Jasmine was getting ready for church, her mom calling out the time to remind her to hurry, because God forbid we are a second later than her mom's timetable, she thought crossing herself. Damn it. Taking a look in the mirror, she realized that she'd managed to look better than she'd thought possible, given her mood lately.

The sundress, conservative enough to not make her mom click her tongue, made her eye color pop, and with her hair up in a twist, she had to admit she looked more than decent. When she left her bedroom, she was gratified to see she had been right. Her mom nodded approvingly, smiling at her as she hustled Jas and her dad to the car.

Service seemed to take longer than usual - perhaps because of her long night, or the phone call, or just her frustration with the way things were going. She couldn't seem to zone into the priest, or remember her place in the service, which she knew by heart and rote, her mother nudging her when she wasn't doing what she should when she should and looking more and more concerned by the moment.

Damn it, sighing she tried to focus, tried to get her head back to where it was supposed to be, when she saw him out of the corner of her eye. Their family pews had always been so close, and now that closeness felt like punishment for a sin she didn't feel like she should technically be paying for - not that he'd truly sinned either, but that was neither here nor there.

After what felt like days it was over, and she hoped she could slip out, from the opposite side of the pew, make a hasty retreat before their mothers could start clucking and asking the inevitable questions - the ones that soon everyone would ask - when would they pick a date, a real date, when would they start planning a wedding?

"Where's your ring?" It came from her mother, and it was louder than a devout woman should be in the midst of coming or going from the service - trust her Jasmine knew how loud a person should be in church. "Jasmine, I asked you a question." Jesus, Mary, and all the saints.

She glanced down at her naked hand. A hand that wasn't simply bare, but had a pale ring line where that ring had sat since the day Colin had given it to her. She bit her lip and didn't speak, but then he did it for her.

"I told her that she was going to have to take it off," her heart clenched, the pain of their breakup, the pain of their parting and the truth of what happened being laid bare here of all places in front of literally God and everyone was going to break her to pieces. She heard gasps, but he went on. "If I'm going to replace it anyway, why bother keeping the smaller one on?" Suddenly the gasps cut off and chuckles replaced them. He was giving her a way to save face in front of her mother, that was all. "Jas deserves so much more than that tiny ring I bought her when I was a kid," his voice was quiet, it was almost too quiet to hear with her head still bowed, but she couldn't look up, afraid that if she saw his face she'd fall apart. "She deserves the Hope Diamond, but it's cursed and I'm still a kid from Boston." More chuckles, a pat on his back, but he kept going. "So I got her something a bit bigger, more her style," what? She looked up, and he was staring at her, no cap on his head and looking like he might be scared she was going to shake her head, but she couldn't, not when he was staring at her like that. "I missed you, so dam-" a swat from his mom had everyone chuckling, a small smile even crept up on Jas' lips.

"I think we should get out of the sanctuary, Father might want to -" But the priest dared anyone to cut off the young couple he'd Christened, put through First Communion, and watched grow into a couple.

Colin swallowed hard and moved out of his family's pew and closer to Jasmine, hoping that she'd allow it, and she did. She wanted to see what he was doing, to see what he had planned. "I missed you," he didn't reach for her, which seemed a bit odd to the people around them, but they chalked it up to being in church - they were a good Catholic couple, raised in the church - why would they grope one another here? "So so much, Jas." His eyes were tight and so was her chest, the pain gripping her when she considered the call to his phone answered by that woman who swore they were together and she was out of luck. "I should have come to New York. There had to have been a way -" She wasn't speaking, but she couldn't, afraid that a sob would slip out. "I bought something a while ago -" he pulled a small box from his pocket and there was another round of gasping, but they ignored them. "I'll understand if you want to wait -"

"Haven't you two waited enough?" Jasmine wasn't sure who muttered it, and she didn't care, they didn't know or understand why he was offering her the time.

He opened the box and another voice, a female one was murmuring about how he wasn't getting on one knee, but it was as easy to ignore as the other. Inside the box was a ring that looked like a far more mature version of her promise ring - and definitely more expensive. "I should have followed you to New York. I'll give you all the time you need, I swear it, but I'm not giving up -" she could hear what he wasn't saying, what he couldn't say, not here, not in front of their families and the entire neighborhood they grew up in - that he was going to make up for what happened.

"It wasn't," he shook his head, and she rolled her eyes. "You never let me take credit for any stupid ideas," she muttered.

He leaned closer and she nearly sighed at how right it felt to see him so close, to feel the warmth of his breath fanning across her face, and smell the scent of his skin - "Because they're only stupid when I make them stupid." He whispered it, but she didn't care, he was close enough to touch, and she did, sliding her fingers through his hair and he took that as permission to wrap his arms around her, the ring box still in his hand, and a pew between them. "I missed this, you, so much."

"You keep saying that," she sighed, relaxing finally - had it really been years? It felt like years since they'd touched.