I’ll admit, I was nervous to be alone with Seth’s Mom, but it went well. We talked easily, laughed and joked, and decorated the house. When I left, it was starting to fill up with people, and I was excited to show Seth just how supportive we were all being.

I was worried, however, when I got to the airport and didn’t receive the welcome I thought I would. I had missed Seth, I figured we’d have an issue keeping our hands off each other, but Seth… He was distant, and distracted. I barely got a hug hello.

“You OK?” I asked, eyeing him warily while we were standing at baggage claim.

“Fine. Just…” He sighed. “Tired.” He finished, shooting me a small smile.

We didn’t talk much on the way to the car, and I began to get nervous. Here I was talking myself into a relationship with him. What if he had been talking himself out of one with me?

“Can we stop somewhere, grab a bite to eat?” He asked as he climbed into the car.

“Oh… I figured we could go home. I was going to call in a pizza…” I trailed off, weakly raising my phone and waving it at him.

“I’m not really in the mood for pizza. I should probably start watching what I eat…”

“Well, I mean. It’s a celebration tonight.” I tried to protest lamely.

“Yeah… I still don’t really feel like pizza.” He snapped.

“O-K then.” I said, trying to figure out how to convince him to go home first. “I need to run by the house first.” I said.

“Ella, I’m hungry, can it wait?”

“No.” Now it was my turn to snap back at him. “And frankly Seth, I could do without the attitude.”

He sighed. “I’m sorry Ella, I didn’t mean to give you attitude…”

“Well, you wanna tell me what’s going on? Because obviously there’s something and it’s not just tiredness.”

“I didn’t want to do this here, in some parking lot.”

“Oh God.” I said, swallowing hard. “You are breaking up with me!” I thought about the party waiting for us at home, and how awkward that was going to be, and the Christmas presents I had just bought… Was it weird to give your ex boyfriend and his family presents?

“Oh, no, Ella. No, that’s not it at all.” He said quickly.

“Then what IS it? You barely hug me hello, haven’t touched me since, you’re yelling at me and I haven’t seen you for a week, and I missed you damnit.”

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Man, I fuck everything up, this wasn’t how I had pictured it at all, and now look, I’ve made you cry and… Geez, just forget it. Let’s just go home and order a pizza and I promise I’ll stop being so funny.”

“No. You need to tell me why you’re being so weird Seth.”

“Ella, I don’t want to do this here.”

“Do WHAT?” I practically yelled.

“Just forget it! Nothing!”

“No, because now I’ll be thinking about it all night and worrying about it, and then it’ll turn into some big deal when it’s not, so just… Please. Tell me.”

He sighed yet again. It must be a new record for him, sighing so many times in a row.

“Look, I’m sorry I’m so exasperating but I just…” I started.

“I bought you this.” He said, thrusting a small box at me.

I was dumbfounded when I opened it up and saw a ring. Not what I was expecting, not in the least bit.

“Are you….?” I wasn’t even able to finish the question.

“No. Not yet at least… Well, I mean, kind of… I just. I had this whole thing planned out in my head. But I got so nervous, and that made me distant and snappy… The whole point of this was to make you feel more at ease about me leaving, not to make you feel like I was breaking up with you.”

“Can I hear your speech?” I asked, wanting to know exactly what this ring meant.

“My speech?” He asked, confused.

“I mean you said you had this whole thing planned out in your head. What were you going to say, exactly?”

“Ella, can we just drop it? I’m not exactly on my A-game right now… I’ve already botched this up big time.”

“I don’t care. I still want to hear what you had to say. It’s important to me. Besides, how can I accept this ring if I don’t know what it means?”

He sighed, but this time with a smile, and turned to face me in the car seat.

“It means I love you. I know I tell you that a lot, but it doesn’t always feel like enough, and sometimes I wonder if you know how much… Especially after moments like these. I mean if you honestly knew how much I loved you… You would know that I would never leave you. I keep saying it, but you’ve really been my rock, and I would be in a very bad place right now if I didn’t have you.” He paused for a moment, and then continued. “I know I’m being selfish, by choosing to leave…”

“Seth, I don’t think that at all.” I interjected.

“I know you don’t, but I do. I know this is something I need to do, I know you understand, but it is incredibly selfish. Even though I am helping out others, I’m ultimately doing it for me. I know we haven’t been together for an insane amount of time, so no… I’m not proposing. But, I did want to give you something to show you how serious I am about our relationship. So, this is a promise ring. I know it’s a little high school, but... I just have so many promises I want to make to you. I promise that I’ll come home as much as I can, I promise that I’ll be faithful while I’m away, I promise that I’m committed to this relationship and will do whatever it takes to make it work.” He paused again, this time looking away. “And maybe, after this year is over, I can replace that ring with the other kind.”


I was quiet for a moment, absorbing what he said. It really was the most perfect thing anyone could say in a time like this.

“I just worried, when you saw the ring, that you would freak. Think I was taking things too fast, and… Well, I hope I’m not… Do you accept?”

“Oh Seth… Of course.” I answered, and he smiled wide as he slipped the ring on my finger, and pulled me into a deep kiss.

“Now that is how you should have greeted me.” I said, smiling at him when we finally broke apart.
“Well… There’s always more where that came from.” He said, smiling slyly at me and coming back in for another kiss.

Of course, it was that moment that my phone chose to buzz, and when I looked down, I saw it was a text from Christi:

Christi: U 2 pull over to have a quickie and 4get about us?

“Let’s head home and order that pizza. I’m starving. Then you and I can celebrate.” I said.
“If you insist.” Seth answered, only looking slightly disappointed.

I called Seth’s Mom and put in our fake pizza order. She was surprisingly realistic, even telling me to pretend like I was on hold for a few moments. I heard the noise in the background and it sounded like a lot of people were there. I was happy that with such short notice, so many of Seth’s friends were able to be there.

When we arrived at the house, it was dark and quiet, and it was hard for me not to burst out in giggles. Seth had no idea, which is exactly how we wanted it. When we walked in and switched on the lights, everyone jumped out yelling surprise, and Seth jumped about a mile in the air. He then thanked his Mom and I both, and truly was surprised.

The party was a success, and I was feeling like the happiest girl in the world.