I’m not getting it out of him no matter how hard I try. I know he won’t give anything away until he’s good and ready, so I’m stuck sitting here in my awkward limbo until he does. Stuck here, wondering, waiting, what-iffing.
Our plates are cleared away and replaced with our main course. Again, it’s eaten in silence, our eyes flitting from our plates to each other’s. The only difference is that there’s a zinging of tension, one tight enough to cut, and I swallow hard. My fork clatters as I put it against my plate and look at him firmly.
“Do you want dessert?” he asks innocently, his steady voice betraying the tightness between us.
“No. I want to know what this is.”
“This? It’s dinner in the Eiffel Tower, sweetheart.”
“No. What is it? Why are you doing it?”
Aaron waves his hand and the server reappears and removes our plates a second time. I chew the inside of my lip, keeping our gazes connected, and wait for him to speak.
“Can’t I take you to dinner and just have it be dinner?” he questions, resting his forearms on the table and leaning forward.
“Of course you can, baby. Just not in the place you told me you loved me for the first time.”
“You remember that.”
“I never forgot. I didn’t forget anything. I just chose not to remember it the way you did. Now I know something is up, so don’t sit in front of me and tell me it isn’t.”
His lips quirk, teasing into an amused grin. “Don’t freak.”
“I don’t freak.”
His eyebrows twitch, the amusement in his eyes evident, and he reaches into his pocket. My heart stops at the small box he places on the table, and I can’t breathe as he slides it across to me.
“What. Is. That?”
“Open it.”
I know what it is. I think. You don’t book the most exclusive restaurant in Paris to give someone a pair of f**king earrings.
What is happening?
I take the box with a shaky hand and open it. A glittering ring stares back at me, a simple design, classy and elegant, and I look up at him. To the ring. To him. To the ring. To him.
“It’s not what you think,” he says slowly, his lips curved even through his words. “So you can breathe, Dayton.”
I laugh awkwardly. “Um, if it’s not what it looks like, then what is it?”
He reaches across the table and takes my hand in his, kissing my fingers. “It’s a promise ring. Not an engagement ring. I’m promising you that one day, when you’re ready, I’ll ask you. This is me promising you that I’ll be yours without you having to voice the same commitment, despite its truth.”
A lump forms in the bottom of my throat, and I blink harshly as I swallow it down. A promise ring? Like…
“Oh hell no, Aaron Stone.” I take my hand back and shut the top of the box. “If you’re going to promise me you’ll be mine for the rest of my life, you’re gonna do it properly or not at all.”
I shoot the box across the table and fold my arms across my chest. A promise ring indeed. What the hell is—
What the hell is he doing sliding off his chair and bending in front of me? On one knee?
“I was hoping you’d say that,” he murmurs, “so I came prepared.”
Oh shit. Oh shit oh shit oh shit.
He pulls a second box from his jacket and leaves it closed as he stares up at me from his position on the floor. My mouth opens and closes again. It does this a few times as this crazy moment hovers between us.
“Seven years ago, you exploded into my life in this crazy burst of color that made me blind to everything else. When you left, you took it with you, leaving me in an ugly world of black and white. Then, four months ago, you did it again.
“When you walked into that booth in a crazy twist of fate, Dayton, I realized that nothing would ever be the same again. I realized that, this time, I had to keep you and not let you take that color I was, and am, so incredibly in love with.
“I know it didn’t work that way. We’ve both made mistakes, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is that we’re here, right now, and we have the rest of our lives to be together. What matters is that I’m never letting you go again. I’m never even giving you the chance to leave.
“And since you refuse to accept one promise without the other, I’m asking you to promise me the same thing. That you’ll be there every morning and every night. That your voice will be the first and last thing I hear every day, that your touch will be the one to calm me when I’m angry, that your lips will be the ones I get to kiss whenever the urge takes me.”
He pauses, and forever could pass in this moment and I wouldn’t know. All I know is that I can’t look away from this man in front of me as he bears his soul to me and asks me for the one thing I never imagined I’d be able to give.
He slowly opens the box, revealing the most beautiful princess-cut ring I’ve ever seen in my life. The diamond glitters up at me, beckoning me, promising me the future.
“So whenever you’re ready, Dayton Lauren Black, will you marry me?”
Epilogue
Four Months Later
“No, no, no!” I drop my forehead to the table. “Why is this so hard for them to get right? Champagne and ivory are not the same color. The seat sashes are supposed to be champagne, not f**king ivory!”
Liv pats my shoulder. “There, there, Bridezilla. You have three months still to chew their asses out until they get it right.”
“Liv, with the amount Aaron is paying them to get it right, I shouldn’t have to be chewing asses.” I sigh and straighten again. “This is crazy. Why can’t we just elope in some tropical country and get married without all this fancy crap?”
My best friend laughs and shuts the laptop down. “Okay, babe. Let’s get you a drink. You and I both know you wouldn’t want to have this any other way.”
“I know. I just… It’s three months away and already I’m being bogged down by shit. Why can’t these people just get things right?”
Two glasses of wine appear on the table between us. “Listen to me, Dayton. You will get this fixed. Has Aaron chosen his best man yet?”
“Yes. He had him picked three months ago. He just got his ass in gear and asked him.”
Finally. He can’t even use the whole face-to-face excuse because Tyler moved to Seattle a month after Aaron popped the question. No, he’s just been lazy about it.