AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Have you talked to Nora about it yet?”
“Yes,” he says. “She knows it’s coming. Her only request is that we wait to pull the trigger until she’s back from leave and that I fully train a new executive assistant before I go.”
“That’s a lot of risk.”
“That’s a lot of risk worth taking.”
“But what if you fail?”
“Ah, but what if we succeed?” he counters, smiling.
I perk up. “Good answer! I like the positivity.”
“But, in all seriousness, if we fail, we try again. No big deal.”
“The perks of being filthy rich,” I joke.
Drew shrugs, proudly guilty.
I yank off the fourth piece... and arch a brow. “Take my best friend to Las Vegas for his birthday?”
He points at the canvas. “Sub goal.”
I peel it off and laugh. “Convince Heidi to let me take Seth to Vegas. Ha-ha.”
“I feel like that one will take me some time,” he says. “But I’m confident.”
I pivot away. “Yeah, I guess we’ll see about that...” I pinch the final piece of tape and rip it off. “Ask my real best friend to... marry me.”
I turn to face him again.
Drew takes a knee in front of me.
I gasp. “No way...”
He holds up a small, black velvet box. This one isn’t a small rectangle like the boxes from my last three birthdays. This one is square-shaped.
And square-shaped means...
He opens it. A diamond ring sits inside. A bright rock on a band of gold cradled by two small pieces of orange topaz.
“I thought these were goals for next year,” I say, still in shock.
“Why wait?” Drew smiles. “Heidi, will you marry me?”
I swallow hard as I look at his vision board again. New skills. New home. New job. A perfect year to create a perfect life... with me. His real best friend.
“Yes,” I answer, unable to say anything else.
Drew rises and kisses me, sealing the moment. I wrap my arms around his neck, and he lifts me until my toes dangle above the deck.
“Yes,” I say again, our lips grazing. “Yes, yes, yes.”
Drew grins, refusing to let me down. “In case you didn’t realize,” he whispers, “the home in my number two is for us.”
I squeal with excitement. “Really?”
He nods. “Mm-hmm.”
