Work Text:
It was a Monday in March when little Nate Macauley fell in love with Bronwyn Rojas.
He’s six years old and girls are annoying and full of cooties. Bronwyn Rojas is especially annoying. She’s always bossing everyone around and is a total teacher’s pet, even with teachers who aren’t her teachers!
But it’s during recess on a Monday when she bounces up to him and his life changes.
He’s sitting on the edge of the sidewalk, counting the ants walking in a line next to his knee.
“Hi.”
Her voice is bright like the sun.
Nate likes the moon more.
He raises his head, peering at her through his shaggy hair. “Hi.”
“Do you wanna play freeze tag with me and my friends?” Her smile is also bright like the sun.
Nate looks over at the three other girls a few steps behind her, looking in his direction and whispering into each other’s ears behind their palms.
He looks back at Bronwyn. “No, thanks.”
Bronwyn’s smile drops and for some reason Nate suddenly wishes it hadn’t.
“Okay.” She starts to walk back to her friends, but Nate grabs her arm.
Bronwyn turns and Nate notices he’s touching her. He immediately drops his hand.
“Wait. I’ll play.”
Bronwyn turns into a sun again and he can’t help but smile back.
“Yay! My name is Bronwyn.”
He wants to tell her that he already knows her name, but he also doesn’t want her to think he’s weird and stop talking to him - he kinda likes her voice - so he doesn’t say anything.
“My name is Nate.”
“Cool! Do you know how to play freeze tag?”
He rolls his eyes. “Of course I know how to play freeze tag. I’ll be it.”
“Okay. Guys, he said he’s gonna be it!”
And so, Nate spends the rest of his recess chasing after the girls and tagging them. When recess is over, Bronwyn approaches Nate again, both of them out of breath. “That was fun! Wanna play again tomorrow?”
He wants to say no. Girls are annoying and full of cooties. But instead he finds himself nodding.
And there’s her sunny smile again. “Great! I’ll see you tomorrow, Nate.” She walks away to join the rest of her class as they go back inside.
Nate starts to catch up to his own class, when a glimmer in the ground catches his eyes. He bends down to see it’s one of Bronwyn’s little hoop earrings. He picks it up.
“Bronwyn, wait! You dropped your earring!” But she doesn’t hear him.
He tucks the earring in his pocket. He’ll give it to her tomorrow.
He doesn’t.
He knows stealing is wrong, but he wants to keep a piece of the sunshine girl for himself. He doesn’t always get to see the sun and he kind of likes it now.
It was a Thursday in October when little Bronwyn Rojas fell in love with Nate Macauley.
They’re in second grade and this year they’re both in the same class. Even better, they’re desk buddies. Their teacher has the room arranged in table clusters of four and Bronwyn happened to be assigned to the desk across from Nate’s.
She was very excited about this at first, because Nate’s one of her best friends, but then he began to kick her legs when the teacher was talking and he’d steal her erasers or sharpener when she wasn’t looking to mess with her. He’s her best friend, but sometimes he's really rude and annoying.
But it’s during science hour on a Thursday when an earthquake hits and Bronwyn’s life changes.
Their teacher tells them to get down under their desks and hold on tightly to one of the legs of the desk.
Bronwyn’s heart seizes in her chest as she falls to the ground and crawls under her desk. She grasps onto the metal leg of her desk, her eyes squeezing shut.
A shudder rolls out under her. Bronwyn’s body starts to tremble and tears begin to fall from her eyes.
She doesn’t want to die.
She wants her mom and dad and her baby sister. She wants to be back at home, in her bed, with her books and stuffed animals.
Her fingers twist around one another over the leg of the desk when two fingers pry them off.
She opens her eyes, looking beside her at Nate. “What are you doing?” Her voice is frantic. “We have to hold onto the desk.”
Nate curls his fingers around one of her hands, while the other one is still grasping the metal leg tightly. “Shh. It’s okay.”
She wants to argue that they should do what their teacher said, but she can't find it in her to do so. His palm is warm against her hand. It feels nice. She closes her eyes again and feels her heart slow down.
He holds her hand through all the small jolts and shakes.
And then the earthquake is over.
He lets go of her hand and Bronwyn frowns, missing the warmth.
He’s already sliding out from under his desk, so she does, too. When she sees his face again, she smiles at him.
“Thank you.”
He shrugs, his eyes on the pencil he’s flicking around on his desk. “Whatever.”
Bronwyn isn’t deterred. She keeps smiling and kicks Nate’s leg under the desk.
