Meanwhile at Katie's apartment

"Okay, okay, just call Will and say yes," Katie said to herself in the mirror. "You have his number saved in your phone, Katie. Why can't you say yes?" If someone asked her a week ago, or two days ago, if she wanted William to propose, she would have been honest and said if he didn't propose soon, she was going to drop him. They'd been together five years, they'd been serious and monogamous for all but first few months. They weren't living together, but most nights, either she was staying over at his apartment, or he was staying at her apartment.

She really wished she had someone to talk to. She thought she was going to say yes. She ached to say yes. And okay, William wasn't the most romantic guy in the world. There were at least two birthdays that it was clear that he left the shopping to the last minute. But last night was, by his standards exquisite, and by normal people standards, pretty good. He took her to a nice restaurant, and then suggested they go back to their old campus and walk around there. It was cold as hell, but he made sure to tell her to bring a jacket, and even had a spare jacket to hang on her when she complained about the cold. They went on a walk around their old campus, and reminisced and tried to stay out of the way of the college kids, and ended up at the little shawarma place near the Juice Bar, where Will had asked for her number five years ago. He went down on one knee and told a little story about how he couldn't believe that the cute girl actually was giving him her number and that he was sure that when he called her the next day, she'd say she had too much to drink and to lose her number. But, she actually didn't have that much to drink that night, and she thought he was cute too, though she didn't want him to know that.

All in all, it was an above average proposal when she thought about the universe of possible proposals from him. She expected to say yes. When he dropped to one knee, and started telling the story, she thought she was going to say yes, but when it was time for her to say something, she said that she wanted time to think. That was a no, wasn't it? No, she wanted time to think, she meant what she said..

Normally, a girl in her situation would, what, call their mom? Hah, unless Katie wanted to dial up the federal penitentiary, her mom was off-limits. Maybe she should call her aunt or her cousin Olivia. Olivia had gotten married two years ago, so obviously something had gone right there. And Olivia was practically like a sister to her.

Maybe she should call Ray.

No, that was crazy, why would she call Ray? He was a work-friend. Right? She liked him well enough. They used to talk a lot more before they gave him a new room on the third floor. She liked hanging out with him well enough -- there weren't that many teachers around her age at the school. He was a bit aloof, so not exactly someone that would she go to with her problems.

But at some point last night, while she was tossing and turning and trying to figure why she didn't just say yes to Will, she thought about that hug. It was nice, and it was warm and she could feel his back muscles relaxing as she squeezed him. She wasn't a big hugger. But she couldn't shake the feeling from the hug. God, was that weird? Was she... catching feelings for Ray or just having cold feet all of the sudden?

No, if she was possibly catching feelings for Ray, she should definitely not reach out to him. That would be such a big betrayal of Will. On the other hand, its not like she didn't have some misgivings about Will. He wasn't a huge drinker, but he did like to drink more than she did. Vague echoes of her stepfather. No, that wasn't fair. There was a huge difference between Will being slightly more sloppy than she would have liked at a New Years party and her former stepdad. But, like last night, at the nice restaurant, he was really insistent that she get a second martini, and like, yeah, he was trying to get her in the same mood as she was in that shawarma place in college, but it felt just a little weird and a little pushy. And he wasn't the most thoughtful guy. But honestly who was? He was funny and he was smart and while he really sucked at giving gifts, he was fantastic about giving footrubs and shoulderrubs and sometimes when they were cooking, she'd catch him staring at her and smiling. Not staring at her chest, or anything. He was just staring at her, and seeing her and not just the body part, and that wasn't nothing.

She should just call Will and say yes. She looked at her phone.

And texted Ray.