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Tessa is twenty-seven when she realizes that she’s going to marry Scott Moir.
It’s a Friday in late August, not long after they’ve gotten off work, and they’re driving around. They like to do that sometimes: he’ll drive, usually, and they’ll catch each other up on what happened during their week while the radio plays on low in the background.
Scott is a fourth grade English teacher at the local elementary school, and she’s a fashion designer for a local fashion company. Both of their jobs keep them fairly busy, with Scott making lesson plans ahead of when he teaches the lesson, and Tessa with having to sketch out her designs before she gets them approved to start making prototypes, so these drives are nice.
There’s a vanilla milkshake melting in the evening summer heat. Scott’s name is scrawled on the side, even though he knows that they’ll share the milkshake, as always.
Sometimes, it’s hard for her to believe that they’ve been together for ten years.
They’d gotten together when she was seventeen and he was nineteen, ten years into their ice dancing partnership.
They’d decided to retire when they’d won gold at the Olympic debut, both of them realizing that, while they loved skating, it was time for them to move on. Scott had always wanted to become an English teacher, and she a fashion designer. They were beside each other every step of the way, navigating through college and having to restart their careers from the ground up.
Those years brought a lot of stressful nights, ones where she’d get home from the design studio to find Scott asleep on the couch, or where he would come home from his night class to find her asleep at the table, various projects in various finished states all around her.
They fought a lot, too, but it was only because they were both stressed about being in school at the same time while everyone around them was pressuring them to either get married or have children (when all they’d wanted was to get their degrees and jobs in their respective fields).
Tessa and Scott almost broke up once, about five years into their relationship. She was 24, in her third year of her fashion design program, and Scott was 26, also in his third year, and there was one night where they just thought that they couldn’t do it anymore. He’d said something that she took to mean something else, so she had snapped back at him, and what had started out as one tiny, miscommunicated comment turned into a fight spanning three days.
Tessa had gone to stay with her sister, insisting through tears that she and Scott were done, that being in a relationship while trying to get degrees at the same time was turning out to be more stressful than either of them realized.
“Tessa,” Jordan, her sister, had said, as she cried for the second day in a row, “You just need to have a serious conversation with him about what you want, because I know you, and I know Scott. Neither of you wants to break up, but you just believe it’s what you should do in order to successfully graduate. No one is saying that, sis. You don’t have to break up, and you shouldn’t sacrifice your relationship for something that’ll be over in a year."
"Scott is woven into every part of your life," Jordan had continued, while Tessa kept crying, "he has been for as long as either of us can remember, basically, and you can’t just let that go. There’s more to your story. Not to mention you’ll probably regret it when you have your degree and not the person that has supported you through everything.”
“You’re right, as always,” Tessa had sniffled, daring to attempt a smile.
Jordan lent her a ghost of a smile right back, knowing that was what she’d needed. “That’s what sisters are for.”
So, she’d done as her sister had told her: she’d gone home the next night, found Scott at the dining room table, working on a project for one of his classes, and gently asked him if they could talk.
He had swallowed hard, yet he stood up from the table and followed her to the living room without another word.
“I miss you,” she’d started, already feeling the presence of tears behind her eyes, “And I’m sorry about what I said the other day. I didn’t mean it, and I know that the fact that I only said it because I was stressed isn’t a good excuse, but it’s the only one I’ve got. I love you so much, Scott. You’re the only person my heart has ever loved, and you’re the only person that my heart will ever love. I love the fact that we’re going to college together, because even though it’s stressful, there’s no one else I’d rather do this with. I don’t want to lose you, and, in a year, we’ll be done with school, and all of this will be over.”
He’d been silent for a long time after that, his head angled toward the ground, and it was only when he looked at her that Tessa realized that he’d been crying. He reached out and brushed his thumbs against her cheeks, catching her own tears, ones she hadn’t even noticed.
“I love you,” Scott had whispered, and he smiled at her as tears fell from down both of their cheeks. “I don’t want anything to get in the way of that, Tessa, because even though our degrees are important, you’re the most important thing to me. I’m so, so sorry about what I said, and about how often we’ve been fighting. I don’t want to fight with you, I hate this. All I want to do is hold you in my arms and kiss you, tell you that everything is going to be okay. We’ve always said that we’re going to communicate to each other, and we haven’t been doing a very good job lately, which means that everything we haven’t said caught up to us.”
He’d stopped suddenly, and they sat there, allowing themselves to cry, to be raw and imperfect versions of themselves in front of each other.
They’d talked a bit more, kissed a little, before they went to sleep.
The day that they’d graduated was one of the best days of their lives. Tessa had felt like they’d won the gold all over again, and, when she told Scott as much, he’d laughed and kissed her, right there in front of all of their family and closest friends.
Now, though, now their relationship couldn’t be further from what it was when they were in college.
They’re happy, and while they occasionally fight, it’s nothing major. They do live together, so Tessa and Scott know that they’re bound to have little fights. They always make sure to talk them out and communicate, just so what happened in college never happens again.
“Tessa,” Scott says, using the tone of voice that he reserves only for whenever he knows she’s not paying any attention.
She looks at him, only to discover that the car has stopped, and he’s pulled over to the side of the road.
“Yeah?” she asks softly, as he takes both of her hands in his and doesn’t meet her eye.
The spot that he’d parked the car in looks familiar, but she can’t say she knows why.
“We’ve been together for a long time, longer than most people. Our family jokes that we’ve been together for twenty years, but we know that we’ve been best friends for ten and in love for ten plus some odd number of years where we didn’t talk about our feelings. You’re my best friend and my forever partner, Tessa, and I can’t believe we’ve already had twenty years together.”
He pauses, lets go of her hand to grab a small, black velvet box from his jacket pocket.
Oh, she thinks once she realizes what he’s going to say next. She has an answer, but she doesn’t want to interrupt him. Not when it seems like he’s so carefully planned out what he’s saying.
He probably doesn’t even realize that he’s rambling, but she thinks it’s cute; she’s always thought the fact that Scott rambles when he’s nervous is cute, even though he’d probably just laugh and get embarrassed if she knew that.
Her answer is about to burst out of her, but then the end of his speech comes, leading to the question he’s been building to all night.
Tessa, will you marry me?
Five words that will change everything.
(As if the last ten years haven't already.)
“I was so scared to admit my feelings for you ten years ago, because our lives are so intertwined that I didn’t know what would happen if I told you I loved you. But now, now I’m so glad I did. Tessa, will you marry me?”
Tears blur her vision, but she can still see him smiling, so she smiles back. “Yes.”
He lets out a slow breath as he slides the ring onto her finger.
“I love you,” he tells her adoringly.
“I love you, too.”
They kiss then, and that’s when it clicks, where the car is.
“Oh, my God,” she whispers against his lips, “This is where we first kissed, isn’t it?”
A slow grin spreads across his lips. “Maybe.”
The two of them laugh, and when she kisses him again, she doesn’t think that seventeen-year-old Tessa would believe that twenty-seven-year-old Tessa is marrying the only person she’s ever loved.