"Yes. I guess. I don't know anyone up there. It's my first day."

At that moment the door opened to his floor, but instead of getting out, Ryan smiled and waited for the doors to close. "She's great. I'll introduce you."

We went up the additional five floors and into the layout department, where I met Amanda, a beautiful twentysomething woman who smiled quickly when she saw Ryan. I was about to be jealous until I saw a framed photo of Amanda and a GQ-looking man displayed on her desk. Ryan left me in her care with a wink and a softly spoken good-bye.

"I'll see you around."

When? I wanted to ask, but instead I muttered, "Sure."

From that day on he pursued me relentlessly. He called me his girlfriend on our third date, said "I love you" by the fifth, brought up the subject of marriage long before I'd even thought of him as marriage material, and proposed six months ago without so much as a hint from me.

All along I felt slightly undeserving, as if I'd won a twenty-million-dollar lottery on the only ticket I'd ever bought. But Ryan had always seemed so sure. Of me. Of us. Of everything.

But last night when he came over, he didn't seem sure of anything. He didn't really kiss me when he walked in the door, just grazed my lips absentmindedly. He walked around the place as if he had been invited for the first time, unsure of where to go.

"You're almost completely packed," he kept saying.

"We're moving into the new place soon," I reminded him.

He nodded, lightly touched a few of the boxes, and did everything to avoid my eyes. It was clear there was more than the new apartment on his mind. Not that he was talking.

So I talked. "I picked up the invitations," I said. "And I was thinking that we could spend Saturday addressing envelopes and have Sunday to do something non-wedding-related."

He nodded again. Lately he seemed to zone out every time I mentioned the wedding. "Typical cold feet" was what everyone told me. And I guessed that was true, except… it kept nagging at me. Something was different, more polite, more formal. But I couldn't bring myself to ask him, and he didn't seem willing to tell me. So I ignored it the best I could and kept talking.