With a huge smile on his face, Ben Affleck paused to kiss girlfriend Lindsay Shookus as they browsed the shelves at the Christian Louboutin boutique in LA’s Brentwood Country Mart on Jan. 5. He even helped her pick out three pairs of shoes, setting him back a cool $3,000.

Ben is a man in love. Just six months after he and the Saturday Night Live producer made their public debut as a couple, things have gotten so serious, Life & Style has exclusively learned, that they’re already talking marriage. “They can’t bear to be apart and spend every free moment they have together,” explains an insider.

Lindsay, 37, has even been wearing a beautiful sparkler — which looks an awful lot like an engagement ring — on her right hand in recent weeks, and the insider believes it’s a gift from Ben, 45. “He’s fallen hard,” the insider says. “It’s no surprise that they’re now taking their relationship to the next level.” And that means marriage, adds a source: “They both want to spend the rest of their lives together.”

But Lindsay won’t be switching that ring to her left hand just yet. The duo is waiting to officially get engaged until two obstacles to tying the knot are removed: their marriages to other people. Lindsay’s divorce from Late Night With Seth Meyers producer Kevin Miller, with whom she has a four-year-old daughter, hasn’t progressed since the initial September 2015 filing, according to court records.

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Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck in April 2017. (Photo Credit: Getty Images)

And Jennifer Garner, 45, filed for divorce from Ben nine months ago, but “it hasn’t been a straightforward procedure,” explains the insider. “They’ve spent months behind closed doors working out how to divide assets, finances and custody of their children [Violet, 12, Seraphina, 9, and Samuel, 5].”

Now, though, “they are getting close to finalizing things. Once their divorces are both out of the way, Ben plans to walk down the aisle with Lindsay.” Now they’re deciding where that aisle should be. In recent months, the couple have been spotted looking at properties near NYC’s Central Park, in LA’s Santa Monica Mountains and in the same Brentwood neighborhood Ben’s called home for years. “They’re house hunting for a love nest,” says the insider, and the source adds that they’re likely to wind up saying their “I do”s at their new home, in front of “just close friends and family.”

Still, they haven’t ruled out a more public wedding and have discussed exchanging vows in “a low-key beach ceremony,” the insider tells Life & Style. Despite the failure of his decade-long marriage to Jen, Ben’s convinced he’s ready for another big commitment. “He’s a huge romantic at heart and isn’t one to wait around when it comes to getting married,” says the insider. “Ben is the happiest he’s ever been. He knows Lindsay is ‘the one,’ and the feeling is mutual.”

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