Page 121 of Paradigm

“Dress up, not dress forever. You look great. Can we go now?”

“I don’t have my shoes on yet.”

“They’re by the door.”

“I’m not wearing those tonight. I’m wearing the short heels I brought. They’re in my suitcase. Can you get them?”

“Sure.”

Arlowe stood up from the bed, where she’d been waiting for her girlfriend to get ready for the past thirty minutes, and went to Eline’s suitcase to look for the shoes. She pulled them out, set them on the floor, and Eline slipped into them right after.

“Damn, you’re gorgeous,” Arlowe stated as she looked up, her heart racing in her chest.

“Thank you. You look great as well. I love it when you wear blazers and ties, but you know I want to take them off you now, too.”

Eline ran her hands over her chest.

“Later. We have to go.”

“You said you didn’t make a reservation. Why do we have to go? We can take ten minutes.”

Eline lowered her hands to Arlowe’s belt buckle.

“It’s going to be busy out there. Tourist season and all that. I will be starving by the time we get to a restaurant.”

“Fine. Fine,” Eline replied before grabbing a purse and hanging it over her shoulder. “Let’s go.”

When they made it outside, Arlowe checked the time on her watch instead of her phone that was tucked in a pocket, not wanting to mess with her pockets since she was keeping something pretty important in there, and she didn’t want to risk it falling out or it being discovered. If they hurried a bit, it would still be what she had pictured, so she took them to the tram stop, and they got on. Eline leaned into her how she always did, and they held hands until Arlowe nodded that this was their stop.

She walked them down the street along the water, and Eline kept pointing out different restaurants that they could try out, but Arlowe wasn’t interested in eating dinner right now. She couldn’t keep anything down even if it were the best meal that she’d ever had. Her heart was thundering inside her chest, and she felt like she was walking them so quickly, practically tugging Eline along, that she might pass out or, at least, sweat all the way through her blazer. Then, they arrived.

“You know where we are, right?” she asked Eline.

“Yes, we’re… Arlowe, we’re at the Magere Brug.”

“The Skinny Bridge, yeah,” she replied, her heart nearly drowning out her words. “We came here when I was here the first time.”

“I remember. We kissed on this bridge.”

“It’s the most romantic spot in all of Amsterdam. Legend says that a kiss between lovers while on this bridge or on a boat as it goes under it–”

“Ensures that they will be in love forever,” Eline said, and wrapped her arms around Arlowe’s neck. “Yes, as one of those locals, I do know the legend.”

“You taught it to me,” Arlowe pointed out.

“I remember that, too. Did you bring me here because we didn’t do that while we were here last time and you wanted to kiss in this spot again?”

“I actually brought you here for another reason.”

Arlowe reached up to her neck because she needed to remove Eline’s arms from her shoulders to proceed with her plan, and as she did so, Eline’s face went through a wide range of emotions. She looked confused at first, then worried or, at least, somewhat concerned, then back to confused again, and when Arlowe knelt on one knee on the bridge and pulled a ring box out of her inner blazer pocket, Eline’s face switched to surprise, her hands covered her mouth, and she stared as Arlowe opened the ring box.

“I know it’s cliché because everyone in Amsterdam proposes here, but I’m not asking you to marry me on this spot because everyone else does it. I’m doing it because when you brought me here and kissed me, we knew we were forever, meant to be, and now, we’re back here, showing this bridge and the universe that the legend is true. Eline Fay Claasen, I love you more than anything in the world. I always have, and I always will. I want to grow old with you, raise children with you, bring them back here to visit this magical place where I met their mother, and be yours always. Love of my life, will you please be my wife?”

“Yes,” Eline said and shook her head in disbelief. “Yes, Arlowe. God, I love you.”

Arlowe stood quickly and, with shaking hands, managed to get the ring out of the box and onto her now-fiancée’s hand, which was also shaking.

“God, baby… I thought that if you did this on our vacation, it would be that night in Paris that you wanted,” Eline said as she pulled Arlowe in against her.