He looks up at her, surprised. She just shrugs innocently and returns to the worksheet she was working on before the earthquake.
Nate Macauley is her best friend. He’s rude and annoying sometimes, but to her, he’s also sweet a lot of the times.
She likes it when he is. And she likes it when he holds her hand. She hopes he’ll do it more often.
It's Tuesday night and Nate is doing homework, leaning back in his chair with his legs propped up on his desk and his laptop settled on his knees. He's squinting at a problem on his laptop when he hears his phone start to vibrate. Nate swivels towards the bed, where the phone lights up with a picture of his girlfriend. Just as quick, Nate's face lights up. He abandons his homework and reaches for his phone.
“Hey, Bronwyn," he says as her face fills the screen.
“Hey, Nate. Are you busy?”
He leans back in his chair again, tipping it backwards so it's balancing on the two back legs.
“No. What’s up?”
“Nothing." There's a small smile on Bronwyn's face, but Nate notices the red rimming her eyes. He lets his chair fall back into the normal position and brings the phone closer, his eyebrows knit in concern. "I just - I wanted to hear your voice. What’re you doing?”
“Just working on an assignment. What about you?”
“Me too. I have a paper due on Sunday, so I’m - I was - trying to work on that, but - “ She cuts off with a sigh.
“Bronwyn.” His voice is soft, gentle. “What’s going on?”
And then she breaks. “I’m tired, Nate," she cries. "I’m exhausted. I’ve been working on this paper for the past three hours and all I have is a paragraph, which isn’t even good." Bronwyn groans in frustration, looking at what Nate assumes is her laptop screen with distaste. "And I still have to work on my personal statements for law school and study for midterms and there's work and - and I don't know. There’s just so much and I'm so stressed. I can’t even sleep at night because of everything I have to do and I just - " She takes a breath and sniffs. "It's a lot.”
Nate's heart clenches. He hates not being able to wipe her tears away.
“Okay, hey. Hey. Close your laptop.”
Bronwyn meets his eyes. “No. What? I have to work on it. It's 20 pages and I've done nothing."
“You’re not working on it tonight. You’ve written papers in a day before easily.”
“Yeah, but this one is harder and it’s half my grade, Nate. I can’t just BS it.”
“You won’t. I’ll help you with it, but not tonight. Tonight, we talk. I haven’t talked to you in ages.”
“We talked two days ago.”
“As I said, ages.”
Bronwyn laughs and moves to put her laptop on her nightstand, before falling onto her bed. She takes a breath and looks at her ceiling. “Yeah. That’s another thing. I miss you. A lot. You’d think this would be easier after three years, but it feels harder than ever. I mean, I know the apartment is important and law school is also important, and I get that, but ugh. It really sucks. Everything just really, really sucks.”
“It does,” he agrees. “But what, only 40 days left until fall break, right?”
“46,” she corrects sadly.
“You know what that means?” Nate asks.
Bronwyn looks at him. “That I have to wait 46 whole days until I see you?”
He grins at her. “No, it means you get 46 kisses when you do see me.”
Bronwyn shakes her head. “No, not 46. 84. One for every day we’ve been apart.”
In the past years that Bronwyn’s been at Yale, she and Nate would take turns to visit the other on the weekends every few weeks. This year, though, they decided to sacrifice their visits, because Nate needs to save money and Bronwyn has an extremely stressful schedule of senior classes, extracurriculars, legal internship, and working on law school applications.
They haven’t seen each other since Nate dropped her off at the airport at the start of the semester and it’s been even more horrible than they imagined.
“84?" Nate raises an eyebrow and looks up as if he's contemplating her number. His fingers go up to his left ear, toying with the little silver hoop he's had for 14 years. "Don’t know if my lips are strong enough for that.”
“Oh, don't be so modest, Nate. I know they are.”
He laughs, meeting her eyes again. “Then your wish is my command.”
Bronwyn smiles and turns to lay on her side, resting her head on her arm as she looks at him. “So, how has your week been? How’s school and work and everything going? How's Stan?"
Nate picks up a pen and twirls it, as he leans back in his chair. “It’s been good. School is school. Midterms are next week, so I'm also, you know, studying. Work is the same old. I do have my first ever independent project to work on."
"Ooh, what is it?"
After the bomb incident, Nate's arm luckily had a full recovery. But he had to be careful with heavy lifting and refrain from putting his arm under too much stress, so working in construction ended up not being the safest thing for him to do. Fortunately for Nate, Mr. Myers had a friend who was a commercial architect and Nate was able to start working for him.
