The drive to the airport was only a few hours, and Nick and Sarah, having shipped a whole bunch of their accumulated treasures back home, were looking forward to spending a long weekend attending a wedding, seeing friends, and looking at engagement rings in Portland, Maine.  They were both a little road-weary and happy for the break.

As Sarah snuggled into her coach seat and cranked up the air flow into her face, she told Nick: "I don`t think an airplane seat has ever been so comfortable."

"Agreed," Nick said, letting her rest her head on his shoulder.  The two of them slept until they reached Portland.

"Who`s picking us up?" Nick asked as they walked toward baggage claim.

"MY BABY!" That was all the answer Nick needed.  Sarah`s Mom stood in the small airport, arms open, causing other travelers to have to walk around her.  Sarah didn`t seem to notice as she dropped her bag and ran into her mother`s hug.

Nick dragged both his bag and Sarah`s the short distance to where she and her Mom stood, crying and hugging.  When they let go, Sarah`s mom gave Nick a hug, too, and they walked toward baggage claim.  Sarah`s Mom had come up a few days earlier to see some friends, since they had a summer house on Sebago Lake since Sarah was little and knew a lot of people around Portland.

As they drove to the house, Sarah was on the phone, gathering a group of old friends to go out.  She was looking forward to visiting her old summer haunts, maybe taking in a Portland SeaDogs game or two, and seeing her summer friends.  Some of them had already met Nick, and the ones who hadn`t were anxious to be judgmental.

First, it was dinner on the lake with the parents.  A lobster-bake had been prepared in honor of their arrival.  Sarah`s Dad was outside, tending to the fire when they got there.  He jogged over to the car as it came to a stop.  Sarah jumped out and hugged him.  Nick got a firm handshake and a thinly-masked look of disapproval.  It wasn`t that Nick wasn`t a great guy.  It was that no one would ever be good enough for Daddy`s Little Girl.

Sarah taught Nick how to dig the foil-wrapped potatoes out of the coals and they sat down for lobsters, steamers, corn, potatoes, and cole slaw.  Dessert was to be Aunt Mary`s famous brownies.  They chose to eat those in the house, as they were being eaten alive by mosquitoes sitting outside at dusk. 

"Have you tried those citronella candles?" Nick asked.

Sarah and her Mom and Dad all exchanged looks and grins.

"Yeah," Sarah said.  "Those don`t work on Maine mosquitoes."

After digesting and showering, Nick and Sarah took their Mom`s Land Rover into Portland.  They planned to stay in Laura`s guest room, as they knew they would be drinking that night.  After parking near her apartment, they walked into the Old Port to see how it had changed. 

Walking down Exchange Street, Sarah was in shock.

"Half of this stuff didn`t used to be here," she told Nick.  "And since when is there a Starbucks on every corner?"

"Is there a city without a Starbucks on every corner?" Nick asked.  They walked into the one on Middle Street to get themselves rocket fuel for the night ahead.  Then they crossed the street to sit down in a small park.

"This was a parking lot," Sarah told him.  "And I think it`s great that they`re trying to make the city more family-friendly, or whatever, but parking around here is a nightmare."

Most of the shops were getting ready to close, but they caught Amaryllis, at 41 Exchange Street, Portland, Maine 04101, still open.  The clothes there varied from the comfy and practical to the dressy and crazy-expensive.  Sarah tried on a few dresses, but didn`t want to have to carry anything with her all night, so she bought a pair of funky earrings to go with her jeans and Sugar Daddy top.  She knew she`d be the only one in Portland wearing the obscure designer. 

After making their way past shops she had never seen, and noticing the absence of a few she used to know, they turned the corner to meet up with friends at the bar that had been `their place` since before they were legal.  Of course, it had different owners then.  Now, the owners were friends who had started as bartenders and eventually bought the place. 

Fore Play Sports Pub was at 436 Fore Street, Portland, ME 04101.  It had a few names before that, and has always been the kind of place you tended to meet the kind of people you didn`t want to meet.  But it had great bartenders.  That, plus its proximity to an apartment where seven of Sarah`s friend lived one summer, made it their place.  When Bob bought it and turned it into a real sports bar, and the kind of place that trendier people would want to go, some of the group splintered off to other bars, but everyone knew where to find Sarah on summer nights during college.

