"Gooped him good, eh?" he asked again, smiling and shaking his head as she bit her lower lip and laid her head against his chest. She had curled up in a knot on the couch beside him.

"Rol, you might as well know that my temper sometimes gets the best of me!"

"Uh- you telling me something I don’t already know?"

"Hey!"

"Angela, I have known you for what? Twelve years! Your temper is straight off the old block. Manny used to do the same thing you did today. We got fired off some big movies back then…"

"Like what?"

"Well, remember Alien?

"NO! You guys didn’t do that movie…"

"We were- all set to go and Manny went and made James Cameron mad about the little set of choppers coming out of the big choppers. He told Cameron it looked to contrived!" Rollie laughed, and raised his eyebrows, thinking back to that as Angie’s mouth dropped open.

"My father pissed off James Cameron? Oh my God! Where we could have been if only?"

"Right, exactly- the Ramirez temper, love."

"Well, just exactly what has been keeping you then from working again with the likes of Cameron?" Angie retorted, poking him in his ribs and sitting up.

"We are just too alike, I guess- you know, perfectionists," Rollie said, whimsically as she shook her head at his bull.

Dingo had come back into the room and both Angie and Rollie looked up expectantly.

"Well, the Doc says Dorinda okay. Said she’ll be out in a jiff now. It’s all over and she was a real trooper!" His voice was elated and he beamed from ear to ear.

"Great! What about the ring?" Rollie asked, not missing a beat.

"Yeah, well…" Dingo began.

"Well, what?" Rollie asked, his voice edgy and blunt.

"Well, they are cleaning it up, Rol. It was kinda caught there in her plumbing if you know what I mean…"

"Oh God!" moaned Angie, "it’s been down there stuck all this week and this is my engagement ring?"

"I told ‘um to sterilize it for you, love," Dingo told her, patting her on the shoulder.

"Thanks…" she said, rubbing her hands on her pants’ legs, then pulling her legs up against her chest. Her entire childhood and teenage dreams of how an engagement was to go and the romantic illusions that she had always thought she would have at this moment were destroyed- ruined by this lap dancer’s preservation of the ring.

Their attention was diverted at the moment by the groaning coming from the hallway. Angie noticed a very groggy, redheaded woman being wheeled toward them. A doctor walked behind the wheelchair and attendant, carrying a specimen container in his hand.

"Dory, darlin’- you’re okay now?" Dingo asked her as he went to her immediately and hugged her.

Angie came over and decided to introduce herself since it seemed neither Rollie or Dingo was going to do it for her.

"Hi, Dorinda? My name is Angela Ramirez. It’s nice to meet you, sorry about the circumstances," she greeted her, and held out her hand.

Dorinda looked up at Angie and made a faint smile appear on her lips, "Charmed, I’m sure." When Dorinda took Angie’s hand, she squeezed hard and Angie looked at her, with a strange feeling.

"Well," said the Doctor who had talked with Dingo before, "Here is your ring, all clean and sterilized. Oh, by the way, one of the technicians also put it in our little ultrasonic cleaner and gave it a whirl as well."

He handed the jar to Dingo and Rollie promptly took it from him before Dingo could blink. The Doctor just smiled politely at the strange company that had waited for Ms. Dorinda Bailey. He looked down at Dorinda, his face blanching slightly as she smiled up at him.

"Thanks so much, Doctor for that wonderful high colonic! I’ll be telling all my friends, bye bye now!" she told him, her voice lowering and husky again.

The Doctor then reddened and walked away without another word. As Dingo and Dorinda chatted like long lost lovers separated over a span of years, Rollie took Angie by the side.

"Look, let’s get out of here. I want to do this right and proper. Today has been a total nightmare!" He had put the ring in his pocket without letting her see it and she frowned.

"Rollie? Let me see it, please?"

"No, not before we go and do something, okay? Come on, let’s tell them we’re leaving."

"Alright, I don’t know what you have up your sleeve, but it’s got to be better than all of this," Angie said, as she looked over at the fawning Dingo and his lady of exotic dance.

"Hey, Ange and I are going to split. We’ve got to do some things before coming home. Look, Dingo- why don’t you call it a night- take the loft tonight. I can go over to Angie’s place for the night," Rollie told him as he looked up and grinned.

"Rol, you’re a great son- ain’t he, Dorinda? See, I told you he was a good boy," Dingo told his lady.

"He’s magnificent," she said, her eyes flashing at Rollie and she winked at him, parting her lips. Angie could have sworn she had seen Dorinda lightly lick her lips but it was after midnight now and she could have been seeing things.

"Great then, here are the keys," and Rollie tossed them to Dingo, "take a cab on me," he added as well and gave his father some cash. Dingo smiled again and started to push Dorinda’s wheelchair out of the waiting room.

"See you, son- thanks again for the use of your loft."

