same. He’s probably worried, she told herself. Asking someone to marry you seemed like it might be a bit nerve-racking, although he must already know what her answer was.
Richard speared a meatball with his fork, then cleared his throat. “Teddy, there’s something I need to say.”
“Yes!” Teddy said brightly.
Richard paused and looked from the meatball to her. “What?”
It finally registered that he hadn’t actually asked her anything, let alone proposed. “Sorry,” Teddy said. “I . . .”
She sighed. She would have to make this easier for Richard; that was what she did, after all. She made things easier for a partner who worked so hard.
“I know you’re nervous,” she said, reaching across the table to grab his hand. “I know this is a hard conversation for you.”
Relief washed over Richard’s face. “You do?”
Teddy nodded enthusiastically. “Of course! You think I haven’t noticed the way you’ve been distant? The way you’ve been working even more than usual?”
Richard slumped over. “Wow. Have I been that obvious?”
Teddy smiled. “Well, yeah, but it’s okay. Because I’m going to answer the question so you don’t have to ask it. Yes.”
Richard’s eyebrows shot up so high that Teddy was afraid they were going to hit his hairline. “Yes?”
She squeezed his hand again. Surely this was the moment he’d get out the ring. “A thousand times yes.”
“Whew!” Richard let out a nervous laugh. “I can’t tell you how much better this makes me feel. I’ve been stressing out over this for weeks, wondering how you’d react—”
Teddy shifted in her seat as her smile turned to a frown. “You . . . didn’t know?”
Richard’s eyes widened. “Of course not. But obviously you could tell something was off, too. Man, this has got to be the easiest breakup I’ve ever had.”
Teddy pulled her hand back. “What?” she whispered.
“Not that there’s much of a contest. My high school girlfriend toilet-papered my entire yard when we ended things, and she even used a ladder to reach the really high spots. That toilet paper stayed in the tops of the trees until it rained. Now that was a bad breakup.”
Teddy stayed silent.
“I mean, to be fair, I did cheat on her. But still. It was a bit dramatic.”
Teddy looked at the spaghetti sauce, now cold and unappetizing on her plate.
Richard shoveled food into his mouth. “I can’t believe how hungry I am now that we got THAT over with. Why is Céline Dion playing?”
Teddy realized, as regret washed over her, that she wouldn’t ever be able to listen to “My Heart Will Go On” again without thinking of the time Richard unceremoniously dumped her over a plate of spaghetti. Not that she’d listened to it much since elementary school, anyway, but it was the principle of the thing.
“I can turn it off,” Teddy mumbled, pulling her phone out of her pocket.
“I’m so glad you already knew I was going to ask you to move out,” Richard said, his mouth full. “But I’m not surprised. You always kinda know what I’m thinking before I do.”
“You want me to . . . move out?” Teddy whispered.
Richard shrugged. “One of us has to leave, and it’s not like you could afford the town house on what you make at the toy store, you know? So it makes sense.”
Teddy nodded. “Right. It makes sense.”
“I knew I couldn’t be the only one who realized something was off,” Richard said, wiping his mouth with his napkin. “And think of it this way: maybe this will be the motivation you finally need to figure out what you want to do with your life.”
Teddy recoiled in confusion. “What?”
“Well.” Richard chuckled, and Teddy noticed that he had a piece of oregano stuck in his teeth. “It’s not like it’s some secret that you don’t know what you want, Teddy. That’s kind of the difference between you and me, isn’t it? I’ve always wanted to do something big, be a doctor, help people. And you . . . well, you’ve always had a smaller life. I guess we should’ve known it wouldn’t work forever.”
Teddy willed herself not to cry. Okay, so she hadn’t known what she wanted when she met Richard in college . . . but that was what Richard was for, right? He was the thing she wanted. She didn’t have to worry about figuring out what she should do with her life because she could focus on making Richard’s the best it could be. She’d spent years making things as easy as possible for Richard, she thought as she