That Diamond Ring
E is for Ernie
Ernie MacMillan coughed roughly as he trudged through Diagon Alley. It had been a tiring day at work, and his whole day had been based around this meeting. Thankfully, it wasn't a work meeting but instead a date with his girlfriend, Susan Bones.
Ernie turned towards the small shop with a small crowd inside and pushed through the door. He took off his scarf and immediately walked toward the ginger-haired girl sitting at a small table in the back, giving a smile. "Mind telling me why we're eating ice cream on December 4th?"
"It's the grand opening," Susan said with a slight tap on Ernie's shoulder. "Don't be so rude. Floreana really wanted me to come. Who else but a few select people would come to a reopening of an ice cream shop in winter?"
"What happened to her father, anyway?" Ernie asked as he pulled off his coat.
"Shh!" Susan said, hitting him even harder. "Don't remind her of that. I'm sure she's already thinking about it. We don't need you to make things worse."
Ernie put up his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay. Y'know what?"
"What?" Susan asked in exasperation. She placed her elbow on the table and then sat her chin on her hand, staring up at him as if she was tired of him – but with a special gleam in her eye and a small smirk.
"What's up with that?" Ernie asked, playing along.
Susan sighed. "Just tell me."
"No. You can just sit here and stew about how you don't know what I'm going to say to Flo," Ernie said. He stuck up his nose in a pompous manner, making her giggle slightly.
"I'll go with you. I haven't given Flo a "good job" for all the great work she's done," Susan said.
"No!" Ernie said quickly.
Susan widened her eyes and slouched in her seat slightly. "Well, what's the matter?"
Ernie shook his head. "Look, it's nothing. What kind of ice cream do you want?"
"Er – I suppose I'll just have the Christmas Special," Susan said softly.
"Two Christmas Specials – I'll be back," Ernie said with a smile.
"Okay," Susan said. She sat back in her seat, slouching slightly, and sighed.
Ernie turned back towards her quickly, leaning down and kissing her on the cheek. "Love you."
Susan gave a forgiving smile. "Love you too."
"Good," Ernie muttered. He then quickly turned away and forced himself to walk slowly. He stared at all the decorations and nodded to himself. It was simple, but it fit perfectly for the season. Green and red decorated the ceilings for Christmas, but there was still a hint of purple decorations – the main colour that Floreana Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour took for its theme.
Once he saw Floreana, he quickly walked up to her and tapped her on the shoulder to pull her away from her conversation with the old couple.
The black-haired girl turned around and gave a wide smile once she realized who it was. "Ernie! I'm so happy you're here. Okay, so how is everything going?" She said as she nudged Ernie with her elbow.
Ernie suppressed a smile. "It's fine. She doesn't suspect a thing. You have everything ready?"
Floreana clapped her hands together quickly and walked away with Ernie towards the counter, completely abandoning the old couple she had just been speaking to. "Do I have everything ready? Of course. Just tell me the ice cream she wants and I'll get the ring."
"Just get us two Christmas Specials," Ernie said with a smile, as if trying to calm down the hyperactive parlour owner.
"All right – coming up!" Floreana said with a squeal and skip. She disappeared into the back room, which was closed off by a stainless steel door, and came back moments later with two clear plastic bowls – spoons already in the green and red striped ice cream.
Floreana placed the ice cream on the counter and looked at Ernie pointedly. "The ring is in the one on the right. Remember that."
Ernie nodded. "My right or your right?"
Floreana let her mouth drop and then she looked at the bowls of ice cream in anger, her eyebrows stitching together.
"You do know, don't you?" Ernie said in a panicked voice.
"Yes! It's my right. So, your left," Floreana said with a curt nod of the head.
"Are you sure?" Ernie asked, his eyes growing wide.
Floreana looked back at the ice cream, and then looked up at Ernie with a quick roll of the eyes. "I'm sure. Go on!" She said, shooing him away with her hands.
