As I pull away to look at Carter, he's beaming. “I love you, Vesp.”
“I love you, too.”
We stare at each other for a few seconds, not knowing how to handle the enormity of this new commitment.
“Wait,” he says, throwing his hands up as if a new idea just struck him.
“I brought some champagne. It's in the car. I didn't want to cause suspicion. Let me get that. Then I'll call my mom and dad quick. You want to call yours?”
“She's…” I swirl my finger towards the sky.
“Oh yeah, on a plane,” he chuckles awkwardly. “Alright, be right back with glasses and bells on.”
“Okay,” I nod with an anxious smile.
Carter runs to the door, and then stops, turning to run back to me. He darts a kiss on my lips. “I love you. Thank you.”
I laugh. He can be so adorable. “I love you, too,” I respond, shaking my head. “Now go, get the wine so we can celebrate!” I shoo him towards the door.
Carter runs out of the bedroom looking like an overjoyed, floppy-eared pup as I admire my ring. Like most girls, my thoughts immediately go to the wedding. What will I wear? What other jewelry would match the simple, yet elegant gold ring? The necklace my grandmother gave me would go perfectly. I used to wear it all the time, but after I almost lost it during a trip to Lake Tahoe, I keep it in a jewelry box, only to be used for special occasions.
Well, a wedding proposal is a special occasion, isn't it?
I open the jewelry box, resting on the top of a tall dresser, fingering through a few earrings and other necklaces, but I don't see the crescent moon charm.
“Huh?” I mouth to myself, switching on a tall lamp just beside me to get a better view. But I still can't find it. My heart races. This necklace is precious to me. My mother was a carefree hippy when I was a child. I spent most of my younger years in a commune. My mother was often busy tending to her own needs, and my grandmother, a child of the greatest generation, did not approve. She would take the long drive north whenever she could to pick me up and spend the weekend. She doted on me. She was what a mother should be. I lost her when I was thirteen and it was utterly devastating. She gave me this necklace on my thirteenth birthday shortly before she died. My name means evening prayer, so she said every night she looked up at the moon and prayed for me. And that this necklace reminded me of her.
By the time Carter returns to the room, the joy of the proposal is overtaken by full-blown panic. I had upturned every jewelry box onto my bed, and the necklace was nowhere to be found.
“What's going on?” he asks, his smile quickly changing to a frown of concern.
“I can't find the moon necklace. The one my grandma gave me,” I tell him, holding back tears.
“Okay, well just calm down. I'm sure it's here. When was the last time you saw it?”
“I—I don't remember exactly. But I know for a fact I put it in this box,” I proclaim, presenting it to him. “I know I did. I don't wear it because I almost lost it a long time ago and I spent hours combing the shores of Lake Tahoe trying to find it.”
“Well, maybe you put it somewhere else.”
“No, I didn't,” I snap. Maybe I'm going crazy. Maybe that man at the library was a vision. Maybe my memory is shot from the stress of classes and taking care of Johnny and my strained relationship with my mother.
I can tell Carter is disappointed by the shift the night has taken, but I have become a woman obsessed.
“I'm sorry Carter, but I won't be able to relax until I find this thing. It's all I have left of her. Something personal between us.”
“I understand,” he says, somewhat defeated. “How can I help?”
“You remember what it looks like?” I ask.
“Sort of.”
“Wait I have a picture up here from the last time I wore it. It's really clear on there.” I rifle through my picture board, looking for the picture I took at Lake Tahoe just before I lost it the first time.
“Okay, now I feel like I'm going insane,” I mutter.
“What?” he asks.
“I can't find the fucking picture,” I tamp down my urge to raise my voice. Waking up Johnny would only add to the stress, and my patience is as thin as a hair.
“Okay. Don't worry about it. It's a moon. I know what a moon looks like,” Carter says with some levity. “Let's give it an hour. After that, you need to let the thing find you. That's how it works. Deal?”
“Okay, but if I don't, I don't—” I bury my head in my hands. I feel the metal of the ring dig against my finger. Shit. He proposed and here I am just sucking all the joy out of tonight.
“We'll go to sleep and tomorrow, when we're fresh and well-fed, we'll go on the hunt again. I promise.”
I peek up through my fingers. “Deal,” I pout. “I'm sorry. I'm ruining everything. This night was so perfect.”
He runs a caring hand along the top of my head. “Hey, if I can't handle you through a lost necklace, what are you doing agreeing to marry me?”
I snicker.