AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“The taller one,” I tell her. I set up my iPhone on the hood of the car, balancing it in the windshield wipers as I hit record.
Then I walk over to her.
“You’re doing a self-timer?” she asks, incredulous. She’s always the one taking a million photos of us. I think I have one photo of us together on my phone, and it was one that she took.
“Why not,” I tell her.
I step up onto the shorter rock. It’s not very steady, and it wobbles back and forth under my boots, but at least I’m a little bit shorter than her this way. Beats having to get down on one knee.
“Are we posing?” she asks me, eyes bright and curious as I take both her hands in mine. “How long did you set that self-timer for?”
But I ignore her. I barely hear her. All I can think about is that ring burning a hole in my pocket and the words I want her to hear but I’m not sure how to say.
Just say it, I tell myself. Be the blunt bastard that you are.
“Laila,” I tell her, trying to smooth out my voice.
I squeeze her hands, staring into her eyes. And all it takes is that because suddenly her whole demeanor changes. She’s not scared, but she’s…waiting, eyes already going wet.
“Laila love,” I tell her, taking in a deep breath. “We’ve known each other quite a while now. We’ve loved each other for quite a while. And I think we’ve found a home in each other too. I’ve always said that the reason we connect so well is because we both know what it’s like to lose family, lose our loved ones, feel alone in the world. Our upbringings were very different from each other’s, but we’re both bound by that searching for family.”
I let go of her one hand and stick mine in my jacket pocket, closing it around the velvet box.
She brings her free hand up to her mouth, already gasping.
“Laila, I’ve found my family in you. Everything I’ve spent my life looking for, I’ve found in you. In your big heart, in your beautiful soul, you’ve made room for me, and I’ve made room for you. And I think we’re at the point now where there’s nothing holding us back. No fear, no regret, nothing but the future. And I need you to be a part of mine forever.”
She’s crying now, tears streaming down her face, so fucking beautiful, but at least they seem to be tears of joy.
I let go of her other hand and pull out the box, opening it for her to see. It’s actually a vintage ring that was combined with an opal gemstone for her birthday, and it practically shines in her face.
“James,” she says through a choked whisper, staring down at the ring, hands shaking.
“Laila Bruset,” I say to her, having to blink back the heat behind my eyes. “Will you marry me?”
She nods, crying. “Yes, yes, yes,” she says, gasping.
The adrenaline from earlier is nothing compared to what I’m feeling right now. Because I also have joy. Joy that I never knew I was capable of feeling.
Before I drown in it, I take the ring and slip it on her finger.
It sits there like it’s meant to be there, like it will stay there forever. One can only hope it will.
She holds her hand out, admiring the ring, crying some more, and then she throws her arms around me, kissing me. “James, James, I love you.”
But while I’m about to answer her back, that I love her more than anything in the world, my future wife, her movement knocks me off-balance.
I teeter on the rock, and I don’t know if it’s because of the emotions of the proposal itself, because she said fucking YES, or because I jumped out of an airplane earlier today, but my balance is shot.
I go falling off the rock, trying to break my fall, but instead I go tumbling down into the water.
SPLASH.
I land in the fjord face-first, the water shockingly cold. I immediately find my footing, trying to stand on slippery rocks.
Meanwhile Laila is yelling, trying to run down the slope after me, except she loses her footing and can’t slow down. She ends up falling into the water right beside me.
Thank god it’s shallow, and she’s already on her feet, laughing her head off, trying to help me up to mine. Eventually we both stagger out of the water, freezing cold, soaking wet, collapsing on the ground in each other’s arms.
