I secured my parachute and dropped to my knee next to the plane's open door, wind howling around us. She thought I'd dropped something, but I came up with a small, iconic box and she covered her mouth in surprise. The plane hit an air pocket just then. The box jumped from my hand to the floor, inches from the door and ten thousand feet from the earth. I snatched at it. Instead of capturing it, my nervous fingers knocked it out into the open sky.

That's when she surprised me by leaping out after it. I'm glad she was wearing her parachute already, 'cause otherwise I'd've panicked. I stood and looked out after her. My friend joined me.

"You think she'll catch it?" he shouted over the howl.

"Might," I said. "She's damn good in the air. But I hope not."

"What?" He looked at me sharply. "That's your engagement ring, man."

"No, this is." I pulled out the box I'd kept hidden. "I was gonna jump and make it look like I'd caught it mid-air. She kinda spoiled my plan."

"You know," I said, "that just makes her more awesome." I leapt from the plane after my wife-to-be.