Surprisingly, Daniel doesn't flinch. He does, however, exhale a breath of a laugh as Merritt steps back, the sound entirely humorless. "Funny, I thought you knew me."

And how much of a fuck up he can be.

A long pause follows, and then slowly, candidly, Daniel admits, "You know, I've been sitting on this for awhile, now. I kind of -- I bought the ring on a whim." A beat. "Well, sort of. What qualifies as a whim for me, anyway." He put a lot of thought into the perfect ring, but actually committing to looking in the first place? That was the impulse decision. "Anyway, I just -- I thought that this might be the right time. I mean, this is how normal people do things, right? Ring in the champagne at a quiet restaurant while you're on vacation a world away?"