"Yeah, yeah…." Rollie muttered and watched them leave. Angie stood beside him, her arm hooked into his.

"There’s something strange about that woman, Rollie."

"What? Jealous?"

"Why should I be?"

"Uh, no reason, I guess," Rollie replied, quickly as he remembered her foot rubbing his shin earlier that day in Sullivan’s, "Come on, Ms. Ramirez, I’ve got some things to do with you tonight for the night is still young."

"Oh, I like the sound of that, Mr. Tyler. Please lead on…"

Rollie drove the van with Angie quiet in the passenger seat. He hadn’t seen her this quiet in some time. He hoped that she would like what he had planned. He had been thinking about it for sometime, and he smiled to himself thinking that it had first came to him while in Avila with her- after the first time they had made love. He would never forget her standing in the shower, the water pouring over her, her eyes shut, cupping her hands over her face as she rinsed the water away and then, seeing him as he joined her. It was her eyes that he remembered the most, the way their souls seemed to touch- he hadn’t put a finger on her and yet, their eyes had locked together and he knew then, she would always be with him. Making love with her was the second greatest feeling he had ever known after that. Her lovely, wondrous body was like silk and fire at the same time. She had been insatiable and he could only marvel at what he had been missing for so long. The other women he had known were but, mere blurry images to him now as he looked over at her face in the dark with only the city lights flashing over her profile now and then.

"What?" she asked, feeling his stare.

"You’re one beautiful woman," he told her softly.

"Get out of here and hurry up!" she replied, scoffing at him

"No, it’s true, Angie and sometimes, I don’t know why I didn’t realize it sooner."

"Hmmm, maybe because you were too wrapped up in actresses, china dolls and FBI women…"

"What FBI women?" he asked, laughing.

"Uh, Ms. Special Agent Serrano?"

"Oh," he replied, not saying another word.

"Well?"

"What?"

"Aren’t you going to tell me about it?"

"About what?"

"Come on, Rollie…Serrano!"

"Nothing to tell, Ange"

"Right!"

"It’s true, she was attracted to me..but I just told her I wasn’t really feeling that way toward her."

"I walked into the loft that day and she had been there all night, all cozy in the loft and giving me that look."

"Um, maybe she wanted to scare off the competition."

"I wasn’t the competition then, Rollie."

"I hear women seem to know that stuff before men ever know."

"Well, that’s true, maybe so," Angie said, thinking about it and she smiled.

"Shall we invite her to the wedding?" She had a devilish look on her face and Rollie smiled and rolled his eyes.

"How about all my old girlfriends?"

"How about all my old boyfriends?"

"Hey," Rollie said, breaking the playful banter between them, "we’re here."

Angie looked out the window. They were not far from the beach, somewhere on Long Island, she knew, Southampton, maybe. She could see the sign- the 1770 House. From what she could tell, it was a Bed and Breakfast House not far from the ocean. She could see the moon’s light shimmering on the breaking waves in the distance.

"Oh, what’s this?" she asked, her face pressed close to the window.

"This, my love, is where you will get to see your ring…come on, don’t just sit there, we’ve got people waiting here for us that probably would have been in bed hours ago," Rollie told her in a lowered voice as he stepped out.

Angie jumped out before Rollie could come around to her side of the van. She felt strange and giddy. How would this look? No suitcases, her in jeans and a jersey shirt and Rollie, well, he looked good in anything. He took her arm and they walked up the large, cobblestone path that led to the front door of the rustic cottage. An elderly man met them at the door, smiling. Once inside, a roaring fireplace going in the front room, they were greeted by the man’s wife who was yawning and having Rollie sign the guest book.

"Your room’s been waiting, Mr. Tyler. Hope you and Mrs. Tyler have a wonderful night here. The fishing has been quite good here in the past week, mind you," the elderly man told Rollie as Angie couldn’t help but suppress a laugh when he called her Mrs. Tyler. Sometimes, Rollie was still very old-fashioned about things. Mrs. Mansfield gave Rollie a brass key with the number six on it and told them to take the stairs and it was the last room on the end.

"I’m sure they were glad to see us finally get here," Rollie told her as they climbed the beautifully carved wooden steps up to the second floor.

"When did you reserve this, Rollie?"

"Um, about two this afternoon, when I thought the ring might just take a gentle whoosh to get out!" he replied, grinning and she swatted him lightly on his arm.

"I can’t believe it, this is beautiful!" she said, gushing as they came to the end of the hall, the stucco walls covered in beautiful English garden prints and stained woodwork at the baseboard and ceiling of the hallway.

"Here we are, number six.." he said, holding his breath and releasing it slowly. She smiled and he opened the door slowly. She could hear the snapping and crackling of the fire in the bedroom. The room was paneled from floor to ceiling in rich teakwood. Angie leaned inside but Rollie stopped her.

