Chapter Eighteen
949 Words
The ring caught the soft patio light, simple, elegant, exactly like her.
Not flashy. Not loud.
Certain.
He snapped it shut again quickly, as if the night itself might expose his secret.
A few seconds later, he pulled out his phone and scrolled to Marcus’s name.
Marcus picked up on the second ring.
“Why are you calling me, aren’t we in the same house? Marcus asked.
Josh hesitated.
“I need to talk to you, can you come downstairs?” Josh asked.
“I need backup.”
There was a pause. “That sounds dramatic.”
“It’s not dramatic, just come downstairs.” Josh said, lowering his voice instinctively even though Lucy was nowhere near.
Marcus came downstairs and met Josh at the patio.
“I’m proposing.”
Silence
Then,
“You’re what?”
“Keep your voice down,” Josh said, covering Marcus’s mouth with his hand.
“I’m not keeping my voice down,” Marcus shot back. “You’re proposing? To Lucy?”
“Yes.”
Another pause, but this one wasn’t shocked.
It was thoughtful.
Marcus’s voice softened. “You’re serious.”
Marcus exhaled slowly. “When?”
“Her birthday.”
Marcus let out a low whistle. “You don’t do this halfway, do you?”
“No,” he said quietly. “ Not with her.”
Marcus was quiet for a long moment.
“You know,” he said eventually, “there was a time I thought I was the one who would give her everything.”
Josh didn’t respond.
Marcus continued, voice steady. “But loving someone and being right for them aren’t always the same thing.”
Josh swallowed.
“I won’t hurt her,” he said.
“I know,” Marcus replied. And he meant it. “That’s not why I’m worried.”
A small smile tugged at Josh’s lips. “I was hoping you would help me. I want it to be…thoughtful. Not over the top.”
Marcus laughed softly. “You’re asking the wrong guy about subtle romance. I nearly turned my wedding into a circus.”
Josh chuckled. “Exactly why I’m calling you.”
Marcus tome shifted again, warm, almost protective. “She deserves someone who chooses her everyday. Not just when it’s convenient.”
“She was never second,” Josh said firmly. “Not to me.”
Another silence.
Then Marcus said, “Tell me what you need.”
Josh looked back at the velvet box in his hand.
“Everything to go right.”
Three weeks to Lucy’s birthday felt like both forever and no time at all.
Lucy noticed the change before she understood it.
Josh wasn’t distant.
But he was…distracted.
It started small.
He would glance at his phone during dinner and quickly flip it face down when she looked up.
He took a call one evening and stepped outside instead of answering it in front of her.
“Who was that?” She asked casually when he returned.
“Just something I needed to handle,” he said, too quickly.
She tried not to read into it.
Tried.
But reading into things had once been her survival skill.
One afternoon, she stopped by his apartment unexpectedly with takeout. She had texted him earlier, but he hadn’t replied.
The door was locked.
His car was gone.
She stood there longer than she needed to.
He had said he would be home.
Her chest tightened.
When he finally called her back two hours later, his voice was slightly breathless.
“Hey. Sorry. I was out.”
“Out where?”
“Just…handling something.”
That word again.
Something.
“Is everything okay?” She asked.
“Yeah. Yeah, everything is fine.”
But it didn’t feel fine.
Over the next week, the pattern continued.
Late night texts he angled away from her view.
A sudden gym membership he hadn’t mentioned before.
A dinner he had cancelled because of “plans.”
Lucy told herself she was being dramatic.
But the doubt crept in quietly.
Had she misread everything?
Maybe calm had just been temporary.
Maybe she had settled into comfort while he was slowly stepping away.
The worst part wasn’t anger.
It was fear.
Fear of looking foolish again.
One night as they sat on her couch watching a movie, Josh’s phone buzzed. He glanced at it and smiled.
That smile.
Lucy’s stomach dropped.
“Who is it?” she asked.
He looked up quickly. “Just Marcus,”
“Oh,”
He locked his phone immediately.
Too immediately.
She forced a smile, but her mind was already racing.
Later that night, when he left, she sat on her bed staring at the ceiling.
She didn’t want to be the insecure girlfriend.
She didn’t want to accuse him of something that wasn’t there.
But something had shifted.
And she felt it.
Across town, Josh sat in Marcus’s living room with him.
“She suspects something,” Josh muttered.
Marcus laughed. “Of course she does . You’re acting like you’re planning a bank robbery.”
“I’m trying to make this perfect.”
“Relax,” Marcus said. “You don’t need perfect. You just need honest.”
Josh leaned back, rubbing his face. “What if she thinks I’m pulling away?”
Marcus looked at him seriously. “Then you better make sure that she doesn’t feel that way for long.”
Josh stared down at his phone.
Lucy’s contact photo lit up his screen.
He missed her.
And he hated that his secret was making distance where there shouldn’t be any.
But in three weeks…
It would all make sense.
He just hoped she could hold on until then.
- Writer
