I Pretend You're Mine

3. A Ring

Tamara silently observed the madness of Tim and Lucy's charade, which was admittedly quite entertaining. Over Dave's freshly grilled burgers, Amy kept eyeing the fake couple making Lucy nervous enough to hold onto one of Tim's hands on the tabletop as a silent gesture to make their fake relationship seem more convincing. The way Tim so casually glided his thumb across Lucy's knuckles made it seem like second nature. How frequently had they held hands before? Tamara wondered.

Amy decided to bring up something she was curious about, "Lucy, why aren't you wearing your ring?"

"M-my ring?" She asked to clarify.

"Your engagement ring. Tim, you asked her to marry you with a ring, didn't you?"

Lucy and Tim exchanged a quick panicked glance.

"Our, uh, engagement was really spur of the moment, so I didn't have time to get her one," Tim answered. It was honest. He did not know he was going to pretend at being engaged to Lucy for a weekend.

Aunt Amy's lips were a thin line to express her disapproval.

Lucy noticed how her aunt reacted, so she was quick to add, "Maybe our engagement was a little unconventional, but that's par for the course for our relationship. We just love each other so much. All that matters is that we want to spend the rest of our lives together. Nothing else is as important." Her eyes found Tim's and it felt REAL. HONEST. Their relationship could most certainly be classified as unconventional, and she knows she loves him as a friend. There were deeper feelings than a friendly love, but thinking about that frightened her too much to label those emotions. Lucy kept looking at Tim in wonder at the prospect of sharing a future with him. It sounded pretty ideal, and yet, impossible. She knew she had lost her chance at something more with him when she denied that their kisses could mean anything in the privacy of their hotel room in Las Vegas while undercover, and soon after, it was confirmed that their window of opportunity had closed when Tim stood in the hallway of her apartment complex and told her it was time for her to move on.

Tamara had to sip on her water to hide her growing smile at the sight of Tim and Lucy just staring at each other like they were exchanging a million unspoken words and also not really doing much more than getting lost in each other's eyes. She has never seen it happen before between them, but it was not necessarily surprising- Tamara had watched as Lucy gazed at Tim's back with something fond shining in her eyes, and she has seen Tim glance at Lucy when she wasn't looking with a softness only reserved for her. If their eyes met, Tamara suspected it would look something just like this. Their fake engagement was growing more and more convincing even to Tamara who knew it was a farce.

Tim heard Tamara's scoff, which drew his attention away from Lucy and back to the rest of the table. "What?" He asked, vaguely aware someone had been trying to speak to him, but it seemed so insignificant in comparison to holding Lucy's gaze.

"I asked if you wanna get a ring for my niece while you're in town this weekend. Surely our family will judge that Lucy isn't wearing one," Amy repeated herself.

"You know, Aunt Amy, it's your weekend. We don't want to steal your thunder by announcing our engagement. Tim and I can tell people later," Lucy spoke up.

"Nonsense! I want everyone to know that you two finally wised up and got together, and now you're going to get married. It's giving me chills," Amy beamed.

"Me, too," Tamara added with a smirk.

Tim flashed the young woman a look of warning and then felt Lucy squeeze his hand.

"Aunt Amy, it's really okay. We can keep it just between us. Besides, I don't need a ring. What Tim and I have is special," Lucy said sweetly. Frankly, it was. She treasures their relationship as the precious thing that it is, and saying it aloud just reminded her of that.