"No, no, we are going to do this right!" he told her, and without even an effort, whisked her up in his arms and walked through the door.

"Rol, you do this on your honeymoon, not before!" she laughed, as he put her down.

"Oh? Well, I liked doing it, felt right," he told her as he walked over to the cottage glass french doors. He opened them, and Angie could smell the salt air and feel the gentle cool breeze. She walked over and met him as they stepped out on the balcony together. A ship’s brass telescope was pointed out to sea and Angie peered through it, noting that it was focused on the lighthouse about a mile south of them.

"Oh my!" Angie sighed as she looked out at the moonlit water and breathed in deeply, "how did you know?"

"Ange, everytime I went into the chamber at the loft after you had been in there relaxing, I found this tranquil, moonlit ocean setting. I thought of that and the fact that you had talked of going to some Bed and Breakfast for a weekend."

"But, I didn’t tell you about that."

"No, but you told Mira."

"That rat!"

"She’s been great!" Rollie said, taking Angie into his arms, and holding her head against his heart, "I didn’t think it would come this soon, but with Dingo in town and then the ring!"

"Yes, the ring…just where is that ring?" Angie asked, looking up at him in the moonlight as he grinned.

"Okay, I am only going to do this once, Angela Ramirez. You won’t see the famous…"

"Infamous!" she corrected him.

"Okay, infamous" he substituted, "Rollie Tyler on his knees again."

"Oh…" she sat down on the wicker couch on the balcony, a little taken back at his ardor and seriousness. It began to hit her then- like a ton of bricks that this was really happening and that it was Rollie Tyler who was getting down on his knee in front of her.

"Angela…" his voice was soft and it cracked as he swallowed and reached in his pocket, fumbling for the container. He opened it and pulled out the ring, she barely seeing it as he covered it for a moment and looked back up at her. She felt his eyes pulling on hers with incredible strength, saw the pulse in his neck racing and she matched it with her own.

"Rollie!"

"I have loved you since I first saw you…it took me a while, but I realize now that you were always meant to be with me, not as my assistant or work partner but as my lover and now…" and he paused for she had looked away from his eyes up to the sky as she followed another shooting star as it quickly lit the sky for a fleeting moment and was gone.

"Oh my…" she said, her eyes welling with tears.

"And now," he repeated, her eyes back to his and he caught a tear as it rolled down her cheek with his finger, "as my wife."

Angie closed her eyes, her lips parted as she held her breath and she felt him take her hand and felt the ring as he slid it on her finger. She looked down as Rollie said nothing further. He watched her as she looked at the ring, holding it up in the moonlight. The ruby flashed its deep red hue and she gasped as she saw the diamond as it glistened in the warm heart of the ruby.

"El Corazon de Dios!" she whispered, her Cuban accent returned as he was startled at the Spanish name for the stone. He thought no one knew what the Greek had called the ring he had made.

"How? How did you know that it was called the Heart of God?" he asked, dumbfounded, getting up and sitting beside her.

"What?" she asked, still stunned momentarily, "Rollie, do you realize that these types of stones- a Ruby with a diamond formed in the center are so rare, that people have actually killed to get them?"

"So, I am starting to gather," he replied, taking her hand and held it, as they both stared down at the flawless beauty.

"I can’t believe it! Did you ask me to marry you right now?" she asked, sitting bolt right up.

"Of course I did!" he replied, almost indignant, "and I’m not repeating it!"

She laughed, and he kissed her salty cheeks, tear-stained and warm. She was looking at the ring and then she kissed him, her lips seeking his in a deep embrace of her love.

Later, seeing her in the firelight, her golden skin smooth and soft, he was reminded of the restaurant in Avila where he had been so taken with her sensual spirit. She was above him, as he brought her face down to him, kissing her, caressing her and loving her and he sat up in the four-poster bed and she wrapped her legs around him tightly, ultimately culminating their desire for each other.

Morning broke too soon as Angie lay in the bed, looking up at the plaster swirls in the ceiling of the room. Rollie had left the french doors open to the sea and she smelled the fresh air and heard the crashing of the waves against the shore. She could see the sun just rising from the east as the light began to touch the side of the balcony. She turned and looked down at Rollie who slept soundly beside her. She looked down at the ring on her hand, knowing that another man had carried it against his heart in loving tribute to his late wife and before that, she had worn it. She dismissed where it had been for the past week but did shake her head at the thought for a moment as she shivered. The fire had died out and she got up and walked over to the french doors and shut them.

"Ange?"

"Yeah?"

"Come back to bed, love."

"I’m coming."

She turned and saw that Rollie was awake, barely as the noise of the doors shutting must have awakened him.

"It can’t be morning already!" he moaned.

"Umm, but it is," she replied, getting back in bed and rubbing up next to him.

"What? Again?"