“Dinner,” he said with a nonchalant shrug. I would’ve worried about how quiet he was being, but the way his lips kept tilting up eased the awkwardness. “I already know you don’t like eggs . . . but is there anything else I should know about?”
I shook my head slowly as I thought about it. “No,” I said, drawing out the word. “I don’t think so. Why, are we going somewhere with weird food? I’ve never had sushi, so I can’t really tell you if I’ll like it.”
He huffed. “We’re not going to get sushi.”
“Okay, well then, I’m sure whatever it is will be—oh how cute,” I whispered as we exited the building, only to see a horse-drawn carriage out front. I turned to walk toward the parking lot, but stumbled awkwardly when Collin led me toward the carriage instead. “What are you doing?”
Collin glanced at the carriage, then back to me. Suddenly his sheepish smile from inside the building made sense. “I thought we’d go to dinner like this.”
“In a carriage?” I asked in awe.
“Why not?” he asked with another shrug.
“Oh, right, because everyone does this,” I mumbled to myself as he helped me into the carriage, and ignored his laughing. “Okay, this is actually pretty amazing,” I admitted a couple of minutes into the ride.
“I’m glad you think so,” he said distractedly as he reached under the bench for something. He stopped to give me a quick smile, but then went back to looking for whatever he must have dropped. “This is for you,” he said when he found what he’d been looking for.
My eyes widened, and I blinked a few times when I looked at the deep red, rectangular box in his hand. There was a gold design around the edges of the box, and it looked beautiful—but I had a feeling the box wasn’t what he was giving me.
“Uh,” I breathed, and took the box from his hand. “Thank you?”
I opened the lid of the box, and my eyes widened further when I saw the beautiful bracelet inside. Small, double chains attached to a white gold circle pendant with the word LOVE engraved on the top and bottom. Wait, is that a diamond as one of the O’s? My mouth popped open and a puff of air left my lungs when I looked up. On the black underside of the lid, etched in gold, read Cartier.
I snapped the lid shut and looked at Collin. “This better be a joke; please tell me this is a joke.”
His brow furrowed, and he gave me a look like he thought I was being adorably stupid. “Why would it be a joke?”
“Is it real?”
“Of course it is. Do you like it?”
“Like it? Collin, it says ‘Cartier’ on the box.” I half-whispered so the driver of the carriage wouldn’t hear me. When Collin’s expression showed his confusion, I continued: “We’ve only been dating for a few weeks—”
“Technically tonight’s a month,” he corrected, but I didn’t stop talking.
“—you are not supposed to give me these things! What if I never go on another date with you after tonight?”
“Do you plan on this being our last date?” he asked, and raised an eyebrow.
“Well, no, I haven’t really been thinking that far ahead. I’ve just been taking it one day at a time. It’s not like I planned on marrying you tonight, though!”
He laughed, again like he thought I was being adorably stupid. “It’s a bracelet, Harlow, not an engagement ring.” Taking the box from my hand, he opened it up and took the bracelet from it. “A simple ‘thank you’ would’ve been fine,” he teased. “Can I put it on you?”
I looked at him blankly, but still held out my wrist. “Whatever happened to flowers?”
“Do you like flowers?”
“What girl doesn’t like flowers?”
“So that’s a yes?” he asked, his voice bordering on a tease.
“Of course—well, no, I mean I do. I just don’t like roses.”
Collin nodded, and bit back a smile. “All right. No roses.”
I held up my arm to look at the bracelet, then dropped it back to my lap and let my eyes close. After taking a deep breath, I opened them and looked at Collin. “Can you please just tell me it’s fake so I’ll feel better about taking this from you?”
“No.”
“Who are you that you do this after only a month of dating? Are you secretly a prince or something?”
His next laugh was louder, freer, and I found myself smiling at the sound of it.
“As far as I know, my family just comes from old money.”
I sat back in the carriage and slowly exhaled. I didn’t know what to say or how to respond. “All of this—it’s so much. Too much . . . it’s crazy.”
Collin looked at the horse and driver, then down to the red box in his hand. Again he shrugged. “Maybe one day it won’t seem like that to you.”