“It doesn’t matter how much it costs. That’s the ring, that’s it,” I said, not removing my eyes from the jewel in his hand. I pictured what it would look like on Aria’s pretty, dainty little fingers.
It would be perfect.
“All right then. 18 carats on platinum, and I can engrave anything you want on the band for a total of five million.”
Stacey’s gasps upon hearing the cost could be heard in the entire neighborhood, I had no doubt. It didn’t matter. It was Aria’s ring and I would have reacted the same way if he had said it was for a hundred million dollars. She deserved the best of everything.
“Like I said, I’ll take it,” I said and looked at Stacey, who I was afraid would faint any moment.
“Are…you…sure?” she asked, looking from me to the ring and back to me.
“Would Aria like it?” I asked earnestly.
“Are you kidding? She will adore it, as long as you don’t let her find out how much you paid for it.”
“I won’t tell her if you won’t. I will be right back, I forgot my credit card in the car.”
I walked out with a grin as an idea hit me. I hadn’t really forgotten my credit card. I just needed to get away from Stacey and into another part of the jewelry store across the hall. The rings were all in one room, while the rest of the jewelry items had their own separate areas.
After making the necessary purchase, Stacey and I returned to the car, and as she continued to look utterly stunned, I presented her with two boxes. “Congratulations on your engagement!” I smiled at her.
“What now?” She looked confused. “You didn’t—”
“I hadn’t given you and Mr. Nick anything for your engagement. I thought you would like—”
“It’s just Nick, I’ve never heard him called Mr. anything,” she tried to joke, but there were tears tingling around her eyes again. “You didn’t have to get us anything.”
I shrugged. “You are Aria’s best friends! This is the least I could do for all that you have done for her over the years.”
No longer attempting to hide her tears, Stacey opened the boxes sniffing, to find two matching platinum His and Hers bracelets that read “Together Forever.”
“This,” she sniffed back tears. “This…is….perfect. You really shouldn’t…I don’t know how to thank you.”
“You already have. Aria is very lucky to have friends like you,” I said, starting to feel uncomfortable since I didn’t know how to make her stop crying and wasn’t expecting this reaction at all.
“No, Zayden.” She looked up and wiped her face with her sleeves. “Aria is very lucky to have you.”
Chapter Three
Aria
“Wow, Aria. That’s…shocking…utterly…surprising,” Nick mumbled while determinedly avoiding eye contact. I had just told him and Stacey the whole story with the very awkward situation at my mom’s house, followed by an even more awkward proposal.
“We couldn’t have guessed that Zayden would propose to you so quickly. At all,” Stacey added, also avoiding meeting my eyes. Something was obviously amiss.
“You guys already knew,” I concluded based on their joint reaction. “Both of you knew. I can’t believe this. How?”
“What are you talking about?” Stacey gasped accusingly. “How could I possibly? I mean how could we? We’ve barely seen you in a week!”
She had a point, but their reactions were certainly out of the ordinary. There was more going on here than I understood, and I hated not knowing things. But they hadn’t seen me in over a week, how could they? Unless…
“Well, there were two people in that bathroom that night. If you know about the proposal, it had to have come from the second source.”
Stacey burst out laughing in a mocking sort of a way. “Yes, because Zayden Sinclair told us. A rich, billionaire guy had absolutely nothing else in the world to do but gossip about his life plans with your sorry-ass roommates.”
“Don’t call yourselves that.” I frowned. “And don’t act like you haven’t been known to scheme with him regarding me in the past.”
“Scheme?” She gasped, trying to look horrified. “That’s a little much, Aria. At best we exchanged some polite emails and under totally different circumstances! It was just about dating him – or contracting him or working with him or whatever you were calling it back then – and I already knew you wanted to, so I just gave him a little nudge in the right direction. This is completely different.”