There was a glitch in the automatic translator, but I didn’t realize until it was too late.

I got down on one knee, held up the opal engagement ring I’d been carrying around for weeks, and watched her face freeze halfway between shock and joy, the dimple in her cheek hesitant, her lips quivering with one word. I dropped my eyes to the floor, and out of my lips stumbled the carefully prepared speech, mangled beyond recognition.

Silence. Deafening silence.

When I looked up she was already gone.

Cross posted from Six Sentences.