Boy Next Door

Ready to Commit

"Why do you think it's so difficult for you to accept that he wants to be with you forever?"

Camila sat on the comfortable leather couch debating her response to her therapist's question.

"I don't know," she sighed. "I mean, I do. Zachary and I were together for nearly a decade and he never showed any interest in marrying me...but Shawn mentioned it before we had even been together for a year. I guess when he asked how I felt about marriage it just caught me off guard because it was such an off-limits topic in my past relationship."

"Does Shawn know about how Zachary felt about marriage?"

"We talked about it," Camila said with a nod. "He had asked why we had never gotten married and so I told him how Zach felt about it," she sighed.

"And how did he respond?"

"He agreed that Zach was totally misunderstanding the point of getting married to someone and then asked if I would want to get married someday."

"And what did you say?"

"That I do want to get married someday, specifically to him." Her lips curved up into a soft smile as she spoke.

"Sounds like you and Shawn have a much more honest and open line of communication, would you agree?"

"Definitely," Camila said confidently.

"And if he were to ask you to marry him, how would you feel?" Camila looked down at her interlaced hands as they sat in her lap and twiddled her thumbs.

"I can't really imagine wanting to ever be with somebody else," she admitted. "But he's never been in a relationship before me and we haven't even been together a year so I doubt it'll happen anytime soon..."

"Why do you assume that?"

"I don't know...I guess I feel like he'll be hesitant to make that kind of commitment to me so soon. I'm not naive to the fact that his romantic life before me consisted of only casual hookups," she said with a shrug.

"Do you think that was because all he wanted was casual hookups? Or because he just hadn't found the right girl yet?"

"I mean I'd like to think it's because he hadn't found me yet...but I still worry that one day he'll wake up and decide he's bored of me and realize he misses getting to be with new girls every week. I guess I'm just worried that one day he'll realize that I'm not enough for him."

"Who says you're not enough for him? Has he said that?"

"No, no—he would never. All he talks about is how I'm all he could ever need...I guess I'm just not convinced." Camila could feel tears threatening to spill out of her eyes. Despite having intensive therapy session for nearly a month straight, she still found it incredibly difficult to let herself open up and be 100% vulnerable.

"What about your ex? Did he ever make you feel like you weren't enough?"

"Almost every day," Camila scoffed as she rolled her eyes. Her therapist let out a heavy sigh after hearing her response. "You must think I'm crazy for staying with him as long as I did."

"No," she sighed. "I don't think you're crazy. I think your ex convinced you that the toxicity of that relationship equated to love, and now that you're actually experiencing pure, true, and honest love—it seems overwhelming and you feel like you aren't worthy of it."

"You know, it's kinda scary when you do that." Camila grunted as she slouched back into the couch. Her therapist chuckled and shrugged.

"It's kind of my job."

——

"Do you have a style in mind?" Karen asked as her and Shawn made their way into the jewelry store, Quinn being held against Shawn's chest with a wrap sling.

"No, just something simple. I don't necessarily have the biggest budget..." They looked at ring after ring and didn't find anything that seemed special enough for Camila. They went to another store, but struck out there as well. Of course, there were plenty of beautiful rings—but Shawn was quickly realizing that he might have to sacrifice some of the beauty of the ring in order to fit within his small budget of a struggling musician. At the third store they visited, Shawn initially assumed they would strike out yet again. That is, until one simple sparkly band caught his eye. The prices weren't listed on the pieces of jewelry and Shawn knew that was likely a bad sign for his wallet. Still, he wanted to get a closer look at the only ring that had grabbed his attention so far.

"Can I see that one?" Shawn asked the salesman who stood behind the counter, pointing at the ring that caught his eye. The salesman happily pulled the ring out of the glass case and handed it to Shawn who looked at it with stars in his eyes.

"Oh, honey...that's gorgeous," Karen commented as she walked up behind him. Shawn sighed in defeat. The ring was gorgeous, he couldn't deny that. He also couldn't deny the fact that his heart was telling him that this was her ring. He took a deep breath and looked up at the salesman.

"Do I even wanna know?" he asked. The salesman chuckled, knowing exactly what he was referring to.

"That ring is going to cost $4,200." Shawn dropped his head in disappointment. He knew it was too good to be true.

"Get it," Karen said plainly.

"Mom," he groaned. "You know my budget is tight."

"Pay what you can, your father and I will cover the rest."

"What? Mom..." Shawn said in disbelief.

"We talked about it right after you told us you were going to propose. I'm serious—let us help."

"You don't have to do that..."

"I know we don't have to but we want to. There for a while we weren't even fully sure that we would even have the opportunity to help pay for an engagement ring...just let us have this." Karen chuckled at her own joke but Shawn just rolled her eyes at her dramatics. He looked down at the ring one last time and smiled. He couldn't deny it—this was her ring.

"I'll take it," he said happily to the salesman. He rung up the ring, Shawn paying for part of it and Karen paying for the remainder.

"Thank you, mom. Really, it means a lot..." Shawn said as he drove her back to the hotel she and Manny were staying at.

"It's our pleasure. I know we haven't gotten to spend much time with her, but in the short FaceTime calls we have gotten to see you two in and just hearing the way you talk about her...it's obvious that you're in this for the long haul. Your father and I are so, so proud of you." Shawn smiled widely, both at his mother's words and the idea that in just a few short days he would be down on one knee asking Camila to be his forever.