"I have to design a plan for a building the company’s been hired for and present it to the group in two weeks. That's a little nerve wracking, but... And Stan is Stan. He misses you.”
“I miss him, too. What else?” Bronwyn prods. “Tell me more. I don’t want to sleep yet.”
“Actually, there was something I wanted to talk to you about. Remember that school I was telling you about in L.A.? The one with the architecture program.”
“Woodbury? I remember.”
“Yeah. So, um.” Nate's gaze fixes on the pen in his hand. “I think I want to apply.”
Bronwyn’s eyes light up. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. They have a really awesome program and I could do an internship with a major architect firm in my senior year. I really want to go," Nate says in a rush. "I really like this architect thing, y’know. There’s so much more I wanna learn. And I mean, I don’t know. I think I’d do well.”
“You would. You’re already amazing.” Bronwyn beams at him and he offers a small smile in return.
“I talked to my advisor, and she says that with my GPA and the courses I’ve already taken for my associate’s, transferring will be easy and I probably have a good shot for a scholarship. And I could do work-study or apply for a grant or something for the rest of the tuition, so it should be manageable.”
"Looks like you have it all figured out," Bronwyn says.
He gives her a half smile, then his eyes flick up to the wall above his desk. “It’s crazy to think about. I mean, I never even thought I’d get through high school, and now.” He exhales. “Now, here I am, about to have two college degrees under my belt and soon, maybe, a bachelor’s, too. College and me… it’s not something you’d think would go together.”
“Not so long ago you thought you and I didn’t fit, either. And look at how wrong you were.”
He looks at her, the corner of his lips lifting up. “That’s why you’re the one who wears the smarty pants in this relationship.”
“You’re smarter than you give yourself credit for.”
Nate doesn't say anything, just makes a noncommittal sound to brush off her compliment.
“You are, Nate. God, you’re so much more than you think yourself to be and I hate that you don’t see that.”
“I’m getting there,” he says quietly, a faint smile on his face. “Baby steps, right?”
“I’m really proud of you, you know.”
“I couldn’t have done it without you.”
“Neither could I.”
Nate rolls his eyes, amused.
“No, I’m serious. Yeah, I probably would’ve still gotten through Yale, but not in one piece,” Bronwyn says, her eyes earnest as she looks at him. “You’ve kept me from losing my mind. You’ve taken care of me in a way better than anyone else ever has. That’s a big thing, so, thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Nate says softly. “And you’ve done the same for me.”
It’s quiet for a moment and soon Bronwyn’s eyes start to close.
“Nate?”
“Yeah?”
“I know you’re busy, but can you stay on the phone with me?” she asks, her words slurring due to her tiredness. “Just until I fall asleep. I sleep better with you, and I just - I really - ”
“I’m not going anywhere, baby. I’m here. Go to sleep.”
“Okay. I love you,” she mumbles.
“I love you, too. And take off your glasses.”
“Hmm? Oh, right.” Eyes closed, she fumbles with her glasses, drops them on her nightstand, and then snuggles into her pillow, her phone next to her face. “Good night, Nate.”
“Sweet dreams, sweet thing.”
A light giggle escapes her mouth and then, in seconds, she’s out.
True to his word, Nate doesn’t go anywhere. He stays on the call long after she’s fallen asleep. Through finishing his homework, through getting ready for bed, his phone stays next to him. And then, when he’s going to bed himself, he puts the phone on the pillow next to his, her soft breathing eventually lulling him to sleep. It stays there the entire night, just in case her anxiety wakes her up and she needs someone to help her fall back asleep.
She doesn’t.
It’s the best sleep either of them has had in months.
It’s Friday afternoon and Bronwyn’s in bed, laying on her stomach with her laptop in front of her, as she attempts to tackle her midterm paper that’s due in two days. Fridays are one of her more relaxing days, with only one class in the morning and no other responsibilities for the rest of the day except for homework, but this paper has ruined everything.
Okay, maybe she’s being a little overdramatic, but it really does feel that way.
She tightens her ponytail and glares fiercely at the document on her screen. “Okay. Let's do this. We are going to make progress today!”
As she reads over the few paragraphs she wrote the day before, she hears the front door of her apartment open and hears murmurs of conversation. She groans. There’s no way she’ll be able to focus if her roommates are having their friends over, but she’s already in her pajamas and she’s too lazy to change and then walk all the way to the library.
