The next morning, Spencer woke up extra early and, careful not to awaken Maeve, slipped out of bed. He slowly walked across the room, avoiding the two floorboards that made a creak noise when stepped on, and gingerly opened the closet door. He cringed as it groaned on its hinges. Once it was open, he quietly got dressed and tiptoed to the kitchen.
He got out a scrap of paper and a pen and scribbled a note saying he had gotten called to work, and that he would be home for their lunch and game of chess. But that wasn't the truth; he was off of work for the next week. He got into his car and drove twenty minutes up to one of Quantico's only shopping centers and pulled into a park in front of the jewelry store.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
He walked up to the counter. "How can I help you?" The shop owner asked.
"Well, I am in need of an engagement ring." Spencer stated.
"That's great!" The worker said, "What do you have in mind?"
Reid quickly thought back to everything Maeve had ever said about jewelry.
Look what I found, Spence! A ring! Too bad I'm a size seven, it's so pretty!
In this book it says Martha always wore silver jewelry. I don't know, it seems like in that era gold jewelry would be the most popular. That's why I prefer gold!
"Um, I'd like to see the prettiest gold rings you carry in a size seven."
The man kindly obliged and laid out a row of five rings based on the general description Reid had provided. Immediately he saw the one. It was very simple, a golden band with single square-cut diamond in the middle.
He pointed to it, "That's the one!" He said excitedly.
"That one's my favorite, too." The clerk said as he closed the box and slid it towards him.
Spencer couldn't wait to get home, he had the perfect proposal idea. He was going to hand her the book "Redeeming Love" to read. He had highlighted a quote on page 27 that read "Sometimes the key to true love and happiness sits right in front of you, take it." Knowing how engulfed Maeve gets into her books, he assumed she probably wouldn't notice him sliding onto one knee in front of her until she looked up. Then he would ask her to marry him.
He had run through the scenario multiple times by the time he turned into his neighborhood. But he hadn't anticipated what he saw as he turned onto his street.