The Christmas tree twinkled in the corner of the one-bedroom apartment. Kevin stood in front of it nervously, watching Kelli putter around the kitchen with red Formica countertops and no dishwasher, animatedly chatting about her day. 

Kevin was quiet, letting the rehearsed laughs in the background of Seinfeld fill in the silence of Kelli’s gaps between her stories. His inner thoughts were louder, for he knew this would not just be the day that Kelli had to wake up early to make her shift at the hospital because of gruesome traffic on I-95. 

“Will you help me put these dishes away?” she asked, hunched over a counter of dishes. 

“Actually, I…” he started. 

Brrrrrrring! rang the phone. 

Kevin felt the blood leave his cheeks. He’d asked Kelli’s father — the lined, Korean War veteran Mick — for her hand in marriage. Her parents knew tonight was the night. They just didn’t know he had been mustering up the courage to ask the question all of dinner. What if they were calling to congratulate an engagement that hadn’t happened yet?

Kelli’s eyes scrunched in question as she looked at Kevin for a second. Her hand easily plucked the phone off the wall.

Kevin gulped. She was about to let out a cheery “Hello!” in her sing-songy voice. 

The blood that drained from his face was suddenly pounding in his ears. This moment, he had been planning for months. What... How could it already be ruined? 

As he pulled the phone cord out of the wall, he exhaled a breath of relief. On his knees, he looked up at his girlfriend, auburn hair framing her flushed cheeks and hazel eyes. They locked on to his eyes and his cheeks glowed with a slightly embarrassed red. He felt the same tingle that had pushed him to cross the room the first time she'd appeared at his regular hangout spot.  

As Kevin reminisced on their love, confusion marked its place on her face with a wrinkle between Kelli’s eyes.

“Kevin! What  — “ she couldn’t finish her question before he grabbed her hand and pulled her over to the Christmas tree, stroking her thumb with his. A smile broke into dimples on his cheeks.

A ring with a gold band and a diamond planted in its center hung from one of the tree’s branches. It caught the light of the blinking white lights as Kevin dropped to one knee and began his speech.