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We’d start here, and I planned to just let it develop as it may.
“Define huge. Gabe, I grew up in small town Oklahoma, so to me that’s anything that has more than two bedrooms… But the way you say it, well, sounds like you mean something different.” She pursed her lips.
I shifted awkwardly in my seat. “There’s enough room for all my brothers to have our own rooms, my parents each have an office, and there’s three guest rooms – at least, from the last time I was home,” I said. “I know we have one of the other rooms set up with a whole bunch of workout equipment. I think Zeke wanted to set up an ice cream machine in the kitchen… but I’d have to see what actually ended up happening with that.”
Grace only raised an eyebrow.
“An ice cream machine in the kitchen? Must be a big kitchen.”
“Heh… yeah, um… it’s large. My grandfather built the house,” I said. “My family is… well, we’re rich.”
Grace’s eyes bugged out of her head for a moment before she looked down at the ring and then back at me.
“How rich?”
“Well, that ring wasn’t extraordinarily expensive. There are a few places that do chocolate diamonds that are lab-grown. I thought you might appreciate the lab-grown diamonds because they’re not messing up the environment or society like natural ones,” I said. “The emerald is an heirloom.”
“Wow…” She looked down at the ring on her finger again as she tried to take this all in. “And, when exactly were you planning on telling me all of this? That’s… that’s something I need to know as far as planning a life together goes.”
“I didn’t exactly mean to keep it a secret from you.” I sighed. “It’s just not something I really know how to bring up to people. Most people, it’s none of their business, and I guess I kind of wanted to ask you to marry me first. Then I couldn’t get in my head and think you only loved me for my money, you know?” I shrugged. “I’ve… I’ve never quite known how to tell someone that we’re wealthy like that.”
“No wonder you can undercut a commercial airline seat on your plane,” Grace teased me. “You’re not in this for the money. You’re doing it to provide a service that would otherwise be far out of reach of the people who would need it most.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I wanted to be able to help people with my passion, and when I wasn’t entirely sure how to put my piloting to use to do that, it was actually my mother who suggested that there was a need to be filled in the commercial air travel world. For those with the kind of money we have, a private jet is an option for a trip or two every now and then. For regular people, who struggle a little more to make ends meet, just taking one flight on a commercial airline can be a difficult thing.”
She nodded slowly.
“And, if you want to chase the talent you have as a photographer, you wouldn’t have to worry about how you’d survive to do it,” I said. “Grace, you have a real talent. If that’s what you want to pursue… I wouldn’t mind helping you out to do it.”
“Maybe later in life, but for now, I do prefer the reporting part to the travel,” she said. “I guess travel is just something that will grow on you. I’d have to keep traveling to feel comfortable with it, though. The most I had to travel before doing the tourism column was an hour by car, and that was often unbearable because traffic would make it two hours on the worst of days.”
“The concert halls are rather… difficult to get to in Tulsa,” I said with a laugh. “But, if that’s what you want to do right now, then I won’t stop you from continuing to work at the paper. I think it’s nice that you’ve found something you like to do in both areas, even if I think you’d be better suited for one than the other with the way your photos turn out.”
“That’s just because I’ve been taking photos like that since I was in high school,” Grace said with a bit of a blush. “Besides, I like to make sure my travel and my job has a purpose. This trip ended up serving two purposes, unexpectedly: it was both a work trip and where I got engaged to you.”
“I’m glad that you appreciate the extra purpose, even if it wasn’t something you expected when you boarded the plane earlier this week,” I said, grinning. “Now… do you need any other places here in the city or are we ready for me to file a flight plan to get us back to Tulsa?”
“File the flight plan. I’ve done my due diligence here. I’ll get started on drafting the article and putting in the pictures. I think the one I took of the view below the lookout on the lighthouse will be a wonderful picture to use for the thumbnail for the headline. What do you think?”
She’d opened her computer while we were talking. Now, she spun it around to face me.
The photo indeed looked gorgeous. The sun streaked through the sky almost like a painting showing the reverence of the light, and the town below looked pristine. It almost appeared as though the coastline was hugging the town with great emotion in this picture.
“I think you’ve done a wonderful job, and the moment you leave the paper, this column’s in trouble,” I said. “You’ve got this style that no one else at the paper has, and it’s sad to see that they don’t entirely appreciate it.” I knew Grace had been struggling recently to get some of her favorite photos used in articles.
“You can blame that one on Mr. White. He likes to keep it mostly boring, tourism photo center and have the big flashy one to top the headline for the thumbnail and be the first photo in the article. I think that’s why the series has been struggling. He’s finally agreed to let me pick the photos for the entire article, and he’s hoping that I’ve been right.”
“Well, if you keep capturing interesting angles and fun details like this, I think you will be. You have an amazing eye for them,” I replied.
She settled in to work on the article. About ten minutes later, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to find a pizza delivery man with two boxes of pizza.
“For Grace Overstreet?”
“That’d be us, yes,” I said. “Thank you.”
He had me sign a receipt for the order, and I gave it to Grace for a proper tip if it hadn’t already had one added since she had paid online. Instead of adding more, she handed the delivery man a few dollar bills and some coins.
“I know I tipped online, but I like to add in cash when I can,” she said. “Enjoy.”