She’s tugging her earbuds from her nightstand when the door to her room opens. She turns around, ready to tell her roommate to get out, but the words disappear when she sees who’s in the doorway.
“Nate?”
There in all his Nate Macauley glory, black leather jacket and devilish smirk, stands the man himself, a bag over his shoulder and a plastic container in hand. “Surprise, Rojas.”
“Oh my God. Nate!” Bronwyn jumps off her bed and runs into his open arms. The container drops onto her dresser next to him and his bag to the floor, as he catches her with ease and she wraps her legs around his waist. “Oh my God,” she says again, burying her face in the space between his neck and shoulder. “What are you doing here?”
“You have a paper due on Sunday and I said I'd help,” Nate says into her hair.
Bronwyn pulls back to look at him, incredulous. “You flew all the way over here to help me with my paper?” His reply is a grin and a single nod of his head. “You’re ridiculous. You’re supposed to be saving for your apartment!”
Bronwyn was set on going to UCLA for law school (she had gotten as much Ivy League experience as she’d wanted and she missed California). To make sure they wouldn’t have to do any type of distance again while she was in law school, Nate had decided to get an apartment in L.A (which he was planning on asking her to move into with him, but shh, it's a surprise!). The only problem with this was that rent in L.A. was a nightmare, which is why Bronwyn had insisted on him not putting any money towards plane tickets to come see her this semester.
Sometimes, he decides not to listen to her.
Nate sets her down on her feet. “I’ll have to work a few more shifts, so what? You’re more important than the apartment.”
Bronwyn smiles at him. “I missed you.”
Nate wraps an arm around her shoulders and pulls her into him again. “God, me too. So much,” he says, pressing his lips to the top of her head. “Also,” he releases her and grabs the container from her dresser, “Brownies for my Bronie-wyn.” His face scrunches. “That sounded better in my head.”
She raises an eyebrow, her lips quirking up, as she takes the box from him. “You bake now?”
Nate shrugs. “Cooper came to visit last week and we hung out and that may or may not have happened in the kitchen.”
Bronwyn blinks at him. “You’re giving me a week-old brownies?”
“No. I made these last night. But it's all Cooper’s recipe, so if they don’t taste good, take it up with him,” he says defensively.
“And if they are good?”
Nate smirks. “Oh, girl, that’s all me.”
Bronwyn takes a brownie out of the container and takes a bite. She chews thoughtfully while Nate looks at her expectantly. “Well?”
She swallows and glances up at him. “Nate Macauley, ever considered a career as a pastry chef?”
He lights up, taking one for himself. “Something else to add to my resume. Now, come on. We have a paper to write.”
“What? You just got here. Don’t you want to rest?”
“I drank, like, three cups of coffee at the airport and on the plane, I’m good. I only have you until Monday and I want to have fun with you, and I know you won’t be relaxed until you finish this paper, so we’re not leaving this room until you finish it.” Nate picks up his backpack and takes her hand, walking to her bed. “Did the article I sent you help?”
Bronwyn pulls her laptop into her lap as she sits down. “Yeah, it helped a lot, actually. I have six pages written so far.” She turns the screen towards him, so he can read it.
He skims through what she’s written and nods. “Okay. Looks pretty good. What point are you tackling next?”
Bronwyn walks him through her notes and ideas, and Nate offers notes and ideas of his own when needed. They do this for the next few hours, though not without distractions (“We have 84 kisses to get through. Better get started now.”). But even with his distractions, Nate’s presence motivates her to get through her paper.
Nate passed out on her lap an hour ago while working on a blueprint assignment for class, which is how Bronwyn finds herself formatting her references single-handedly as her other hand absentmindedly combs through his hair.
A grin overtakes her face as she finishes her last reference.
“Nate,” she whispers, gently shaking his shoulder. “Nate. I finished.”
He blinks and squints in the light, turning to Bronwyn. “What?”
She brushes the hair away from his forehead and smiles at him. “I’m done with my essay.”
“Oh my God.” He sits up and takes the laptop from her, eyes flickering over the screen. “You did it! See, I told you." He turns to her, pressing a kiss to the side of her head. "I’m so proud of you.”
“Thanks to you,” she says, smiling at him. “Can you proofread it for me in the morning before I submit it?”
Nate nods, closing the laptop and putting it to the side. “Now, movie night to celebrate?”
“No!” Bronwyn exclaims.
Nate raises an eyebrow, confused at her little outburst.
“We need to do something special!” Bronwyn says. When Nate still doesn’t understand why she doesn't just want to do a movie night, Bronwyn sighs, giving him a little shake. “To celebrate you going to Woodbury!”
