Tony is lying in bed while watching Jill sleep. He remembers the first time he asked her out. He had known Jill about two months . They were both taking calculus, but because she was so beautiful, he was too intimidated to ask her on a date. Every time he tried he would ask about the class work instead. One day he ran into her while she was eating fries and reading a book at the university cafeteria. “Hi,” he said as he walked up to her. She briefly glanced at him and waved. “So what’s new?” she asked after her eyes had already returned to her book. “Well I’m having a bad day,” he replied. “I just came back from my great aunt’s funeral. We were really close.” When she heard that, she closed her book, and asked him if he wanted to sit with her.

Tony told Jill all about his great-aunt. He told her how he used to spend summers with her; how she used to buy him baseball caps for his birthday, and how sad he was when she got cancer. Jill told Tony about how hard it was for her when her grandpa died, and somehow the conversation took a life of its own. They were talking about glow in the dark sticker stars when they were kicked out of the cafeteria because it was closing. As they began going their separate ways, Tony asked Jill if she would want to see a movie with him sometime, and Jill said yes.

This would have been a great “how they met” story, except for the fact that Tony had lied about having a great-aunt that died. At first Tony did not feel any guilt about this lie because he had made up everything about this “great aunt”, even her name. So it was not as if he killed his actual relative. Also he had only expected to go on a few dates with Jill, but before he knew it he was dating her for a year, and he had invited her to a family reunion. He knew it was time to tell her the truth. However, he did not know where the appropriate place was to tell his girlfriend that he used a made up dead relative as a pick up line. So one Sunday morning he blurted it out during breakfast. Jill laughed, patted him on his arm, and said “you really should have gone into creative writing.” That was the moment he knew he loved Jill.

As Tony watches Jill sleep, he realizes the problem in his relationship is that Jill is bored. He remembers a joke about a husband who only proposed to his wife because he had run out of things to say, and he realizes perhaps there is some truth in that. He loves Jill, he does not want to be with anyone else, and so he decides that the time has come to propose. Tony decides that he will go ring shopping this week, or maybe he will go the next week. He knows there is no hurry, because the best thing about being in a committed relationship is not worrying about your girlfriend leaving you.