Spencer Reid was in the one place he never thought he'd be, preparing for a day which, just two years previously, he never would have imagined would come. He was wandering a jewelry store, looking for the perfect ring with which to propose to Maeve. Just one problem…he had absolutely no idea where to start. For all his knowledge of academic subjects, when it came to romance, he still often felt like a blind bull in a china shop… What was he supposed to be looking for in a ring? What would she like and how would he recognize it when he saw it?

When he looked around the store, he saw several couples picking out engagement rings together, which would certainly would have removed the uncertainty and painful guesswork out of the equation… But Spencer wasn't just a technophobe, he was a die-hard traditionalist when it came to romance as well. As of yet, Maeve had no idea just how close he really was to proposing to her. That was because he was going for the classic, surprise her and get down on one knee approach. It was old school, and daring…but it was how he wanted it to be. So there he stood, searching for the perfect ring…

He'd been there for hours and was about to give up for the day…but then he saw it… the ideal ring, the one he'd spent hours searching for without knowing what he was looking for until he saw it. It was a beautiful, flawless, white-gold band made of two narrow bands weaving in and out of each other which came meet in a setting shaped like rose petals. In the center of the floral design sat a 2.5 carat diamond, and there were smaller diamonds inlaid in the setting and band. He couldn't explain it, but somehow this ring seemed to be screaming Maeve's name.

He stared at it for a while before he saw a saleswoman with long, straight, brown hair, and large, stormy gray eyes, walk by.

"Excuse me…what is this ring called?" he asked.

"Oh that one, that one is called Ever Blooming Love…" she replied.

Even the ring's title was perfect.

"Would you like me to take it out of the case so you can have a closer look?" She asked.

It was all he could do to nod.

She walked behind the glass case and took out the ring. Reid picked it up in the little ring box and examined it more closely.

"Wow…it was nice in the case, but it's even more beautiful up close…"

"Yes it is, unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you want to look at it, this design is being phased out, no more will be made and or ordered outside of the custom market, on the bright side though, that also means that all the ones we have left are half price… so if you're interested, now is the time…"

"I'll take it…" He said.

"Ok Sir, that'll come to four-thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars…"

Darn it… that's more than I brought with me… he thought to himself, he didn't use a credit card, ever. He didn't even have one, and he had his wallet with him of course, but he'd left his checkbook back at his apartment. Clearly this whole thing had his thinking more muddled than he'd thought. Normally he would've done his research and estimated a fairly accurate ballpark of how much this was going to cost.

"Um…how long can you hold it for…?"

"We can hold it up to a week…."

"I'll be back within the hour…" he said flatly, then without another word, he scurried out of the store and caught a cab to the bank. Once there he withdrew four grand from a special account he'd been squirreling away money into for the past year, his "propose to the girl of my dreams fund" as he secretly called it.

Then he got into another cab and rushed back to the jewelry store to buy the ring.

"Would you like this is white gold, yellow gold, rose gold, or silver?"

"It-it's perfect just the way it is…" he said, the gravity of what he was about to do putting him more and more on edge with every second that ticked by.

"You have good taste, whoever this ring his meant for… she's a lucky woman…"

Reid smiled and placed the ring box carefully in the inside breast pocket of the jacket he was wearing before turning to leave.

When he got home he grabbed the first book Maeve had given him, The Narrative of John Smith off his giant bookshelf. Inside of it, he'd hidden a checklist for his plans to propose to Maeve. He had the ring, now he just needed to find the best spot in all of DC at which to present her with it…