Nate rolls his eyes, sliding off the bed. “I haven’t even applied yet. I might not get in.”
Bronwyn leans over across the bed to his side. “Of course, you will. You - ” Her eyes catch on a sketch in Nate’s sketchbook that fell to the floor as he got off the bed. “What’s this?” She starts to pick it up, but Nate’s hand intercepts, taking it from her fingers before she can take a look at his work.
“Nothing.”
She looks at him expectantly.
“It’s just an assignment,” he says, pushing the sketchbook into his bag. “Nothing important.”
Bronwyn bites her lip. Nate’s always been shy about his sketches, but he’s never explicitly hidden anything from her. She wants to push, but he’s facing her again, an easy grin on his face, and she can’t help but smile back. It probably really is nothing.
“Wanna go get ice cream?”
It's Saturday morning and Nate is at Bronwyn’s desk, reading over her essay while she's in the shower. He's about halfway through when she comes back into the room, stopping at his side.
"Hey."
"Hey. I'm just going over your paper."
Bronwyn unwraps the towel from her head, shaking her hair out. "Oh, good. How's it going?"
"Hey, watch it." Nate looks at her, mock disgusted at her hair dripping on him.
She sticks out her tongue at him in return and continues to pat her hair dry with the towel, but now with more exaggeration, sending more water droplets flying onto Nate's skin.
He wraps an arm around her waist and tugs her into his lap.
She squeals. "Nate. Let me go. I have things to do."
Nate pulls her closer, tightening his hold. He raises an eyebrow at her. "What, pray tell, is more important than spending time with your sweet, sexy boyfriend?"
"Absolutely nothing," Bronwyn admits, wrapping her arms around Nate's neck, and brings her smile to his lips.
He nods. "That's what I thought." He pulls away, glancing back at the laptop screen. "And your essay is great, as expected."
"Yay."
Bronwyn leans her head into the crook of his neck. His shirt quickly becomes damp, but he barely even notices over the scent of her green apple shampoo that he loves so much.
They spend the next half hour like this, Bronwyn settled in his lap, alternating between admiring her sweet, sexy boyfriend as he reads her paper and scrolling through her phone, and Nate holding her close, his hand only momentarily leaving her whenever he catches a grammar error to fix.
"And done." Nate announces, as his eyes skim the last of her references.
Bronwyn looks up from her phone. "And? Final verdict?"
Nate turns to her. "Your best paper yet, babe," he assures, kissing her forehead.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. Now, you submit that while I go take a shower, and then we can hang out." He gently nudges her out of his lap, standing up.
"And by 'hanging out' you mean studying for your midterms, right?" Bronwyn asks pointedly, as he moves to take clothes out of his bag.
Nate groans, his head falling over his backpack. "Leave it to you to take the fun out of everything."
"Hey! Studying can be fun."
"If you say so." But it's true. Studying with Bronwyn is always more fun than studying alone.
He stands and ruffles her hair, then leaves to take his shower.
Twenty minutes later, he enters the room again, ruffling a towel through his hair. His hand goes still when he sees the sight in front of him.
“I didn’t know we snooped through each other’s stuff now," he says shortly.
Bronwyn startles from where she's sitting on her bed. She turns to look at him, his sketchbook in her lap, open to a page he really didn't want her to see.
“I didn’t know we still kept stuff from each other," she replies in a tone matching his. She lifts the sketchbook so he can see the sketch he already has ingrained in his brain. "What is this?”
Nate throws the towel over the back of her chair and walks towards her. “It’s nothing. Just a stupid assignment.”
Bronwyn's eyes blaze with fire. “You did not just call our house stupid."
“It’s not our - It’s just…” Nate sighs. “It’s a house,” he finishes lamely. He shakes his head, picking the sketchbook from her hands, and tosses it on her desk. “No. We are not talking about this."
“Yes, we are.”
He ignores Bronwyn, takes his jacket off the hook on her wall, and walks to the door. "I'm gonna go get coffee. Want anything?"
“Nate.”
He stops but doesn’t turn around.
Over the years, the main reason for their fights and short-lived break-ups is Bronwyn wanting to talk about everything and Nate not wanting to talk about everything. It's annoying, but he'll be damned if they break up now, over a stupid figment of his imagination.
He sighs. “Fine. Talk.”
Bronwyn comes up behind and wraps her arms around his waist. His breath hitches.
“It’s just a house?” she asks quietly.
