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My head pounds as I wake up with a swollen face. All the crying gave me a migraine. I thought a good night’s sleep would get rid of it, but I was wrong.

I get up to make a pot of coffee, trying to be as quiet as possible as not to wake Sean. Normally he’s up before me, but I guess he was as stressed as I was yesterday. He could use the extra rest.

I’ve just finished my second cup when he walks into the living room. He’s been going to the gym consistently since we got together. He looks bigger. His chest hair is slowly growing in. He shaves it every couple of days, but I wonder what it would look like if he grew it out.

He walks over to me, wearing only his sweats and smiling.

“How are you feeling this morning?” he asks gently, leaning down, placing both hands on either side of the chair—trapping me in.

“I’m okay.” I force a smile.

He tilts his head, reading right through me.

“I will be okay,” I add.

“Yes, I think you will.” Sean smiles, shifting to the side, pulling me up to stand with him.

“What are you doing?” I ask cautiously.

As I’m about to ask again, Sean leans over and gets down on one knee.

“Sean…what are you doing?” My heart races as I watch him closely.

“From the first moment I saw you in the shop, I knew it was fate.”

“Wait—”

Sean puts his fingers to his lips. “Shut up and let me finish.” He stares at me, waiting.

I close my mouth tightly.

“All these years, I’ve wondered if it would happen. Then at my lowest point, there you were. Bee, I love you.”

Everything is going black. I can’t see my future at all right now. I don’t know if that’s a bad thing or if it’s just because of how badly my marriage ended.

He carries on shakily, “I’d be lost without you. I want to be with you for the rest of my life, Billie Jane Sloane.” He pulls out a blue velvet box.

“Sean, stop.”

“Bee…” He stands now. “I know we haven’t talked about it at all—”

“No—we haven’t. We’ve only been together for a couple of months. What are you thinking, proposing?”

Sean grabs my face. “I’ve been with you for almost eleven years. I never left you.”

I pull his hands down, holding them tight in my grasp.

“Sean, this is a lot. This is not the right time,” I say in the most tender way possible.

“It’s never been the right time for us. I just don’t want the things happening in our lives right now to ruin us again.”

“The solution isn’t marriage, Sean. You can’t just throw a ring on it and expect bad things not to happen. Trust me, I’d know.”

“Billie, I bought this ring one week after you came back. This isn’t some impulsive thought after what happened with your father.”

“Sean…”