look at this ring I want you to think of all of the pranks that we’ve shared, all of the laughing and conspiring and games and just, well, the connection we’ve had for all of these years.  I want you to think of two best friends who became more than that.”  He lifted her hand to his lips and placed a tender kiss on her ring finger.

“Jeez, Jim,” she said as she wiped away tears, “You sure know how to make a girl cry.”

“Hey, what can I say.  It’s a gift.”

“C’mere.”  She pulled him into a tight embrace and whispered in his ear.  “Thank you.  It’s beautiful and it will always make me think of our beginning.”

He felt her breath whisper in his ear and then her lips slowly made their way down the side of his neck.  She placed small, soft kisses around his jaw and traveled across to his lips.  Her mouth hovered over his.

“I was always told to say thank you when a gift is given to me,” she said in a low sigh.

“Should I expect a well written thank you card in the mail?”

She wrapped her arms around his neck and spoke against his mouth.  “I like to give my thanks face to face.”

The wedding plans would have to wait.  For now.