“Do you want to tell me why we had to come all the way into Atlanta? I figured we could just stay home tonight?”
I smiled and shook my head.
“Nope. As much as I love sharing our nights with Asher, I needed some time alone with my girl.”
She smiled and took my hand as we walked into the restaurant.
We continued to make small talk and just enjoy each other. These were the times I cherished the most. For so long, we didn’t have this, the connection and companionship. The all-consuming love was always there, but now that it’s recognized and returned, just being with her made all the stress and worry from work fall from my shoulders.
After paying the check, she smiled and took a bite of her chocolate cake, making me smile when I thought back to the early days that we knew each other, and her ridiculous theory that chocolate was better than sex.
“I love you, you know that?”
She looked up from her plate and smiled.
“Yeah, I know that. And I love you.”
Before she could take another bite, I took her fork from her hand and moved her plate out of the way, placing the box I’d had tucked into my jacket in its place.
“What’s this? I didn’t forget something, did I?” God, she was adorable when she crinkled her brows in confusion.
“Nope, you didn’t forget anything. I picked this up about two weeks ago when Izzy came to the office.”
Her confusion grew and I reached forward to rub my finger over the wrinkles between her brows.
She opened the long box, and I saw a smile form and the confusion vanished. “How did you know I wanted one of these?” She pulled the necklace out of the box and took a second to take it all in.
Izzy had come into the office almost a month ago, selling some silly locket things. She kept calling them living lockets or some weird shit like that, but when I started looking through it all, the idea popped in my head and I couldn’t resist. It was just pure luck that Dee mentioned wanting one of these Origami Owl things.
I watched her face taking in all the charms that I ordered to go inside the locket. She moved the little key attachment I included and looked deeply at the locket. I sat back and ran the checklist over in my mind. The key attached to the necklace was to symbolize her holding the key to my heart, yeah about as corny as it got, but it’s the truth. There were the two word charms: faith and love, which she shouldn’t need any help figuring out. Then the house charm that represented her making her home with me. The high heel shoe because… well, it’s Dee. My smile grew when I thought about the chocolate bar. I knew the exact moment when she hit the last charm in there, a little diamond ring. Her eyes shot up and locked with mine. I took note of her quivering lip and unshed tears before I stood up, and pushed my chair back, and knelt in front of her seat.
I gently tugged the necklace from her grip, brought it around her neck, and latched it. I ran my finger down the chain, around the locket, and flicked the key clipped to the top. When I looked up and met her eyes with a smile, she tried to return it. Pulling her left hand forward with one hand, I pushed the other into my pants pocket and brought the ring out. I’d been carrying this sucker around for the last six weeks, just waiting for the perfect time.
“Since the day I met you, I knew you would be someone worth fighting for. We’ve been through so much together, and it still feels like our love is brand new. There isn’t anything in this world that would make me happier than making you my wife. Dee, Baby, will you marry me?”
Her tears spilled over and her beautiful smile shone through. Her head nodded and through her soft hiccups I heard the best words in the world.
“God, yes!”
I slid the ring on her finger and stood up, pulling her from her chair at the same time, and took her lips in a bruising kiss.
With the other patrons clapping in the background, I kissed my girl, and showed her just how much I love her with one single kiss.
When we finally came up for air, I framed her face in my hands and swiped the tears away with my thumbs. She just stood there, smiling the smile that never failed to bring me to my knees. The smile that was gone for so long, but every day since it’d been back, I thanked my lucky stars.
She thinks I saved her but the truth is, she saved me.
Her love gave me a purpose, a reason, and the strength to stand by her side and fight any war that is thrown our way.
With a smile on my face, I make my way into the house that I share with the woman I love, with every intention of dragging her up to our room and making her mine. All. Night. Long.
~The End~