“Mhm.”
He’s lying. And he knows she knows he's lying. He would let himself die before ever scrawling a little 'N + B' inside a tiny heart on the sketch of a front door of just a house.
He feels her nod against his back. “Okay. But, for the record,” Bronwyn leans up and presses her lips to his ear. Her breath is a soft warmth against his skin as she whispers, “I love that house. That’s the house I’d want to build a home in with you.”
Nate swallows.
Bronwyn unravels herself from him. He stands still for a second before slowly turning around. He looks at her, eyes wary with a touch of hope.
“Yeah?”
She nods. “Mhm.”
“You don’t have to say that for my benefit.”
Bronwyn rolls her eyes. “When have I ever said anything to you for your benefit? I always call out your BS and I would do it now, too, if needed. And it's not." A look of hurt emerges in her eyes. "But why wouldn't you share this with me?"
Nate averts his gaze. He runs a hand through his hair, sighing. “I didn’t want to put a dent in your plans.”
Bronwyn’s eyebrows furrow in confusion. “What?”
He turns to her again. “Marriage is in year nine of your ten year plan, after you’ve graduated law school and secured a job. I didn’t want you to feel like I was asking you to settle down with me before all of that. I didn’t want you to feel that I wanted you to give up your dreams, because I don’t!" he assures quickly. "I want you to accomplish everything you’ve ever wanted. I don’t mind waiting a few more years. It’s just - ” He shrugs, tucking his hands in the pockets of his jeans and looking down at his feet. In a quieter voice, he finishes his statement. “Sometimes I like thinking about it. Our future. That’s all.”
It’s silent for a moment. Nate refuses to look up. His heart is beating out of his chest.
Why won’t she say anything?
Then, she does.
“I could never settle down with you, Nate,” is all Bronwyn says before walking over to her desk.
Now Nate’s confused, and his panic spikes.
Okay, maybe the confession of wanting to spend the rest of his life with her was a bit out of the blue, but he was sure she wanted the same eventually. Why would she say ‘never’? Didn't she just say she wanted to build a home with him?
Nate’s still standing by the door, hands sweaty and shoulders tense, as Bronwyn rummages through one of her desk drawers. She pulls out a notebook and sits on the bed, then looks over at Nate and pats the spot next to her, gesturing for him to come sit down.
The wariness is evident on Nate’s face, but he walks over and sits down next to her. Bronwyn flips through the notebook until she lands on the page she’s looking for and hands it to him.
Nate looks down at the pages in his hands. It’s a spread of her ten year plan, something he’s already seen before when Bronwyn first showed him as she was starting Yale. But, across the black checkboxes and bullet points are new squiggles in red ink. He looks up at her, a question in his eyes.
“I still want to accomplish everything that’s written in here,” she explains, “but I realized that planning everything in your life to the dot is stupid. If I’m a law school graduate three years from now, great! And if I’m not and it takes me, like, five years or something to get a law degree, then that’s also great. I just want a law degree; it doesn’t matter when I get it.”
Nate nods. “Okay. That makes sense. But I still don’t understand, why - ”
Bronwyn flips the page, where it shows the last three years of her ten year plan. There, in her year nine section, ‘marriage’ is crossed out with that red ink and to the side of it, in small red letters, it says, “Marry Nate whenever the time feels right.”
“I could never settle down with you, Nate,” she repeats, “because whenever I’m with you, I feel like I’m falling and flying and floating all at once. Have I ever told you that?”
Nate slowly shakes his head, his words lost as he stares at the red letters, a finger hovering over them, too scared to actually touch them in case they end up disappearing.
“Well, it’s true. And I know it’s never going away.”
“When did you change this? Your plan?”
Bronwyn sits back on her hands. “After I came back from Ashton’s wedding. The bomb - It was the worst thing I’ve ever experienced. And all that waiting at the hospital.” Her eyes fall to the lasting scars on Nate’s arm and she shudders at the memory. “I was terrified I was going to lose you, Nate, and I couldn’t bear the thought of that. It was horrifying.”
A tear escapes her eye, and Nate reaches over to brush it away.
“I realized then that living your life by a structured plan was dumb, since life never goes nearly as planned anyway. And I also realized then that you were it for me. I couldn’t imagine my life without you and I never wanted to.”
“Why did you never tell me?”
“I didn’t want to scare you away," Bronwyn admits.
“What?”
Bronwyn sighs, pulling her hands out from under her legs. “You haven’t always been the most committed person in the past.”
