Jay sat down. He knew he had just screwed up, but he didn't know what to do.
Erin slid to the floor on the side of the door opposite of Jay, she thought about what she had just done.
"Erin?" He ran to the door and opened it hoping to catch her before he left. Only to find her sitting on the floor.
"How can you do that? Say all that stuff and just leave."
"You didn't mean what you said. You don't want me. You want the idea of me. That's all anyone wants, is someone to hold on to in the toughest of times, someone to love, someone to have." Erin stood up to talk eye-to-eye.
"Erin, how can you say that? How can you say I do want you? Erin, you're all I want. I don't want just anybody to love. I want to love you! I want you! I love you. I mean it, I do." Jay emphasized. He knelt down. "Marry me. Please. I may not have a ring, I may not have the money for a ring right now, but I have the time for you, I have the space for you. Most importantly I have a love for you. A passion, a desire. I love you. Please, Erin. Be my one and only, my one constant, the mother to my children, please. Marry me."
"I don't know right now. I don't know if I can."
"But you just said you could...," he murmured.
"Not right now. Ask me again in five months and I'll answer full-heartedly. As for now, please, let's just be boyfriend and girlfriend. We haven't even told anyone we are dating, we can't just drop a bomb like that."
"Why not? I wanna love you like I'm never gonna love you again. Like I'm gonna lose you." Jay replied.
"You can still do that. We don't have to be married for you to do that."
"Five months. In five months I expect an answer, an answer that you've thought about." Jay stated. After she left, Jay marked the calendar for five months from that day.
++++
Jay looked at Erin as they lay in bed. Erin was sleeping but Jay couldn't. The night before, Jay had proposed. It was like he never had because it didn't even phase her, but Jay couldn't focus. All he could think about was the five months for him to make her love him, for her to say yes.
"Erin, I have to ask you something." Jay woke her up.
"Ugh, now?" Erin complained.
"Yeah, now. Do you love me?" Jay asked.
It took a minute for Erin to respond, she was still half asleep, but eventually she did, "yes."
Jay smiled, laid on his back and fell asleep immediately.
