Found

We stood in front of the jewelery counter and looked down at the sparkling rings that shone inside them. My mind flashed back to when my mother and I stood on the stoop of our house as I waited to be picked up.

"Now, if he asks you if you want a ring say no," my mother told me.
I shook my head and hid a smile, "What makes you think he'll propose?"
My mother ignored my question. "You don't want him to spend money on something extravagant like that. You don't need to have a ring."
"But I want to have a ring when I get engaged," I pouted.
Then Samuel's car chugged up into the drive. And sure enough a few days later we were engaged. All the other dates we went on I had to pay for everything so that Samuel could save his money for that ring he wanted to buy me.
And now that day had come. He stood next to me with his hands stuffed in his pockets as he watched me look at the rings. My eyes glided down the rows of diamond rings. I now see why my mother had told me not to let Samuel buy me one, but I wanted a ring to put on that left finger so that everyone would know I found my special someone. I looked at all the rings, some with big stones in them, some with multiple ones, some with so many numbers attached to them that my eyebrows shot high into the sky.

"It couldn't possibly be this hard to find one," I thought. I looked up at Samuel to find him staring down at me. I suddenly felt shy and glanced back down at the counter. Then I noticed one I overlooked before. It had a tiny round diamond set in the center of two thin silver bands. It was tinsey, but it was perfect.

I pointed at it, "I like this one."

His hands came out of his pockets. "You do?" Samuel asked quietly, with a pleased tone in his voice.

I nodded my head up and down quickly, "Uhhuh."

Samuel got the attention of the jeweler and pointed to the ring.

Samuel and I stood there like two shy but excited little kids as the jewler took the ring out and made sure it fit my finger. The jewler boxed the ring and I watched Samuel slowly and carefully lay the money he had lovingly been saving up for me down on the counter. The jewler swept the money up and put it in his cash box without a thought, like it just it was an ordinary purchase.

Samuel picked up the box and led me outside and over underneath a nearby tree. He opened the box and in the shy, boyish way of his that I always loved he slid the ring on my finger, the ittsy-bittsy ring that meant so many things, and kissed my hand.