"I'm going," Ernie said. He picked up the ice cream and turned around, but he refused to go any farther. Susan was staring right at him, waiting for Ernie to come back to the table, a smile plastered on her face. Ernie gave a nervous smile and lifted up one of the bowls of ice cream to acknowledge that she was looking at him. Susan waved, and then tucked her ginger hair behind her ear.
"Move!" Floreana said as she leaned over the counter. "You've been dating for two years and you live in the same building – not much is going to change if you ask her to marry you, you prat!"
Ernie turned to her, boring his eyes into her face in annoyance.
"Sorry, sorry," Floreana said. She backed slowly up to the door towards all the ice cream. Fumbling for the large handle, she pushing it down and ran into the ice cream box, shutting the door behind her.
Ernie shook his head and took a deep breath, exhaling, and then forcing himself to walk towards Susan. All the while, he kept repeating that the ice cream bowl he needed to give Susan was in his left hand. Left hand. Left hand. Left hand.
"What took so long? How's Flo doing?" Susan asked as she grabbed the ice cream that he handed to her – which was from his left hand.
"She kept on talking. She's high-strung with all this excitement, I guess," Ernie muttered as he sat down and quickly dug into his ice cream.
"She's always high-strung," Susan said with a laugh. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Ernie laughed and took another scoop of ice cream and stuffing it in his face, keeping his eye on each bite Susan took.
"Ernie, are you all right? You seem a bit pale and peaky," Susan said. She reached out and placed the back of her hand on his forehead. "You've been overworking yourself, haven't you?"
Ernie shook his head and straightened himself up. "I'm fine."
Susan shrugged and took another bite of ice cream just as Ernie did. He chewed it quickly instead of waiting for it to slide down his throat. He would do anything to keep his mouth full instead of talking.
"Ow!" Ernie cried out.
"What? What's the matter?" Susan asked hurriedly.
Ernie stuck his fingers into his mouth slowly, his face growing red. He sighed as he revealed a silver diamond ring between his fingers.
"Oh, well that's strange. I'll go get Flo, she'll probably want her ring back," Susan gave a laugh and sighed. "I really wouldn't put it past her to lose it when scooping ice cream."
Ernie coughed uncomfortably. "Well, you really don't need to do that."
"Why not?" Susan asked, appalled. "You're not suggesting we keep the ring!"
"No, no," Ernie said slowly. "Er – I suppose I should just do this properly now that the whole thing is ruined."
"What are you talking about?" Susan asked slowly, a blush creeping up her cheeks from her neck.
Ernie pushed out his chair and slowly got on one knee, grabbing Susan's hand. "Um – I'm kind of nervous. So, er – you remember how you said you loved me earlier?"
Susan took a deep breath and nodded quickly, exhaling heavily and staring at him with wide eyes.
"Will you marry me?" Ernie said breathlessly.
Susan took a sharp breath. "Even when you got down on your knee, I didn't believe it," she said while biting her lip and giving a nervous laugh.
Ernie slowly pulled his eyes up from her freckled nose and stared into her watery eyes. "Well?"
Susan gave a great sniff and then proceeded to nod. "Yes."
Ernie breathed a sigh of relief and slipped the ring onto her finger. He stood up with her, and then gave her a tight hug and kissed her on the lips. "This'll be great – I promise."
Susan laughed, throwing her arms back around Ernie's neck. "Oh, I know."
"Shoot!"
Susan and Ernie pulled away as they heard a clatter come from their table, turning to see who had yelled.
"So did it work, Ernie?" Floreana asked excitedly as she straightened herself up.
"Flo?" Ernie started.
"Yeah?" Floreana said with her eyes gleaming.
"You need to learn your left and rights."
A/N: Well? Did you like it? Personally, I feel like this is my best one. I just loved working with this piece because I literally went to Word without knowing what I would do with Ernie, and just started writing. And when I started, I thought maybe I would do something about Quidditch – but it obviously turned into something completely different.
I hope you enjoyed the story – please review!
