“Don’t be silly. Everyone loves you. Grace loves you, so that’s good enough for me.”
Julian smiled. “Thanks. That’s why I wanted to talkwith you.” He looked back over his shoulder to make sure Grace was occupied. She lay on a pool lounger and soaked up the sun.
“About what?”
Julian placed a small jewelry box onto the granite bar and looked at Ellie.
Ellie stared at the box for a moment, then slowly asked, “What is that?”
“I’m going to ask Grace to marry me. I need your help to pull it off.”
Ellie also looked back toward Grace. She put her hand over the box and glanced around. The other patrons of the beach bar sucked piña coladas through straws and tilted bottles of Piton beer up to the sky.
“You’re kidding me, right?” Ellie asked.
“Kidding?No, I’m dead serious.”
“You guys just met.”
Julian laughed in his casual manner, flashing his perfect teeth and sharp-angled jaw. “We met a year and a half ago, Ellie. We’ve been inseparable since.”
Ellie leaned closer. “You go to school in New York, and she’s in Boston. That’s the opposite of inseparable. You’re actually separated almost all the time.”
“We’ve been very good Amtrak customers.”
Ellie rolled her eyes.
“Every weekend we have free, one of us travels. It works for us. And next year, we’ll both be in New York. And then, during residency, yes, that will be a new form ofinseparable.”
“Listen, Julian, I’m happy for you guys. But why don’t you wait to see how things go before you jump into an engagement. I mean, what’s the rush?”
Julian reached for the engagement ring. Ellie relinquished her hold on it and he slipped it back into his pocket.
“Forget I asked,” he said.
“No, that’s not what I meant. I just want to make sure no one gets hurt.”
“How will proposing hurt Grace?”
“I don’t know, Julian. A lot has changed lately. Up until Match Day, Grace was looking at UNC and Duke for her residency. Then she matches with you in New York. She never told me any of this, and that’s fine. It’s her business. But for nearly four years, her plan was to go to North Carolina, and now suddenly she’ll be in New York for the next seven years. When you make these huge decisions without putting a lot of thought into them, you sometimes regret them later. I don’t want the same thing to happen with a proposal.”
Julian nodded his head. He tipped his Piton back and drank the last third in one swallow. “We’ve actually put a lot of thought into this. All of it. Our residency and getting married. You see, Ellie, Grace and I talk a lot when you’re not present. I know it’s hard for you to imagine, but Grace does things in her life that don’t include you.” He put his empty beer bottle down.
“No kidding. More and more, lately.”
“At least, act surprised when she tells you.”
Julian turned to leave. Ellie grabbed his wrist.
“Wait, Julian.”
He turned back. “What?”
“I’m her best friend, so I’m only bringing this up to prove a point.”
“Bringing what up?”
Ellie took a deep breath, looked back over at Grace lying by the pool. “Has Grace told you about Daniel?”
