Page 96 of Going Overboard

‘Thanks,’ he replies. ‘I suppose you would prefer a boy band…’

‘Don’t tempt me,’ I tease him.

He holds out his hand, a glimmer of something cheeky in his eye.

‘May I have this dance, princess?’

I roll my eyes, unable to stifle a grin as I take his hand anyway.

‘Because it’s a perfectly normal thing, to slow dance in your partially built house, late at night, to music playing out of a phone,’ I reply.

‘Stranger things have happened,’ he says.

‘Yeah, usually when I’m around you,’ I remind him.

‘And yet,’ he says, twirling me on the spot, ‘you’re in love with me.’

I laugh, stepping closer until there’s hardly any space left between us. We start to sway gently to the music, our bodies casting our shadows on the concrete floor. I’m sure I look more graceful in silhouette.

‘Okay, I’ll give it to you, this is kind of a perfect moment,’ I whisper into his chest.

‘I thought so,’ he says with a grin. ‘Because one day, when the house is finished, we’ll remember tonight, we’ll remember it waslike this, and how far we’ve come. That we did all of this together.’

‘We’ve done a great job,’ I say with a sigh. ‘Or rather, we’ve had tradespeople do really great jobs for us.’

‘You always said you’d build your own home one day,’ he reminds me. ‘I just feel lucky I get to do it with you.’

He pulls back just enough to look into my eyes, suddenly more serious.

‘In the interest of remembering the house like this, and remembering this night, I’ve got an idea,’ he says. ‘I thought this might help.’

And then he stops moving altogether. He lets go of my waist and drops to one knee. And there’s a small green box in his hands…

Surely everyone in the world knows what this means and yet my brain just can’t compute it. Surely not? Brody Ryan? Proposing?

‘Jessa,’ he says, as chill as ever. ‘Will you marry me?’

My jaw is on the floor. This is the last thing I was expecting tonight. Not that I’m disappointed, I’m over the moon but… wow!

‘I’m sure it’s only been a second or two but it feels like you’ve been frozen and silent for an hour,’ he says with a laugh. ‘Am I going to get an answer?’

‘Oh my God, yes,’ I say quickly. ‘The most certain yes of my life.’

He scoops me up in his big arms, a laugh escaping him as he buries his face against my neck.

‘You had me going for a split second,’ he tells me. ‘I was sure you would say yes but… I’m glad it’s over with now.’

‘Just what every girl wants to hear,’ I reply. ‘So, what are you thinking for the wedding – cruise ship or island?’

‘It’s got to be both, surely?’ he jokes.

‘Oh, of course,’ I reply.

He pulls me close and kisses me and there isn’t a doubt in my mind that I’m now exactly where I’m supposed to be.

I don’t know if I believe that everything happens for a reason. I suppose, by that logic, sometimes you have to go through bad times to get to good ones. If Todd and I hadn’t broken up, would Brody and I have ever met? Sure, we would have kept crossing paths at the same parties, but would we have caught each other’s eye? Maybe we did need to break up at the same time, to be hurt at the same time, to find ourselves trapped at sea together but… I don’t know. I like to think we would have found our way here eventually.

Anyway, who cares, life is what you make it. Fate decides nothing. We make a million decisions a day, whether it’s something small like what’s for dinner or the decision to not cheat on our partners, even if it seems like you might get away with it, or be happier with someone else. If there is something magical that keeps us on track then it’s love, as corny as it sounds. Brody and I aren’t together because of fate, we’re together because of love. Without it our fake relationship wouldn’t have worked, or it would have fizzled out – like normal relationships do, I guess, when you’re not in love.

But now Brody and I are exactly where we’re supposed to be, and we plan to keep it that way.