“I’ve always been committed with you,” Nate says, wrapping his fingers around her hand.
She smiles lightly at him, threading her fingers through his. “Yeah, but even so, you’d run when things got hard,” she reminds him.
He can’t argue with that. He did shut her out after he got out of jail and so many times after when their long distance had gotten stressful.
He rubs his thumb over her hand, and his eyes flicker back to the red letters. “Did it ever feel like the time was right?”
“A few times,” she says. “Mainly last summer. You’d just finished your business associate’s and were getting ready to start your architect one, and I was ready to become your wife right then and there.”
Nate’s smirk is teasing as he looks at her. “Bronwyn Rojas, I didn’t take you for a gold digger.”
She rolls her eyes, shoving his shoulder. “It was your passion that made you hot, not your future income.”
“And now?” he asks.
“You’re still hot. Sometimes.”
Now it’s his turn to roll his eyes. “No. I meant your stance on marriage.”
Bronwyn picks up a paperclip from her nightstand and begins messing with it. “I’m not saying we get married today or tomorrow, or even this year, but I’m also not saying we have to wait five more years.” She looks at him. “Whenever the time feels right, we’ll know. What I do know right now, is that there’s only you for me and I’m perfectly fine with that. Because,” she takes his left hand and slips on the little ring she’s fashioned out of the paperclip. “Nate Macauley, I want forever with you. What do you say?”
Nate glances down at the wire on his finger and then up at her, his gaze full of love and adoration. He’s pretty sure his smile is as bright as the sun, just like hers.
“I promise I’m not running away from you. Ever.” He pulls off a paperclip from one of the pages in her notebook. He unbends it, then twists it around her left ring finger. “The rest of my life is yours, Bronwyn Rojas.”
She looks down at the makeshift ring he’s put on her and then grins, throwing her arms around his neck. “Did we just get engaged?”
Nate throws her notebook to the side and his hands go to her hips, lowering her down onto the bed. “Seems so, Rojas.”
“Awesome!”
He smiles, lowering his face down to hers. Before he can kiss her, she says, “I do have some notes for the house, though.”
He narrows his eyes at her. “You said you loved it.”
“I do! I just have some, uh - minor notes.” Bronwyn smiles innocently at him.
Nate shakes his head, not being able to hide the smile emerging on his lips. “Of course you do. But later.”
“Later," she agrees.
Nate bends down again to bring his lips to hers when she cuts him off again.
“Wait!”
He groans, his forehead falling to her shoulder. “Just let me kiss you, woman.”
“Just one thing. We don’t tell anyone about this.”
His eyebrows furrow as he looks at her.
“Not yet. I want it to be just ours for a little while.”
Nate smiles his devilish smile. “Forever your dirty little secret, aren’t I?”
Bronwyn raises her eyebrows, challenging him. “Got a problem with that?”
“No, can’t say that I do.”
And then he finally gets to kiss his fiancée. And guess what? It’s even better than kissing his girlfriend.
It's Sunday evening and Bronwyn’s having dinner at her grandparents' house, as she does every Sunday. This week, though, Nate's here too, seated next to her at the dining table. He tugs her right hand so it rests on his leg under the table, his thumb rubbing circles over it as he talks to her grandparents. Bronwyn’s not sure if he's become more touchy since yesterday because he’s leaving tomorrow morning or because they're now engaged. Either way, she doesn't care. She loves the comfort his fingers bring her, and she wants as much of it as she can before he leaves.
Dinner for her grandparents is normally a simple affair, but when Bronwyn comes over her abuela goes all out, and when she heard Nate was coming over too today, she prepared a five course meal. On the table in front of them, there’s dishes of arepas and arroz con pollo, along with bandeja paisa, the giant platter consisting of red beans, fried eggs, plantains, and grilled beef.
“Abuela, we cannot eat all of this.” Bronwyn says to her grandmother as she walks in with yet another dish.
“Nonsense. Look at how scrawny you and Nate are.” She tsks in disapproval, setting down the steaming pile of tamales, which Nate immediately reaches for. “Ay, careful, mijo. They’re very hot.”
“Don’t worry, Mrs. Rojas. I got it.” He picks one up and drops it into his plate. Then, he leans over closer to Bronwyn, his lips touching her earlobe. "I've had years of experience dealing with something much hotter after all."
Bronwyn’s body tingles at his low, husky tone. "Oh my God, Nate. That wasn't even one of your better lines." She shoves him away, but she fails to suppress her smile.