When Nick and Sarah walked in, there was a rush of people.  It was difficult to tell at first, because the place was, as usual, packed, but Sarah spotted the freshly-blonde hair of Jessica over the crowd.  They were both blessed with enough height to find each other in crowds.  Then everyone came out of the woodwork.  Even friends who had gotten married or had children—or both—were there.  Sarah hadn`t been back in a while, not even after graduation, so it was a homecoming party.

Sarah and Jessica hugged.

"Remember when we didn`t need an excuse to party?" Sarah asked.

"I remember a lot of things that don`t exist anymore," Jessica responded.

Jessica, who had visited New York several times during college and while Nick and Sarah were in Grad School, hugged Nick.

"Is she driving you crazy yet?" Jessica asked.

Sarah poked her and gestured that she was going to the bar.  She reached over the bar to get a big hug from Dan, who everyone thought she`d end up married to someday.  Until she met Nick. 

"Doctor`s?" He asked.

"Two," she told him, and then counted her friends.  "Make that six, and two shots of tequila."

Everyone gathered around and took their shots.  Then Nick and Sarah got to tell their stories about their travels over and over while drinking 420 IPA from StoneCoast Brewery.  Every few minutes, someone else would come over to get a hug and say hello.  The drinks kept coming and Sarah didn`t remember paying for any of them, and she didn`t see Nick reaching for his wallet, either.

Making her way to the bar to see Dan, Sarah was surrounded by white baseball caps and Red Sox t-shirts.  After she finally fought her way through the crowd, she waited for Dan to have a second on a packed weekend night.  He jumped over to her and hugged her again.

"They`re getting younger again," Sarah said to him.

"No," Dan told her, "we`re getting older."

"Like hell," Sarah responded.  Then, knowing he was busy, she pushed her way back to her other friends. 

"Sarah!" She heard, and turned to see Dan, who had turned down the music so she could hear him.  He was holding up a jell-o shot and grinning.  He moved to throw it to her.  She reached up and caught a perfect throw, right into her hand. 

"Johan Santana couldn`t have thrown it better," she yelled back to her favorite New York Mets fan.  Then, continuing her role as catcher, held up 7 fingers, indicating the number of jell-o shots she needed for the rest of the group.  She caught each perfectly-thrown little plastic container.

They finally went back in a group to Laura`s after a trip to pick up some late-night snacks.  Finally, at about 4am, after drinking a few liters of water, Sarah was ready for bed.  Jessica climbed into bed with Nick and Sarah and they all fell asleep.  Nick was used to this.  Jessica was not a couch-sleeper and they always slept in the same bed when they visited each other.  Whoever lived in the apartment got the outside.  Since they were at Laura`s and were ready to fight for it, Nick got it instead. 

In the late morning, they got up, showered, and went out for coffee and some ring shopping. 

"This is dangerous in this town, looking at engagement rings," Sarah told Nick.

"Why?" He asked.

"Because people know me here," she said.  "It`ll be all over town in days."

"Nah," Nick said.  "It isn`t like you lived here year-round.  Besides, who do you know working in a jewelry store?"

"Just wait," she told him.  "Just you wait and see."

After getting quad lattes at Starbucks, they walked around Commercial Street for a while.  It was quiet still, but tourists made for more traffic than a normal weekend morning in, say, January.  Most of the activity was with the fishing boats, bringing in their fresh Maine lobsters and steamers and clams and whatever else.  Having friends in the lobster business had always been great, so Sarah never had to pay market price.  She was always entertained when she saw a Maine lobster on the menu in New York, or California, or Minnesota, and it was around 40 dollars for the lobster and a few side dishes. 

Then they walked up to one of Portland`s best-known jewelers and walked inside.  They looked around for a few minutes after being greeted by one of the employees, who gestured for them to look around while she appeared to be organizing a display.  The store had all kinds of pieces that were, clearly, designed either by people from Maine, or by someone from away who designed them for people from Maine.  There were gold scallop shells on chains, platinum mussel shells on a charm bracelet, and various pieces named after places in the state.  Sarah found it all charming, if not a little hokey.  Then she looked up at the woman working, who smiled and walked over to them.

"How can I help you?" She asked.

Reaching out his hand, Nick told her, "We`re looking for an engagement ring."

The woman, whose name tag said "Kelly", appeared to be in her mid-30s, and Sarah had never met her before.  She shook hands with both Nick and Sarah, and asked if they were looking for anything in particular. 

"Something pretty simple," Sarah told her.  "But still cool.  And I have something that is kinda weird but bugs me about a lot of rings."

