"Surprise!" Gabriel greets her and throws his arms around her.
She's so stunned and grateful and relieved and annoyed and she hates him so much right now for making her so frightened—that Claire crumbles from all her myriad emotions. She starts crying.
She doesn't notice the exquisite candle-lit dinner set up before them, or the string quartet in the corner, or the petals of red and white roses on the floor leading from the door to her chair by the dining table. All of that is lost on her, as she whimpers like a baby in Gabriel's arms.
"Please don't frighten me like this again," she mutters. "I won't be able stand it. If something actually happens to you, for real, I don't know how I'd live through that."
Gabriel hugs her even tighter. "It's a prank, Claire!" He had been laughing but now that Claire's crying seriously, he realizes he must have done it overboard. So he whispers, "I'm sorry. But I just wanted to surprise you."
"I'm sorry too," she says.
"For what?"
