She looked up at me, and managed a small whisper. “There are a lot of things that haven’t changed.”
“Well, there’s something thathaschanged, hopefully.” I held out my closed fist. There was still one more thing I had in my hand.
“What’s that?” Ash asked.
I climbed back into the warm bath and laid the small box on the lip of it. Ash looked at it curiously.
“What is it?” She reached for it and I stopped her, taking her hand in mine and then pulling her onto my lap. I took her face in my hands, locking eyes with her. Those eyes that I could fall into forever.
“Ash . . .” I started, and smiled at her. I wasn’t that nervous boy anymore, and this time I was going to do it properly. “I think you should marry me.”
Her face cracked into a smile. “You do, do you?”
“I seriously, seriously do. And . . .” I took her hand and looked down at the ring on it. “I want you to wear this forever, but with one change.” I looked over at the box on the lip of the bath. She followed my gaze and then climbed off my lap and moved towards it. “Turns out those aren’t real diamonds and I thought you deserved some.”
She opened the box and then burst out laughing.
“What?” I asked, very taken aback by her sudden outburst.
“Cheese!” She laughed even louder, but then quickly tried to cut it off. “Sorry, sorry, I don’t mean to laugh.” She continued to laugh, though. “It’s just . . . I had this thought a while ago that if ever anyone had to get me a personalized ring—” She burst out laughing again, unable to speak once more.
“This is not how I imagined this moment going.”
“Sorry, sorry.” She shook her head and took a deep breath. “I was thinking that I would want a yellow diamond cheese ring.” She laughed again.
“That’s not cheese. That’s a sunflower,” I said, and her laughter ground to an abrupt halt. She looked down at the diamonds that I’d bought. I hadn’t had time to have them set yet; I thought she could choose her setting anyway.
“A sunflower?” Her eyes filled with tears and I pulled her onto my lap again, taking her face in my hands.
“It’s always been you, Ash. Always. Will you marry me?” I asked the question that was thirteen years too late, but right on time.
A small tear escaped her eye and rolled down her cheek. I wiped it away quickly.
“It was always you too,” she said.
I pulled her in for a kiss. Long and slow.
“Is that a yes, then?” I whispered against her lips.
“Yes,” she said, and buried her face in my shoulder. We wrapped our arms round each other and held on, as if we had both just come home and were finally, after all these years, right in the place we were supposed to be.
“So . . .” I said into her neck, “shall I leave you for a moment so you can message your friends about this?”
She pulled away and looked at me indignantly. “What makes you think I want to message my friends?”
I rolled my eyes at her.
“I don’t, for the record, want to message them.”
“Really?” I raised my brows at her.
“No, I’m not thinking about messaging my friends with the news that I just got engaged at all. Not at all.”
I laughed. “That sounded very, very unconvincing.”
“I don’t want to message them,” she insisted, but her eyes drifted over to the bed, where her bag was. “I mean, what kind of person would want to message their friends right when she’s getting proposed to, naked, in the bath. That would just be—”
“Just admit it, Ash. You want it soooo badly.”
