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Then I left to go pick up Mom, while Ava and Mason held down the fort at the bar, closing it up and only inviting select guests in. It was essentially a private party, but the guests that were being brought in were a ruse. We didn’t want her to figure it out when she first walked in. There had to be people at the bar and in the booths. Thankfully, Jordan was in charge of choosing the guests and made sure none of the really terrible singers were going to be there.
When I got to the bar, her parents were already there, hiding in a booth that wasn’t easily seen when a person walks in the door. The kitchen was chock-full of surprise decorations and a ton of cupcakes that were ordered from a local patisserie, each decorated with our initials and the date. We had a singer ready to go to play an eighties song that was close to both of us, and when Nick’s car pulled up, Jordan pulled up the song and they started to sing. I hung out behind a table near the karaoke stage and waited as she walked in. She smiled when she heard the song and followed Nick to the bar, where Ava began talking to them.
A couple of minutes later, and I was sweating as the song wound down. This was it. I could see her parents across from me, but Becca hadn’t seen them yet. Just before I stood up, I pointed to them, and they made their way to the bar. I watched as Becca saw them coming and got the adorably confused look on her face that I enjoyed seeing on her from time to time. Then, Melissa joined her from behind, and it began to dawn on her that something was happening.
At that moment, I stood, walking over to the microphone, and looked out over the bar at her. Our eyes met, and her shocked face was frozen in place. I smiled.
“Life is a series of moments,” I said. “Some planned, some not. Some that happen purely by chance, completely random. Some happen as if by plan, carefully constructed years before and methodically enacted step by step. There are theories that the time as we know it isn’t linear, that it isn’t one straight line. That there are a million universes with a million timelines and a million different ways each scenario could go, and then they branch off and off and off, creating realities of their own.
“But I know this. In every single one of those realities, there exists love, a love defined not by the happenstance, the randomness of life. But love, designed, planned, and constructed for people to experience together, step by step. In every one of each reality that could exist, I know for a fact that I love you, Becca Watson. I love you with every inch of every version of me that could exist in every multiverse, and I know we were meant to be together.
“Every time we bumped into each other, it was fate, pushing us together. Every time life gave us a hard time, it was preparing us. Every time you and I saw each other from across the room, and I felt that tug in my soul, that was fate, screaming your name into my heart.”
I had walked the length of the bar, silently thanking Jordan for insisting on using wireless mics, and was just a few feet away from the stunned and teary Becca. She sat in the stool, surrounded by her family and friends, and in front of them, I knelt to one knee. She gasped, and the crowd around her made a sound of excitement, of anticipation.
“Oh my God,” Becca sputtered. “Oh my God, oh my God.” Tears were streaming down her cheeks, but for once I was happy to see them. These were tears of joy. Tears of love.
“I don’t want you to forget the experiences you had before. I don’t want you to ignore them, or pretend they never happened. Because without them, you wouldn’t be here. They were hard, and they were terrible, but they were fate, and fate brought you to me when you were ready. Now I want to make sure that you know that you will never hurt like that again. I promise you that I will want you forever and ever. Every morning that I wake up, I will choose you. I have had a crush on you since we were young, Becca, and I will have that crush on you for the rest of my life, even if you give me the highest honor I could ever receive and be my wife. Becca Watson, will you marry me?”
There was only a moment of hushed silence, of held breath as I opened the ring box and held it toward her. Then, without words, she began to nod, her lips spreading a smile bigger than any I had ever seen, and the tears falling into the corners of it. Her mouth moved to speak, but the voice took a long time coming out.
