invisible string

year 20

Any minute now, he was going to propose. He was going to do it. He had the ring in his pocket, the ring that had almost bankrupted him. The ring he kind of hated, but Addison had made it abundantly clear that it was the ring she wanted. They were going to get married. She was going to be Addison Forbes Montgomery-Shepherd. The Shepherd seemed out of place but she had already decided that she was going to hyphenate. Their whole lives have been planned out. Forever, he was going to spend the rest of his life with Addison Forbes Montgomery- Shepherd. All he had to do was get on one knee and ask her to marry him in front of all of their friends. Well, her friends. Her friends and Meredith and Mark.

He was going to do this. This was the thing to do now. They had been together for about two and a half years and it was time to get married. Marriage wouldn't be so bad. He loved Addison, so spending the rest of his life with her shouldn't be scary. It really shouldn't be, this was a thing he wanted. Sure he had always imagined growing old with Meredith, but that clearly wasn't going to happen.

"Derek." Addison said waving him over. "Do you want to give me my birthday present now?"

"oh um.. sure." He said glancing around the room, his eyes landing on Meredith who was talking with a small frown to one of Addison's friends. He reached into his pocket and knelt to the ground.

"Addison, I love you. I've loved you for a while now and I think we should spend the rest of our lives together. It feels right. Will you marry me?" He asked with a serious look on his face.

"Yes, I will." She said calmly with a bright smile on her face. He reached into the box and pulled out the ring with a giant diamond attached to it. He slowly slipped the ring onto her perfectly manicured finger. He stood up as the whole room started clapping. Some of Addison's friends pulled her into a circle to examine the ring that was several months of his rent. He put a smile on his face and glanced around the room, Meredith was now no where to be seen. He turned around looking for her.

"Congrats man." Mark said, hitting him slightly on his back.

"Thanks." He said still searching the room for Meredith. "Have you seen Meredith?"

"Figures." Mark said quietly.

"Hmm?" He said still looking for her.

"Just funny how thirty seconds after proposing to Addison, you're looking for Meredith." Mark sighed.

"Why's that?" Derek responded, looking him in the eye.

"No reason, and no I don't know where she is, but your fiancé is right over there." He said pointing to Addison. Fiancé. That sounded just, bizarre. He was with Addison for the rest of his life. This was it for him. He sorta felt like throwing up. Which is normal. It's normal to feel nervous about getting married. It would be weird if he wasn't nervous. This would be good. Addison was good. He was going to live a good life with her. They would be surgeons and have a few kids, it will be good. Everything will be okay. Well, once he found out where Meredith was.