one out. In the spirit of romance, they had agreed, excited to be part of the surprise.
As Nigel dropped to one knee, Coco stared at him, not sure what he was doing. He held her hand and looked at her with his big blue eyes. “Coco, my darling, will you marry me?” She was so stunned she didn’t know what to say, and was speechless for a moment. “Coco?” He pressed her for an answer as tears filled her eyes. She wanted her parents to be there to share it with her, or Sam, or someone she loved and knew well. Nigel looked at her so imploringly with tears in his eyes too that she couldn’t turn him down. She couldn’t do that to him and break his heart. She loved him, and wanted to be his wife, just not quite so soon, but the right man had come along, and she didn’t want to lose him. She nodded, as the tears spilled down her cheeks and she couldn’t stop them.
“Yes…yes, I will,” she whispered, as he got to his feet, took her in his arms and kissed her. The whole room applauded, and then he led her back to their table as everyone around them smiled and offered congratulations even though they were strangers. Another couple sent them a bottle of champagne to celebrate their engagement.
“I didn’t know you were going to do that,” she said, as she wiped her eyes on her napkin.
“Neither did I.” He beamed at her. “I decided yesterday when I was trying to figure out what to get you for your birthday.” He took a small ancient-looking navy leather box out of his pocket and set it on the table. “It’s the only thing of my mother’s that I have. I hope it fits.” He opened the box, and took out a beautiful antique cushion-cut diamond ring of a very respectable size. “It was originally my grandmother’s.” He slipped it on her finger and it fit perfectly, and she stared at it and started to cry again.
“I wish my parents could see it, and meet you,” she said as he held her tight, as the ring flashed on her finger. It was a beautiful stone, and bigger than any of the jewelry her mother had. Her parents preferred art to jewelry.
“I wish I had met them too,” he said respectfully. “When do you want to get married? Let’s do it soon. I want you to be my wife as soon as possible. We’re going to have such a beautiful life.”
“I don’t know. Next summer? June?” She said it off the top of her head.
“Why wait that long?” He looked disappointed. “We could invite everyone we know to my club for a big reception. Do you want a church wedding?”
“I…” She choked on her words for a minute. “I can’t have a big wedding without my parents. It would kill me. Can’t we do something very small, just us and your family? We can do something later for friends, but not at the wedding.”
“I doubt my brother would even come, with his dreadful wife. And I don’t want them there. They would ruin it. I don’t have any other family. Just friends. They’re my family now.” He looked a little dismayed and hurt that she didn’t want a big wedding, but she had no family either. He wanted to reciprocate for all the fabulous parties they’d been to with a big event of his own, the bigger the better, but it was clear that Coco didn’t want that and wouldn’t agree to it. “If you don’t want a big wedding, then why wait? Why not January?”
She looked shocked. “The only one I want is Sam, and maybe Leslie, my boss, since she introduced us.” They had gotten close and Coco liked her a lot. “I don’t know if Sam could come over, although he promised to give me away. And I’d like it in a church.” There was a small church that she had discovered and liked. What she described was not the splashy, important wedding he had envisioned, but the main thing was that they get married. They could give a huge party later, when she wouldn’t feel her parents’ absence quite as acutely as on the day of their wedding. They had only been gone for a year and a half. He and Coco had only known each other for three months. He said that people were probably going to comment