Another Day in Paradise

The 54th story in the Falling Into College series by Richard Lobinske. The story occurs during late November, 2001.

Summary
The Monday after Thanksgiving, Michael prepares for school and work. Determined to ask Daria to marry him, takes the engagment ring with him, since it’s been two years since she first said yes to going out with him. At school, he is teased about the weekend by three fellow history students, Clarice, Shaun and Jack. He excuses himself and calls Daria, who tells him that her car is in the shop, that she’s running late for a student teaching session and can’t meet him for lunch. After a meeting with his advisor, Prof. Mahanoor, Michael makes a side trip to Engineering to talk with his second-year roommate, Todd. Todd is impressed that Michael is finally ready and teases him about how poorly he hid looking at the ring. After lunch, Michael goes to work and while putting things away with a coworker, Nguyen, he discovers that the ring is no longer in his pocket. After a frantic search, they discover that their boss found it in a supply closet, where Michael had taken it out to get to a hard to reach fixture. After the assembled staff decide that they should throw a wedding shower, he finally manages to leave to pick up Daria from work. She’s had a horrible day and is in a bad mood, which spills over through the night.