The promised day

Jared passed back and forth nervously as he waited for his girlfriend, Sarah, to come home. They had been living together for two years, and dating for six years before that. Friends and family had pestered them for ages about when they were going to get married, and they had always agreed that they wouldn't until they were financially better off. But Jared had recently gotten a pay raise at work, and had gotten his first big paycheck that afternoon. With the extra money, he had gone out and bought a ring. For the past month, he had said nothing to Sarah about the raise, and had spent his time planning out how he wanted to finally propose.

Jared repeatedly went to the window, checking to see if Sarah had arrived yet. He knew her schedule, and knew that she would have left work nearly half an hour prior, but traffic was unpredictable. He knew it was getting to be within the range of times that she could be arriving, and the longer it took her to arrive, the more frequently he checked if she was there yet.

He had prepared dinner for her already. He wasn't normally home before she was, but he had requested the day off, and having explained his reasons to his boss, the higher ups had gladly accommodated him. So Jared had used the day preparing. Dinner was a nice beef lasagna that he knew Sarah loved. Accompanying it was home made strawberry lemonade. The entire house had been cleaned, the laundry was done, the dishes had been put through the wash. He wanted her to come home and feel relaxed and welcomed.

As he paced, he suddenly heard the sound of a car pulling in to the driveway, and he looked out quickly, seeing Sarah's car pulling in. He rushed to the door and watched through the peep hole. As Sarah came to the door, fumbling for her keys, Jared pulled the door open for him, a smile on his face.

"Oh!" Sarah exclaimed involuntarily. "Jared! What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at work?"

"Sarah," Jared replied, "I have some good news for you."

Sarah grinned, wonder clearly in her eyes, and walked past her boyfriend into the house. "Mmm," she hummed as Jared closed the door behind her. "It smells good in here. What have you been up to?"

"I've been up to a lot of things. Go and put your things away and join me for dinner, would you?"

"God, you have dinner ready? You're the best. I'm starving."

Jared smiled and watched as Sarah went to their room and set down her bags, taking her coat off and letting her hair loose. She came back and saw him watching her, and grinned coyly at him. "Enjoying yourself?" she asked, giving him a quick kiss on the lips.

"Not nearly as much as I'm going to."

"Is that a promise?"

Jared just smiled at that. Sarah walked past him into the dining room and gave an exaggerated, but happy sigh. Then she turned quickly, ready to accuse Jared playfully of doing something wrong and trying to cover up for it.

But Jared was already on his knee, one hand in his pocket. Sarah gasped, tears forming at the edges of her eyes. "No..." she whispered into her hand.

Jared smiled up at her, knowing what she meant. "Yes," he replied. He lifted the small box out of his pocket and opened it, revealing to Sarah the ring. "Sarah, will you marry me?"

Sarah squealed as she threw herself down into his arms. "Of course I will!" she cried into his shoulder. Jared wrapped his arms tight around her and held her to his body. "Oh my god, of course I will. But you..."

"I got a promotion," he explained. "And this was the first thing I did with it."

Sarah half cried and half laughed. "But you..." She pulled back and playfully hit her fiance in the shoulder. "You jerk! You have so much explaining to do!"

Jared laughed. "I know. Over dinner. I promise."