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I glanced over to see that she was sitting back in her chair, just like me, with her eyes trained up toward the sky. She had a paper pail takeout box in one hand and chopsticks in the other.
“Yeah,” I said. “I think about the island a lot, actually.”
“You want to go back? The school year ends in three weeks and you have vacation time at work. Should we do it?”
She looked at me, and I could tell that she really wanted me to say yes. I wondered how long she’d been thinking about this.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “We should definitely go back.”
Setting her takeout container on the table, Tatum let out a little squeal of happiness and leaned forward to wrap her arms around me in a hug. When she started to pull away, I couldn’t resist pressing a kiss to her lips. She responded enthusiastically, parting her lips and leaning further into me. I felt my cock stirring in my pants, but I wasn’t going to pull her away from dinner for sex. I could wait until later. Sometimes the anticipation made it better, anyway.
When we pulled apart, Tatum’s eyes were shining with love. The moment felt right, and I decided that I didn’t need a fancy restaurant or a meticulous plan. I just needed her.
“Tatum,” I started, reaching into my pocket. “I want to ask you something.”
“What is it?” she asked, completely unsuspecting and already turning back to her food. She picked up the chopsticks and looked down into her takeout box.
A wide grin stretched across my face as I slid out of my chair and dropped to one knee right there on the deck. I wasn’t nervous anymore. Holding out the little black box, I opened it just as she turned to look at me again.
She froze, her eyes round and huge.
“Tatum, will you marry me?”
I had practiced all kinds of ways to ask, including long speeches about how important she was to me, and how much I wanted to spend my entire life with her, but she already knew all that. We might not have discussed getting married before, but she knew how I felt about her. I made sure of it.
So, just a simple question felt right at this moment.
Tatum didn’t respond at first, her eyes darting back and forth between my face and the ring about five times. I didn’t even think she was breathing. I’d definitely caught her by surprise and I held my breath as I waited for her to reply.
“Ben…” she said, her voice barely more than a whisper.
“Is that a yes?” I asked, my confidence almost starting to waver.
Then, she blinked and I saw two streaks of tears roll down her cheeks.
“Of course, it is,” she said through a watery smile. “You know how much I love you.”
I laughed at that. She spoke as if it was a given that she’d say yes, and I loved that. The woman that had been so ambivalent about our relationship in the beginning was now nothing but certain. She was going to be my wife.
She swiped the tears of happiness from her cheeks and held out her hand. I slipped the ring on, pleased that it was a perfect fit. I’d taken one of her rings from her jewelry box to the store with me to make sure I got the right size. I wanted everything to be perfect.
Of course, I had no idea that perfect was going to look like this, sitting in our backyard with Chinese food and dirt on my jeans from changing the tire. But that was the thing about love. It wasn’t always something that could be planned. It was all about finding joy in the unpredictable. It was about enjoying life just because you were going through it together.
With the right person, love was easy.
“I love you, Tatum,” I said, holding her hand as we both looked at the ring I’d just put on her finger.
“You better, because you’re stuck with me now.”
I kissed her again, knowing that I wouldn’t want it any other way.
