Ring

Samantha admired her ring in the glow of her laptop. Phil had chosen it especially for her, chocolate diamonds gleaming merrily in a rose gold setting. He had proposed to her on their weekend trip to Paris, in the water lily room of the L'Orangeries gallery. Of course she said yes. Phil had been the sweetest man she'd ever dated, and she knew he would make an excellent husband. She got along great with Dan and didn't mind their co-dependent friendship, making her possibly the only woman who could function in a marriage with Phil, which was sure to feature a third roommate in their first home. Everything was perfect.

Samantha had gotten off work early this Monday, so even though she and Phil had agreed they could go a whole day without seeing each other after returning to London, she decided to surprise him. She let herself in with her spare key while the boys were out to dinner with friends, and was waiting in his bed. She would have put on some lingerie, but Phil had never seemed to mind her signature sweatshirt and leggings ensemble before, so why mess with success?

Hearing the front door open, she quickly shut her laptop and focused on the closed bedroom door. That's when she heard the yelling.

"Why would you do that without telling me?" Dan's voice? Were they fighting?

"I told you tonight! Why should I have told you before? It's not like you even thought to leave me a sticky-note on the bathroom mirror the day you asked Amber out!"

Amber was Dan's girlfriend. Well, recently ex-girlfriend, but they had been on-again off-again for a few years now so Samantha fully expected to see her again.

"Yeah, well, I wasn't going to marry her, was I?" Phil mumbled a reply, so Samantha crept out of the bed and chanced cracking the door open a bit to listen. "Nosy" had always been one of her less attractive qualities.

"… You and I decided we could never be a real thing, because of our careers, remember? Even if we did have a fantastic run there for a few years, it had to end." So, that was one mystery solved. Sam had known Phil was bisexual, and although he'd never admitted to even fooling around with Dan, she had always had her suspicions. "We had to move on. You decided that." Phil spat the final words out as an accusation. He was using his deadly quiet tone, making this argument all the more concerning.

"Yes, I did say that, bu-"

"I moved on, Dan!"

"PHIL, I WAS WRONG!" The shouted confession hung in the air, and Samantha's heart dropped into her stomach. "I was wrong, Phil. Amber's great; you don't think I'd seriously keep breaking up with her because she happens to read a little more fanfiction than is strictly normal?" That had indeed seemed a fairly weak reason for their most recent split. "It's because… I love you. And we should be together, damn the viewers! F*ck them! If we have to get jobs in a shop or something, at least we'd be happy. We belong together, you and me."

Phil didn't respond. The seconds creeped by. Sam pushed the door a bit more open to take a peak. What she saw shattered her world. Phil with his arms wrapped around Dan's waist, head tilted up to meet his hungry kiss. When they parted, Phil sighed in ecstasy. The kind Sam now knew in her heart that she could never inspire in him.

".. I never thought you would let me back in, Dan…" Phil's eyes sparkled up at the younger boy, who stroked the scraggly black hair back to get a better view of them.

"I'm sorry. I'll never shut you out again, I promise." The two kissed again, slowly, deeply. Hands twisted in short locks of hair. Dan pulled back just enough to whisper against Phil's lips, "Come to bed with me." Phil nodded, and allowed Dan to lead him by the hand to his room. They didn't notice the door to Phil's room slightly ajar.

Samantha heard the door snap shut through a numb haze. There was really nothing to be done. She had lost someone who was never hers to begin with, so she couldn't even feel as though she had been wronged. They were a perfect couple, souls intimately matched, and finally seeing them together left her with no desire to interfere. Sam rose to her feet shakily, slid her laptop into her bag, and walked to the dining room table. She pulled her jacket tight against the cold as she left, locking the door behind her and slipping the key under the mat.

Sam pictured Phil sitting down with Dan's box of cereal the next morning, and smiled. Perhaps the ring twinkling in the sun light would catch his eye…