Maya
I am still in complete awe and shock from the proposal. I was not expecting it at all. I am happy about it; no happiness isn’t enough to explain what I am feeling. Whatever word is stronger than happy is how I feel. The ring is the most beautiful, precious thing I have ever seen. It means so much to me that he believes me to be worthy of such an important family item. His mom must think so, too, since she agreed to give him it for me. I will need to be careful with it. I would never forgive myself if it got damaged or if I lost it. I would take good care of it.
“I don’t want to take it off, but I will in case it slides off.” I pout.
We were going into the hot tub with champagne to continue our celebration.
“You can put it back on soon, angel.” He chuckles.
I nod, gently taking it from my finger, placing it back in the box, and putting it into the drawer. I know no one can get to it, but I want to be extra careful. Conrad offers me his hand, which I take. He leads us outside to the hot tub, where we already have the champagne chilling for us and some chocolate-covered strawberries. I am sad we need to leave and get back on the road early tomorrow morning. I wish we could have stayed longer, but I really want to see Chelsea. She will be excited when we share the news with her.
He helped me into the hot tub and waited until I was seated before he joined me. He then poured us some champagne and handed me a glass.
“To us and our future.” He toasts.
“Yes, to us and our future,” I repeat, and we clink our glasses together and take a sip.
“I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you, Maya.” He smiles, kissing me.
“Me too!” I mumble into his lips.
When we part, I cuddle into his side, and he slips his arm around me.
“I thought maybe we could tell everyone our good news at the dinner we are all attending when we get back. If you are ready to share the news?” he asks softly.
“Yes, it will be the perfect time to share. Of course, I want to tell everyone. We have no reason to keep it to ourselves. Well, not everyone. Your family, but we can’t let it become public knowledge because I am worried it will trigger Callum, and we know how unpracticable he is. I hate we need to do this, but I think it’s for the best.” I sigh.
“I agree. It can stay between us and my family until he is out of the picture.”
I thought he would be a bit annoyed at my suggestion, but he understands where I am coming from. We can still be happy and celebrate, just not publicly.
“Thank you for understanding.” I smile and kiss his cheek.
“I will always understand.” He smiles.
“Yes, but enough about him. We have our engagement to celebrate.”
I am not letting Callum ruin this for us.
We clink our glasses one last time and snuggle up.
“I know we only got engaged, but do you have any visions of how you want our wedding to be?” he asks.
“Something small. Nothing big and fancy. I don’t want it to become a media story. Maybe we could get married on a beach somewhere? You, me and your family? Do you have any ideas of what you want.”
I don’t want it all to be about me. It is our day. It needs to be what we both want.
“I would be happy with something small too. A beach or somewhere in Italy would be lovely. It is on your list; we could get married there.” He suggests.
“Really?” I ask, excited.
“Yes. We could do it on a beach or book somewhere private. Somewhere beautiful where we can get married and spend our honeymoon.”
“It would be incredible if we did that.”
It would be the most perfect day.
“Great. It would seem we have already started planning our wedding.” He chuckles.
I nod eagerly, “It would seem so. The destination is sorted. We can work through everything else. Not straight away, but soon. Maybe book somewhere for next year?”
“We can book it for whenever you want. If you asked me, I would marry you tomorrow.” He smiles, kissing my forehead.
I close my eyes and draw in a breath, “I would too, but we shouldn’t rush. Your family would be upset if we got married without them.”
“You are right, but know no matter what we decide, I will be happy with it because it means you become my wife.”
“Yes, same. All that matters is we become husband and wife.”
I didn’t think I would ever get married, especially not to such an incredible man. I believed my life would always be lonely and a living hell. Has fate finally decided it is time for me to be happy? I like to think so, but I can’t truly believe it until Callum is entirely out of the picture.
“You will look so beautiful in a wedding dress. I can picture it. I can also picture myself crying when you start walking down the aisle to me. It will be the happiest day of my life.” He beams, a proud look on his face.
“I will be crying too. It will be the happiest day of my life, too.”
When the day comes when it happens, it will be the day I know I will always be safe and loved. I will wait patiently for the day.
****
Conrad and I were sitting down by the river after spending some time in the hot tub and making love. I am sitting between his legs with my back against his chest and a blanket wrapped around us.
He nuzzles my neck, “I love you, sweetheart.”
“I love you too.”
He hugs me tighter, “I don’t want to leave in the morning.”
“Me neither.” I sigh.
“We can come back another time and spend some more time. We can fly, though.”
“No, I have loved our road trip. We should do it that way again. Take more days so we can stop at other places for longer, too.” I reply.
“Whatever you want, beautiful.” He smiles.
I sigh loudly, “We should head inside soon and get some sleep. We can’t be too tired while driving back.”
It is already two o’clock in the morning. We stopped drinking at midnight since we had such a long drive ahead. We leave at nine tomorrow morning. The plan is to drive for another twelve hours. We can’t make as many stops on the way home because if we do, Chelsea and Adrian will be leaving by the time we arrive.
“You are right. We should. It would be too dangerous to drive without sleep. I wish we could watch the sunrise together.”
“We could. We can set an alarm. And after we watch, we can get a couple of more hours of sleep. I have never watched the sun rise before.”
“Yes, we can do that. At least we are still getting some sleep.” He says, kissing my neck.
We head back inside and get ourselves ready for bed. It has been the perfect way to end our last night here. We slip into bed, checking when the sun is expected to rise tomorrow and set our alarms for five o’clock. We set one each in case we end up sleeping through it.
“Watching the sunrise is another thing on my list.” I share as we climb into bed.
“Perfect, another thing to tick off.”
We settle down in bed. Conrad pulls me close to him. I rest my head on his chest and drape part of my body over his. He doesn’t seem to mind. He is quick to wrap me in his arms and brings the covers over us.
“Goodnight, beautiful. I love you.”
“Sweet dreams, handsome. I love you too.”
“Light on or off?” he asks.
“You can put it off tonight.”
He nods, switching it off. I feel safe here with him. There is no need for a light. Conrad steals one last kiss from me. It doesn’t take him long to fall asleep. I lie happily, the thoughts of today running through my mind. I can’t help but smile as I think of them. Conrad soon begins to store thankfully it isn’t too loud or annoying. It’s cute more than anything. I giggle as I listen to him.
I close my eyes and hope for sleep to take over me. I will fall asleep easily because, as incredible as our time here has been, I am exhausted. We both are with all the travelling and walking around. It has been worth it. I didn’t think when we left for this trip, we would return as an engaged couple. The drive home will be good, but not as good as the way here since we are heading for home and not for a new destination, but it doesn’t matter. Everything about what has happened in the last week has been great.
I know for sure the sun rising will be so pretty, especially with the beautiful scenery surrounding us. I can’t stop smiling as I finally feel myself beginning to drift off to sleep. It may only be a few hours’ sleep ahead of us, but it will be worth it.