"What`s that?" Kelly asked.

"I have a habit of putting things down and not remembering to pick them up," Sarah said.  "I would hate it if I was playing tennis or rock-climbing or swimming and I took the ring off and forgot it."

"So the easiest solution, we think," Nick piped in, "is to try to find a ring with a very, very steadily-set diamond.  I know prongs are strong and all that, but they have to be able to withstand on of this girl`s workouts."  He put his arm around Sarah and kissed her on the side of the head.

"We have some great rings that will withstand just about anything," Kelly told them.  "They are a series of bezel-set rings in all different styles."  She went on as she led them to a particular display case.

She took out several styles for Nick and Sarah to look at.  Sarah found one that she liked a lot.

"But with this setting," Sarah asked, "Am I not limited in what size diamond I can have?"

"In that style, yes," Kelly told her.  "That ring can accommodate up to 1 full carat."  She reached in and took out a few other styles, explaining, "It depends on the ring.  Diamonds that are completely encased in the design of the ring have limitations.  Some of the more open styles can go up to 2 carats and beyond."

Sarah tried on a few styles, admitting, "I never really looked at bezel-set rings before.  It makes so much sense."

Kelly smiled.  "The setting has been around for a long, long time.  Women have just realized that it is more practical if you have an active lifestyle."

Sarah looked at Nick.  "That`s pretty cool," she told him.

"It is," he agreed.

"We need to think about it," Sarah told Kelly, reaching out her hand to shake it, "but I have something totally new to consider.  Awesome."

Without giving Kelly a chance to try and close the sale, Nick and Sarah left.  They drove back to the lake to spend the day waterskiing and swimming with Sarah`s parents.  After a great afternoon on the lake and a big nap, Sarah told Nick to put on something "Maine nice".

"What does that mean?" Nick asked her.

"It can be jeans, but nothing torn.  And the shirt should have a collar, or at least not be a t-shirt."  She looked through his suitcase.  Holding up a lightweight light-blue v-neck sweater, she said, "Wear this."

"I won`t be hot?" Nick questioned.

"I wouldn`t worry about it," she said, smiling.

That night, Sarah`s parents took them to dinner at DiMillo`s Floating Restaurant at 25 Long Wharf, Portland, ME 04101.  They sat out on the deck, and were literally over the water.

"This is the only touristy thing we`ll do while we`re here," Sarah told him.

"I haven`t been here in ages," Sarah`s mom said.

"That`s because it`s all tourists," Sarah said.  "Listen for accents."

Her mom and dad both nodded in agreement. 

"Can`t complain about the food, though," Sarah said as she bit into a delicious, hot, crispy fried clam. 

They ate in silence for a while, then Sarah`s father cleared his throat.

"About this wedding tomorrow," he said. 

Sarah and her mom winced.

"Are we all going together," he asked Sarah, "or will we meet you there?"

"We`ll go together," Sarah said.  "I promised Mom."

Neither of them particularly liked Sarah`s cousin, who was getting married in an over-the-top wedding at an exclusive country club on the water.  As a matter of fact, they found her to be downright unpleasant. 

"I can`t decide," Sarah`s mom said, "if it`s a good thing or a bad thing that Meg found someone equally rude to marry."

"As long as we stick together, we`ll be fine," Sarah reassured her.  "And we can hang out with Grandma and Grandpa.  Meg wouldn`t dare pull out her attitude in front of Grandpa."

Nick spoke up.  "Aren`t weddings supposed to be fun?"

Sarah, her mom and her dad all smiled little knowing, conspiratorial grins.

"You`ll see," Sarah`s dad said, "when we get there."

Nick raised his eyebrows.

"On the upside," he went on, "there will be an open bar."

Sarah leaned over and kissed Nick on the cheek.

"And someday, babe," she told him, "we will have a raucously fun wedding."

Everyone at the table smiled.  Faith restored.

The next day, as they were getting into their wedding finery, Sarah`s cell phone rang.  Sarah looked at the caller ID and picked it up.

"What`s up, Jess?" She asked.  She listened for a second.  Then she said, "Hold on," and put the phone on speaker.

"I didn`t hear you," Sarah said.  "Can you repeat that?"

Through the speaker phone, Nick heard Jessica yelling, "You`re getting engaged NOW?"

Turning off the speaker phone, she reassured Jessica that it was research and she would call after her cousin`s wedding. 

Sarah looked at Nick and told him, "I SO should have put money on this."