Sydney was stuffed. She knew she shouldn't have worn those tight jeans and she already had to unbutton them. If only she could convince Dean to roll her out of the park, things would be great.

The filet mignon was cooked to perfection but the crème brulee did her in. The custard dessert had the blessings from heaven on it as she took bite after bite. She offered Dean some and he only had a few bites but encouraged her to finish it, which she gladly did.

Now she was rethinking that. She was sure some time between dinner and dessert, her thighs and jeans conspired against her.

"Did you get enough to eat, baby girl?" He asked.

"I'm not a religious person. I believe in God and the Holy Trinity but that's about the extent of it but this right here," Sydney pointed to her empty plates, "this right here is the second coming of Christ."

Dean laughed. "I'm glad you enjoyed it." He looked around. The mood was perfect and everything was going off without a hitch. Just a few more minutes… "Are you ready to walk around again and burn some energy off?"

"Sure, I think I need to do that anyway," she stood up and he led her around the conservatory.

They walked in complete silence for a few minutes, taking into the scene and enjoying each other. For the first time in a long while, Sydney felt free. Free in her life. Free in what she wanted to experience. She wanted to travel the world. She wanted to see the great paintings of Bacon, Van Gogh, and Warhol. She met her dream man, was pursuing her dream career, and was about to start over in Los Angeles.

What could possibly go wrong? Sydney bit her lip and shook her head. Everything.

She had a bad habit of making things more difficult when they were relatively easy. If there was a distance from A to B, Sydney was sure to add C, D, E, F, and G just for measure. No, not any more. Sure, she could concede she and Dean were moving fast and they only had known each other for a very short time. It felt right. He felt right. He didn't lead her on, he didn't B.S. her, and most importantly, he was supportive of her career.

He was the Prince Charming to her Cinderella. She just wondered if they made glass slippers in her size. She had one normal foot and one wide foot. It was very difficult to find cute shoes that accommodated her clown feet.

They'd stopped walking and Sydney removed herself from selfish thoughts. She turned to Dean, who suddenly seemed nervous. "Is everything okay, babe?"

"Um," Dean stuffed his hands in his pockets and shuffled a little, "um, yeah. Everything's cool. Say, you want to go over to the bench?" He pointed over her shoulder.

"Sure," she shrugged and followed him to the nearby bench. She sat down and smiled up at him. "What's going on?"

Dean grabbed Sydney's hand and held it. "One thing I love about you is your honesty. I'll never forget when you said you were going to make me sing like a canary and my god, you surely did!" He chuckled and she joined. "But you never played games and you were honest with me, no matter how much I messed up or didn't. I can tell already I'm a better player due to you being in my life. Most importantly, I'm a better person." He slowly lowered himself down to one knee. "I promise you I'll buy you a new chair. I promise I'll buy that vanilla and pomegranate shampoo you like. I promise I'll be around those people who talk about art and their new fancy chefs and all that other stuff I really don't care about just because I know those same people are going to buy one of my woman's amazing pieces." He dug into his pocket and pulled out a candy ring. "Will you let me have the honor of becoming your husband?"

"Oh my God!" Sydney shrieked and her legs bounced in excitement. "Of course I will!" She watched as Dean slipped the candy ring on her finger and she kissed him in appreciation. "I love it already."

"You do?" He stood behind her and admired the ring in the moonlight.

"Babe, I wouldn't care if you gave me a paper ring or one from the Cracker Jack box," she replied.

"I'm glad you said that," Dean reached into his other pocket and pulled out the real engagement ring, "because this is your ring."

Sydney's eyes widened as the enormous ring sparkled in her face. She didn't know how many carats it was but she did know it was biggest damn ring she'd ever seen in her life. She studied enough about rings to know it was a cushion cut in what appeared to be a white gold or platinum setting. No, it was definitely platinum. A ring that big wasn't stuck in gold.

"So, I was thinking…" Dean pulled off the candy ring and slipped the real engagement one on Sydney's finger. It was a little small so it only went down to her half-knuckle. "Let's say we get this one sized as soon as you move to L.A.? Does my fiancée like that?"

Fiancee? The weight of everything suddenly hit Sydney like a Mack truck. No more familiarity in San Francisco. No more quiet and alone Netflix nights. No more bar-hopping with Sarah.

She was going to be an athlete's wife and not just any athlete. Dean was a hockey superstar. Whatever she did will be reflected on him, as it already had with her drawing. She had to start afresh in L.A. and despite being friendly with some of the WAGs, she didn't know anyone.

"Syd?" He repeated. "Everything okay?"

Sydney felt light-headed and woozy. Her legs suddenly felt weak and the top half of her body felt inexplicably heavy. "Yeah, everything's…everything's…"

Everything went black.