Love comes knocking

Hiding in the Corner Coffee

I had frozen at the sound of Carl entering the coffee shop. I did not want to see him right now and was hoping I could be completely still and that he'd leave. I heard Ryan go out of the kitchen and his deep voice saying “May I help you?”

“I’m looking for my fiancé. I know she is a regular here and I’m sure she ran here after our little… misunderstanding…”. Yes, reader, this is what came out of Carl’s mouth and I do not have the words to describe my surprise.

First of all: Fiancé? FIANCÈ?? Really? Carl and I had been together for five years since I was 19 years old, and there had been numerous possibilities for a proposal. Indeed, last Valentine’s I was convinced that the evening would end with a proposal.

Carl had taken me to a jewelry shop a couple of weeks earlier and we had looked at diamond rings, no less. He explained to me and the shop assistant that he was helping a friend buy a gift. The shop assistant and I smiled and looked knowingly at each other as Carl was looking at the rings. He even had me trying on a couple of rings and asked which ones I liked. “Congratulations;” the assistant whispered to me as I got up to leave the shop.

The congratulations were wasted. Valentine’s came and Carl was stuck at work for most of the evening. He came home with takeaway Chinese food, apologizing and saying he’d make it up to me later that week. Then he took me to a restaurant the next weekend, but no proposal and no ring appeared.

No ring or proposal had surfaced by April, so I gathered all my courage and asked if his friend had liked the rings we were looking at. Surprise washed over his face as he answered yes.

“So, is your friend getting married, then?”

“No. No no no, it was just a gift,” Carl laughed. “Wait, did you think I was getting that ring for you?”

I blushed and managed to stutter “No, no of course not.”

“You know, I’m not the marrying kind”, Carl said smilingly, and I nodded.

 But here I was, months later, and apparently upgraded to fiancé! My mind wandered to the ring and I could not help but ask myself if a certain dark-haired lady had received jewelry from Carl.

Which brought me back to what Carl labeled “misunderstanding”. MISUNDERSTANDING? What was there to misunderstand? Had the lady misplaced her car keys and needed help retrieving them? He ought to be glad I did not throw things at them when I found them. I wondered how Carl would explain the situation to Ryan and perked up my ears.

“I’m sorry, I’m the only one here,” I heard Ryan saying.

“Are you sure? My fiancé is a small blondish thing, she was running in this direction.”

SMALL BLONDISH THING? That’s how he chose to describe me? My head was spinning, but I managed to sit still.

Ryan did not sound impressed as he said “Sorry, my staff is on their lunch break and I am the only one here. Maybe I can get your number and call if she comes in?”

“Maybe I could just wait a bit,” Carl said, and my heart sank in my chest. But then Carl’s phone went off and he answered. “But sweetheart, how was I supposed to know she would come home?”

I swallowed hard but still managed to keep quiet. I could hear Carl leaving the shop, still chatting with what I supposed was his dark-haired thing.

Ryan looked worried as he came back into the kitchen. “He’s off, but I think he will come back soon. He did not look like he believed me.”

I nodded. “Is there a back entrance or something?”

“Yes, yes, of course, we get deliveries to our back door. You can use that if you want, but where will you go?”

I knew the solution. “Let me call my friend Christine. She’ll know what to do!”