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I hold her in my arms as we sway to the music. When she leans in and rests her cheek on my chest—it is the best feeling in the world. I want her—no—need her in my arms forever. While a part of me knows she needs to take things slow, another part of me needs to start now. “Sofia?”
“Mmmm?” she moans softly into my chest.
“Do you think I could make you happy?”
She pulls away from my arms enough to look into my eyes. “You do make me happy,tonto. What brought that on?”
“This,” I say and twirl her away from me. When she lands the spin, she laughs until she sees the small box now in my hands. Her eyes zero in on it, and she takes a step back.
“Sofia—” I say, but she shakes her head.
“Bren. No.”
“Just hear me out. Okay?” I take a single step closer to her.
She nods, her hand clasped over her lips.
I get down on one knee and open the small box containing a pear-cut black diamond surrounded by smaller round-cut diamonds on a white gold band—a ring as unique and rare as her. The seconds stretch into years as she looks at me, blinking rapidly. Her chest rises with each breath quicker than the last, and all color drains from her face.
My heart drops to my stomach as Sofia can only shake her head. But I need to convince her that we can make this work. I’ve waited my entire life for someone like her, and I need her to be mine.
“Sofia, just listen. I know you need to take things slow. We can have a long engagement, but someday, I do intend to make you my wife. I’m not asking for you to marry me today, or even this year or next. We can take it at your pace. But I need to know that in the end, you will be my wife. Please, Sofia. Marry me.”
Sofia bites the inside of her lip, still shaking her head. Then she stops moving, and her eyes draw closed. “I’m sorry, Bren. No.”
I hang my head for a moment before standing up. I stare at the ring in my hands, watching it turn from the symbol of my future into nothing but an insignificant rock. Placing the box back in my jacket pocket, I ask her, “Why not? It can be whenever you say.”
“I’ll never marry you, Bren. I’m sorry.”
“Did I ask too soon?”
“No, Bren. You could ask me ten years from now, and I’d say no.”
I rear back like she has slapped me. “What?”
“Bren, I don’t believe in marriage.”
“Is this because your dad left—”
“No, Bren. That has nothing to do with it. I don’t want to be your property.”
“That’s not what marriage is.”
“Then why the need to secure it now? Huh? Tell me you aren’t trying to brand me Mrs. Brenner Reindhart before the world?”
It is my turn to shake my head. “I need to know there is a future. I want us to work. I’m sorry I asked so soon. We’ve only known each other a few months; I guess I should have waited.”
“Bren. Do you love me?”
I blink at her. “Of course I love you. I wouldn’t have proposed if I didn’t.” I scoff, irritated by the question.
“Well, you never actually said, did you?” She takes a deep breath. “Bren, my feelings for you are growing. They have been for a while. I’m not sure I’m in love with you because I don’t know what that’s supposed to feel like, but—”
“It feels like you can’t breathe if the other person isn’t in the room with you, Sofia. It feels like you will die if you can’t touch the one you love,” I say through clenched teeth.
Sofia takes a step toward me, but I step away this time. I fucked up. I fucked up, and I lost her.
“Then, yes, Bren. I’m in love with you. I feel all those things.”
