Evangeline pulled down the visor and dug in to her purse for her make up bag. She dabbed away the tears on her face and reapplied her makeup that had been washed away. How on earth am I going to tell John? I hope he can understand where I am coming from. He will I know he will, he is always so understanding. She smiles into the mirror starts the car and drives back to her office. As she drives she occasionally looks down at the velvet ring box sitting all alone in the passenger seat and smiles. She pulls in to the garage picks up the box and held it tightly as she made her way up to her office. She made her way back to her office and sat down at her desk and started going through all the voice mail messages she had accumulated on her phone. The box sat in the middle of her desk almost mocking her. She picked up the box and opened it and saw the ring that John had picked out staring back at her. The diamond caught the light at the right angle and sparkled in her eyes. The blue sapphires on each side reminded her of John’s eyes.

“Knock, knock, Hey Evangeline are you in here? Nora said slowly opening the door to Evangeline’s office.

She closed the box quickly and slid it in to her desk, as Nora walked into her office. “Hi Nora, how are you?”

“Fine and you? You look like you have been crying is everything okay?” she asked her friend taking a seat across from her desk.

Man, how did she do that? I thought I had cleaned myself up. Evangeline thought to herself. “No, no everything is fine. What brings you by?” she asked moving back from her desk going to get a drink of water.

“Well, I just came by to see how things are with you. We haven’t seen each other in a while to have some quality girl talk, and I wanted to see if you wanted to have dinner to night to catch up.” She asked moving towards Evangeline he was holding a glass of water in her hands.

“Nora, that sounds like a great idea, but John and I have plans already tonight.” She said while drinking the water.

“Oh, oh I get it, you are ditching your best friend to go hang out with your man.” She said half jokingly.

“Nora you know it is not like that. It is just John and I have some things to work out and we have to do this now. I can’t cancel on him tonight. If it were any other night then I would call him in heart beat to hang out with you.” She replied looking up at Nora from her desk. She had to put the water down, because her hands began to shake and she didn’t want Nora noticing.

“Is everything okay between you two? You seem a little shaken up.”

“Yeah, Yeah everything is okay, we just had a really…..” her voice trailed off.

“Interesting?” Nora cut in to finish her statement.

“Yeah, I guess you could say interesting, lunch this afternoon. I am still trying to recover from it that’s all. You understand right?”

“Of course I do Evangeline. Remember I am here for you if you need me okay? I am gonna get going. John, loves you so what ever problems you two are having I know you guys will work it out.” Nora squezzed Evangeline ‘s hand as a gesture of reassurance and left the woman to her thoughts.

Evangeline tried to focus on her work and the cases that had her bogged down for so long. Every time she opened her desk to get something she saw the velvet ring box staring back at her taunting her. Finally after the fourth time of opening the desk she took the box our of her drawer and sat it on her desk. She opened it up took the ring out of it and slipped it on her left ring finger. She looked down at the ring on her hand. John had done an amazing job picking it out and it fit her perfectly. The ring slid on to her hand and the way it felt on her hand send shivers down her back. She took a deep breath and extended her hand out into the air. She sighed as she brought her arm back towards her took the ring off and slipped it back into the box.

John sat at his desk thinking about his lunch with Evangeline. He smiled as he recalled asking her to marry him. Even though he told her to think about it, he kjnew what she was thinking. At least he hoped he knew what she was thinking.

“Excuse me Lieutenant.” An officer said slowly walking into John’s office. “There is someone here to see you. She says her name is Ms. Prince?”

“Oh, yeah, send her in will you?” John stood up and walked to the door and saw Alexandria waiting patiently in the bull pen. “Hi, come on in what can I help you with? I hope you haven’t had anything stolen from you again/” John said ushering her in to his office.

Alex took a seat in front of John’s desk and crossed her legs and waited for him to come from behind her and take a seat at his desk.

“Actually I came by to officially thank you for all of your help today. I was hoping if you were not busy this evening, seeing as you are the only person I know in Llanview if I could take you out to dinner to thank you.”

“I am flattered, really I am, but I already have plans for dinner this evening.”

“Oh, okay. Well I am sorry to bother you. I will get out of your way I know you have a lot of work to do.”

“Okay, well listen I do not have lunch plans tomorrow. How about we have lunch, say around noon tomorrow at the Palace? Does that work for you?”

“Yeah, that sounds great. Thank you again Lieutenant. I will see you tomorrow.” She said with a smile.

“Of course no problem. See you tomorrow have a good evening Ms. Prince.”

“You too.” She said as she walked out of John’s office with a huge smile on her face. She left the police station thinking about her impending lunch with the Chief of Detectives. I wonder what it is going to be like? She said to her self.

Alexandria hailed a cab and had it drop her off at the Palace hotel. She talked to the concierge and asked him to set up a private lunch for her and Lieutenant McBain tomorrow.