“Felicity was with Arthur. What in the name of God was she doing with him? Doesn’t she realize that he’s flighty? I’m willing to bet that he only thinks that he fancies her…Who am I to blame Felicity though? I mean, what would she ever see in me? As she said herself, I’m only a 'dirt-covered boy that lives in an old lighthouse.'”
Gus felt as if he were the loneliest person in the world. He walked over to his fishing boots, picked them up gingerly, and set them on his worktable. He stared at them long enough to think to himself:
“She said that all I would ever own were my fishing boots. Why did Felicity have to say that? Didn’t she know that those words felt like a thousand knives driving into my body? It was so cruel and mean… I must have completely driven her to it. Felicity wouldn’t have said it if I hadn’t bothered her.” Out loud he murmured, “Hmm…fishing boots. That’s all you do have.”
At that moment, Gus lunged at the boots and knocked them off the table. All of his longing and love for Felicity had rushed up and flooded him. Never before had he felt so lonely. The only love Gus had known, while he was growing up, was that of Captain Crane. Gus felt like he was losing his chance at love and his soul mate. He knew that he and Felicity were bound together, but that he was losing her.
“I’m not like Arthur Pettibone,” he thought. “I wish I was, but I’m not. I may not be romantic, and have a lot to offer a girl like Felicity, but I can and WILL love her. I’ll love her like the sea loves the sand, like the waves love the rocks, and like the moon loves the stars. I will love Felicity like she deserves to be loved…completely.”
Gus knew that he all he had to offer Felicity was his unending love. He glanced down and saw his ruby ring sparkling gaily in the candlelight. It seemed like the sign he had been searching for. “It’s not all I have Felicity,” he said determinedly. Gus then set out to ask Felicity for her hand in marriage…