Free The Summer of Good Intentions by Wendy Francis Page B

called Downtown Crossing that had once housed places where a person had to ring a buzzer to gain entrance to a vaulted store at the top of the stairs. There, a helpful but aloof salesman waited, as if the purchase of a diamond that day made little difference to him.
    Arthur remembered the day like it was yesterday. It was a December afternoon, and a light snow fell on the Boston Common while he and Gloria idled along, admiring the Christmas lights that were draped like colorful scarves across the trees. They held hands, Gloria’s snug in her mittens, hand-knitted blue things with little strings attached at the ends. He’d teased her that they were like a schoolgirl’s, until she told him that her mother had given them to her last Christmas and that he’d better be quiet if he knew what was good for him. He’d always liked that about her. She could give him a hard time and he’d just love her more. Their futures were ripe with possibility then. Arthur planned to finish grad school and then teach American literature. Gloria couldn’t wait to have children. They debated how many children were enough. How many were too many? They agreed that three seemed the perfect number.
    When they turned down Washington Street, the dancing Christmas Bears in the Jordan Marsh window greeted them. They pointed out sweaters and hats that might make good gifts for friends. When they crossed the street to the jewelers’ side, Arthur suggested they climb the stairs to the diamond shop to look at rings “just for the hell of it.” He was trying to act glib, but he was as nervous as a kid suited up for his first football game. Arthur knew his soon-to-be fiancée well enough to understand that the only ring that would suit her finger would be one that she’d have a say in.
    In truth, he was itching to propose. There was no other girl for him. They giggled when the buzzer let them in and a pale salesman welcomed them at the top of the stairs only to point them through another locked door. Arthur joked it was like entering a jail cell, but Gloria shushed him. “Oh, come on,” she said. “Marriage isn’t that bad, Arthur, is it?” And she squeezed his hand before they crossed into a room that quite literally sparkled with diamonds.
    As soon as she saw it, Gloria knew the exact ring she wanted: a bright, twinkling diamond, nearly translucent with dazzling blue sapphires on either side, sitting in a gold band. Arthur had to hand it to her. The ring was exquisite.
    â€œThat’s the best of the bunch, no question,” he agreed. “Here, try it on for fun, why don’t you?” he said, ignoring the annoyed look of the salesclerk behind the counter, who had to unlock the case to reach the ring. But he did so, if a bit grudgingly. Did the man really think he was bluffing here? Arthur wondered.
    When she slipped the ring on, small Oh! s escaped from them both. Not only because it dazzled so elegantly on her slim finger but also, Arthur suspected, because of all that it suggested. A life for two people, for them, forever. Arthur grew light-headed and went to grab a seat. The jeweler, suddenly kind, fetched him a glass of water and joked that it happened all the time. Grooms got sticker shock while the women started planning the wedding in their heads.
    When they left the store, Gloria teased him that if they ever did get married, Arthur would need a stiff drink before heading into the chapel. But she didn’t understand. For Arthur, it was exactly the opposite. It wasn’t that he was getting cold feet or felt sick about paying such a princely sum for a ring. Rather, a vision of him with Gloria, her long blond hair tied up in a loose bun, holding hands in a row with their children—and this he had envisioned quite clearly, though Gloria would never believe it—three girls, twins and a younger daughter, swept across his field of vision.
    And he was floored. Floored by