“Little smiley faces or maybe ghosts,” Tina continues. She holds up two bottles of nail polish—one black and one white.
I raise a brow. “I don’t know about that.”
“Come on. It would be so cute.”
I’m about to remind her that I don’t care for anything other than solid colors or French tips, when a crazy idea occurs to me. If Tina gets something silly painted on her nails, then Ryan might put off the proposal, at least until Oliver and I can figure out a plan. It’s a long shot, but I know that Tina will want her hands to be picture-ready to show off the beautiful ring he got her. Ryan knows this too. It’s this type of thoughtfulness that makes him so perfect for her.
“You’re right. It would be cute.” I cringe as I hear myself say, “Fine. I’ll do it with you.”
Her face lights up. “Really? You would get ghosts with me?”
“Yeah. Let’s do it,” I say with a shrug. “Let’s get ghosts on our nails.”
After explaining what we want to the nail techs, we sit down and discuss the plan for her proposal while the techs work on our nails. In the week since we started planning this, I’ve come up with a basic outline for how things will go, and I even reached out to a stable that has the white horses she wants.
“You and Ryan will go for a carriage ride. I’m looking into finding a stable that has white horses. I also have a meeting with the choreographer next week if you want to come. Have you thought about what song you want during the flash mob?”
Tina takes a moment to think about her answer. “I was thinking of using ‘Marry You’ by Bruno Mars, but I’m not sure if I should be using a female artist instead, since, you know, I’m the one proposing. Maybe ‘Love Story’ by Taylor Swift?”
“A female artist would be a good idea but I don’t know about that song. It’s a little too ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ which doesn’t apply to your situation. You love his family.”
“True,” she says. “But what other songs are there?”
“I’m sure we can find something that fits. I’ll look into it before we meet with the choreographer and I’ll make a list you can choose from.”
Tina smiles. “You’re the best.”
I smile back.
“But enough about me,” she says. “How was lunch with your parents?”
I groan.
“That bad?” she says.
“I almost think they took the news of me starting my own business worse than the news that I got fired,” I tell her.
Her lip curves downward. “Sorry.”
“But it will be fine,” I assure her. “I’m not going to let my dad get to me. And thanks to you, I don’t even have to think about moving back in with them.”
She continues to smile, and it seems genuine enough, but there’s a flicker behind it that makes me wonder what else is on her mind. I wait.
“I hope you mean that,” she finally says.
I frown.
“Remember when you were talking about switching your major to software engineering?” she reminds me. “You were so excited about it, but you mentioned it to your parents and you let your dad talk you out of it.”
“That’s different,” I say. “I saw all of the amazing things you were creating and I wanted to be a part of it. My dad was right. It was just a phase. I wouldn’t have enjoyed it, and I wouldn’t have created anything nearly as amazing as you did.”
She shrugs. “I guess you’ll never know.”
“He was right,” I insist. “I get—” I stop myself from saying “obsessive.” “I get these ideas in my head that sound really good at the time but I haven’t really thought them through. That’s all that was. This is different. I chose the right career for myself, and nothing is going to get in the way of me creating the most magical moment for you to propose to Ryan.”
She seems reassured by my answer. I just hope that I can follow through with it—not because I’m worried about being talked out of it, but because I’m worried that Ryan will beat me to it.
ChapterFive
