"The sapphire," the salesman asks, pointing into the glass case between them.
Holly gives a small nod, and then, gathering up her love and courage, finds her voice.
"Yes, that one. The sapphire with the—yes."
"It's a lovely choice, miss," he comments as he pulls it out of the case and brings it up for Holly to see closer, "stylish and elegant, with such a vibrant stone."
It is, Holly agrees silently, all of those things.
She can't look away from it, from that stone, the deep pool of blue.
It's the stone that caught her eye this morning as she killed time waiting for her vehicle with the recalled brakes to be fixed at the dealer a few blocks over. Rather than sit and wait on a kind of gray but otherwise pleasant day, she found herself wandering the streets of one of the nicer districts in the city. Window-shopping at designer stores she would never buy anything from—where would she wear a four-hundred dollar pair of pants?—and enjoying the charade. Playing at being someone else, someone who shopped in this district regularly, slipping into someone else's skin and trying on their clothes, their life.
It was kind of fun, to indulge in being someone else for a little while.
And then she'd stumbled across the jeweler's.
And with no reason not to, she went in.
She saw the ring immediately, this flash of blue in the case by the window. One of the more simple rings in the display. An oval stone with a diamond on either side. A plain platinum band.
It was beautiful.
It would look beautiful on Gail.
The thought passed through her head before she even realized it was there.
And in an instant she realized it was true. And that she meant it.
It would look beautiful on Gail.
It could have been made with her beautiful girlfriend in mind, truthfully.
The cool, pale diamonds. The sturdy, steady band.
The stone.
The way it was a blue both warm and cold. The way it caught the light of the display case, the lights overhead; how it seemed to through them across the room, how it seemed to take them into itself, to light itself from within. Like a soul on fire.
Like the burning she saw every day in her Gail's eyes, the warmth of love, the heat of passion, the inferno that fueled her lover's determination and drive.
And in that moment, she knew.
And in that moment, she could see.
She could see everything.
The whole of her future all reflected in the deep still waters of that stone, the lines of her life wrapped up in that platinum band.
"Would Miss like to try it on," the older gentleman asks, holding his hand out for her.
Holly blushes and shakes her head, her voice soft as she tells him it's not for her.
"Not for you," he asks, "then you must have a pretty girl to give it to."
When she looks up, meeting his eyes for the first time since he asked if she wanted to see anything closer, there's a gentle smile on his face, one that reaches all the way up to the wrinkles of his eyes.
"Yes," she answers, louder now, "my girlfriend—Gail."
She picks up the ring now, holds it in her palm and feels the metal soak up her heat.
"She's a cop," Holly continues, "strong and fierce. But she has this heart that's so soft and so big."
The salesman watches as she turns it over in her hands. "She sounds like an amazing woman," he says.
Holly smiles, the kind of smile that gives joy just to see it. Private and sweet, full of memories of Tuesday nights and Sunday mornings. And every other day in-between.
"I'm going to ask her to marry me," she says calmly, like it's not the first time she's said those words aloud, like it's not a moment that will split her life forever into a before and an after.
Again the salesman is patient and kind. He puts a hand over hers and she looks up at him, into his eyes which are soft but just the wrong shade of blue.
"You both are very lucky," he says, "to have found each other. And when she says yes, you bring her back here and let me see your beautiful woman. We'll find you the perfect wedding rings."
And Holly can't help but laugh, because she will.
She will.
They take care of business, and the salesman slips Holly his card—for the future—and hands her a tiny black gift bag full of tissue paper and somewhere underneath, the small black velvet box that holds her whole heart.
"Thank you," she says as she readjusts her coat.
"She'll say yes," he responds, his smile warm and his eyes comforting and gentle.
When Holly steps outside again, it's into a brand new world.
The sky?
A brilliant blue.