Shining, bejeweled, dazzling, that’s what it has to be. It has to be a brand new perfect diamond for her. The translucent red diamond had caught my eye, showing its clear shine even from a picture online. Nothing less would feel fitting for her. Her face was beautifully sculpted without a need for makeup. Her jaw was sharp, her lips a crimson red, and her hair tied back with its perfect, blond color. I wasn’t so special, but she was. I usually just throw on red T-shirts and khaki’s everyday. The only thing decent looking about me is the fact that I keep my hair combed well, so I'm just grateful she loves me.  “Hi honey!” I rushed to switch tabs. I don’t want to risk her seeing that I'm looking for a ring for her. This moment has to be perfect. “Whatcha been up to?” 

“I’m just writing a story. You know me!” I managed to respond.

“What’s it about?” 

Sh*t, I wasn’t prepared for this.

Suddenly I heard a click and the monitor shut off.

“Wha--” 

I stopped. Mr. Whiskers had stepped on the power strip and managed to turn off the monitor. I bent down to pet him.

 “Thanks buddy.” I mumbled to him. I sat back up and said, “Well, I would show you but it’s essentially this love story about a girl. Kinda like Romeo and Juliet, ya know?” I reached, spitballing for an excuse, though that had been the general plot to my last story so it’s not like I was lying to my love, anyway. 

“It sounds good, you should show me later.”

“Trust me, I will.” 

“Okay, well if you want to take a break just let me know, i’m in a drawing mood right now.” Maria had said.

“Seems like as good a time as any, beautiful” she beamed from the compliment.

I’d never forgotten that what had drawn us together was our love for different arts. Sometimes we’d spend an hour or two writing together, drawing together, painting, composing, really anything craftsy. It’s what we loved and our primary example of how we would express our love and spend time with each other. The room we were in was really just a small apartment. The kitchen was open and in the middle of the room the coffee table was low to the ground but we've always preferred it to anything else. The walls were a brown-orange vibrant, but ugly color. We’d spent an hour finishing up a drawing we had of a sunset on the horizon. The sunlight in it had shown all the way down the painting to the green hills at the bottom. I painted the skies a turquoise blue and Maria elegantly came behind me and painted in the clouds. Some nimbus, some cumulus. I could not find one thing that she could have improved on, it was perfect.

“Beautiful as always” I had said.

She reached over and kissed my forehead. 

“I love you too” as I leaned over and hugged her.

She hugged me back, at first at least. I don’t know what happened. It happened so fast that I still can’t process it. It shouldn’t have happened and it makes no sense. Her hands grew light and weak and suddenly she wasn’t hugging me back, I was the only thing holding her up. She’d passed out. 

“Hey, Honey? Dear?” I began to worry.

This had happened once before and the doctors had diagnosed her with Syncope heart disease. Last time she had been lucky to survive and each recurring case makes it worse. Usually, she had been taking medication that she had been prescribed. I had driven her to the hospital and she didn’t recover for weeks.  

I immediately ran to the wall and picked up the phone from its receiver as I dialed the police.

“Hello, this is Ryan Johnson, can you please get an ambulance over on 12276 Maine street? It’s my girlfriend, she passed out and hasn’t gotten up since. About 20 minutes. Yes, she’s still breathing. No, she hasn’t eaten yet. Can you please just send an ambulance” and I slammed the phone in its charger. I don’t have time to wait for them to ask stupid questions, I can talk with them once they get here and are able to help. I gave Maria a kiss on the cheek and laid with her silently for as long as it took for the ambulance to arrive. They asked me all the same questions and I told them about her previous history and what I thought it likely was.. I wish I could help her. I’d give my life for her, but I don’t know what to do.

“Sir?”

“Oh, yeah, what?”

“I was just checking to see if you were okay, you seemed checked out. You have the option to ride in the back of the ambulance with your girlfriend if you want to.”

Without saying a word I climbed in the back and grabbed her hand, sobbing the whole ride, hoping she was okay. She was breathing, thankfully. I was panicking though, and I knew it. I need to calm down, surely she’ll be fine. 

“Just breathe,” I told myself. Breathe, deep breaths. That’s what I told myself anyway but I wasn’t breathing. She’ll be okay, she’ll be okay I repeated. I started hyperventilating at some point.

I fell limp. 

I woke up across from Maria.  

She laid awake in her bed. 

I glanced over to see her smile back at me. Now I can go back to sleep. As long as she’s okay, then so am I. 

They had told me that I had passed out from too much stress and that I wasn’t in any worrying condition but that I should still rest for a couple of days regardless. The ring arrived the next day. It didn’t matter though, since we were both still in the hospital, but it was nice to at least know it was already there and taken care of. I just hope she likes it and says yes. I’ll ask Mr. Whiskers what he thinks first. It’s crazy to think how much had happened in just 1 day really and it had me thinking. Deep down, everyone has a little bit of light in their hearts, I’m just glad I noticed that hers shines brighter.