It had been the perfect dinner. Bernie smiled inwardly as she watched Serena across the table. They were past the days of one-handed pasta-eating because they couldn't not hold hands, but between courses their hands would always find a way to meet by the breadsticks. They relished the time they'd spent here. Serena's favourite lonely haunt had become a shared passion, and one that Bernie only associated with her. But although they'd been here many times, this night was special. Bernie had a plan, and she'd put it in motion already. As the main course plates were cleared, she felt a heat rise in her throat and heart a heartbeat in her ears.

A noise beside her startled her – someone had tapped on the window.

"Wha- who was that?" she asked, looking around.

"Sacha," Serena replied, pointing, "They're coming in, look."

Bernie spun around on her chair, surprised to see a motley crew of work colleagues having seemingly abandoned their usual pub trip in favour of their place. Since when did anyone go for food rather than a drink after their shift?!

"What are they doing here?" Bernie asked, not showing even a trace of annoyance.

"I…might have made a recommendation to Ric," Serena said sheepishly, "I never mentioned it was date night!"

Bernie made a face, knowing full well that they were discussing coming to join them at their table. At that thought, she suddenly recalled her previous train of thought. She sniffled and extracted her hand from Serena's, before standing up in a somewhat clumsy and hurried way.

"I, ah, I need to go to the loo,"

"Bernie?"

Serena was subsequently blocked by the arrival of the others. She'd prefer some more one-to-one time too, but wasn't altogether opposed to greeting the others. She glanced over her shoulder in Bernie's direction; it wasn't like her to run away unless something was wrong.

Bernie hurried away. Luckily for her, the bathroom was indeed in the same direction as the waitresses' station. She caught a familiar face as she rounded the corner.

"Excuse me," she said breathlessly, "Sorry, It's not, I need to take it back, I –", she glanced quickly back at the table as the waitress fumbled with something behind the counter. She saw Serena attempting to excuse herself and turned back as the waitress handed something over and continued with her tray of food.

Bernie kept out of sight of the table, continuing towards the bathroom but stopping outside the door to lean against the wall. She tried to hold back a tear and clenched her fists tighter, cold metal digging into her right palm. She closed her eyes for a moment, taking a rather deep and slow breath. In that time Serena had caught up with her.

"Bernie, are you alright?" came a concerned voice.

Bernie's eyes snapped open at the sound.

"Are you not feeling good?" Serena asked softly, slowly taking Bernie's fists in her hands, "What is it?"

"I'm fine, Serena, I – everything's fine."

"Are you sure?" Serena gazed at her with a hint of concern.

"Yes, honestly," Bernie tried desperately to calm her heart rate and blink away that stray tear, looking just over the top of Serena's head instead of directly at her face, "There's nothing wrong…"

"Then why did you rush off like that?" Serena hinted at concern intermingled with curiosity, thinking that if Bernie wasn't feeling ill, she must have dashed away because the others had arrived – had someone done something to upset her? Serena tried to fold her fingers into Bernie's fist but she resisted her. She did that, when she was upset about something.

"Bernie," she stepped closer, "what is it?"

Bernie mouthed wordlessly as Serena's fingers found her left palm. Something about Serena's face so close to her own made her guard drop only momentarily, but that was long enough that Serena was now holding both of Bernie's hands.

At the same time as Bernie became aware of this, Serena became aware of something else in Bernie's hand – in their hands. She extricated it from Bernie's grip and stepped back slightly so that she could hold it flat on her palm between them. She stared at it for a moment.

"What?" she whispered, barely audibly.

Bernie looked over her head again, not knowing what to say, and using her now-free hand to tuck her hair behind her ear.

"Bernie, it's a ring…"

Bernie brought her gaze back to Serena and did a half-nod, half-questioning-head-tilt.

"It's a ring," she said quietly.

"No," said Serena, disbelievingly, a smile beginning to spread across her face.

"Yes?" said Bernie tentatively.

"Well, of course!"

Bernie stared in shock. She hadn't asked the question, but was that the answer?