The next morning, the noise of the shower echoed down the hall. I opened my drawer to take out the little blue box. The ring sat in the middle of the velvet, sparkling against the Wal-E-Mart logo in the background. I could get down on a knee and give this to her, and I knew she would say yes. She’d put that damn ring on her finger and smile and think her life was grand when all I was doing was taking a huge shit on every aspiration she ever had. That’s what love did. It made people blind. It made people do stupid things. Like stay in Dayton…