Nate lets out a small chuckle. He kisses the small spot behind her ear before turning back to his tamales.
"I was just telling Bronwyn how amazing your tamales are," he says to Bronwyn’s grandmother.
There's a glint in her eyes and a knowing smirk on her face as she looks at him. "Ah, yes. My tamales."
Bronwyn leans forward to grab one herself. "Okay, don't hog all of them. I want some, too."
"So, Nate," Bronwyn’s grandfather speaks, "how have you been, mijo? We haven’t seen you in a while."
"I've been good, Mr. Rojas. Just been busy with school and work and stuff."
"He’s going to architecture school next year!" Bronwyn blurts.
Everyone turns to her. Then, her grandparents turn to Nate, who's still looking at her.
She smiles sheepishly, taking a bite of her tamale. "Sorry. I was excited and you're not letting me tell Addy and Cooper, so."
Nate shakes his head, amused. He turns back to her grandparents. "I'm applying to Woodbury in L.A. for their bachelor’s in architecture. I was waiting to actually apply before telling anyone," he says, looking pointedly at Bronwyn, who pretends eating her tamale requires all her attention.
"That's great, Nate!" Bronwyn's abuela exclaims.
"Do you know what field of architecture you'd like to go into? Or are you still exploring your options?" Bronwyn's grandfather asks.
Bronwyn's eyes fix on Nate. She's curious, too. He's mentioned a few different areas of architecture he was interested in before, but he hasn't told her if he's decided on one.
"Residential," he replies easily. He moves his fork around in the rice on his plate. "I want to design good and safe homes for families who're homeless and at-risk kids. They deserve to live in a good neighborhood just as anyone else. Not in some shabby, run-down shack with the doors falling off the hinges and a permanent infestation of termites."
Bronwyn beams at him. Oh, how she loves him and his heart of gold.
Bronwyn's abuelo nods, smiling approvingly at Nate. "That's a great venture, mijo. You're going to change lives."
Bronwyn doesn't miss the flush creep up in Nate’s cheeks as he looks down at the rice he's moving around on his plate. "Well, I don't know how successful I'll be. People aren't very concerned about kids having good homes, so long as they just have a home. Good or not."
“Which is why it’s so important you pursue this,” her grandfather says to him. “These kids need people like you, and Bronwyn, who actually care about them and will help them in the ways that actually matter, like making sure they have a safe and secure environment to live in and protecting them from the injustice that is our justice system,” he says, nodding his chin towards Bronwyn.
Simon’s death was a lot of things to say the least, but the one thing it did was help Bronwyn find her passion. Seeing Nate get arrested for a crime he didn’t commit simply based on circumstantial evidence, opened Bronwyn’s eyes to detrimental flaws in the legal system. And then after Nate was released and she started to do more research, she came across so many horrifying stories and statistics of kids who had it so much worse than Nate. She read about kids who had been placed into solitary confinement and had to go through detoxes in isolation. About how many kids were incarcerated unfairly simply on the basis of the color of their skin. About how the lack of social support and peaceful reintegration into society upon release led to a continuous in deviant behavior, causing a terrible perpetual cycle that was so hard to break out of.
Bronwyn had been filled with a fiery rage upon reading these articles and she had decided then that she was going to go to law school and become a juvenile defense attorney to hopefully help break this cycle for at least one kid.
She notices everyone staring at her. She hadn’t realized she had spaced out.
“Yes?”
"Your grandparents asked how work was today," Nate tells her, his smile smug.
Now it's her turn to blush. "Ah, um, funny story. I didn't go to work this week."
Her abuelo raises an eyebrow at her. "Why not?"
"I told them I had a family emergency." Her grandparents stare at her. "It's not a lie!" Bronwyn says defensively. "Nate showed up unannounced, which some may argue warrants an emergency, and he is my family, so not a lie!"
"Bronwyn," her grandfather mock sighs. "You can't throw away your future for a boy," he says, mimicking her father.
Although her dad had warmed up to Nate and was overall supportive of their relationship, he couldn't help but still be a bit wary of Nate. It was something he was working on, but it had become a running joke in their family. Even Nate had joined in on their family's antics, never missing an opportunity to remind Mr. Rojas of his delinquent past with a cheeky grin on his face.
"Oh, come on, abuelo," Bronwyn groans, playing along. "It was only two days. I couldn’t lose any time with Nate."
"She's right. She should enjoy her moments with Nate right now. Not everyone is lucky enough to experience the beauty of young love. They should enjoy it while it lasts." Bronwyn's grandmother beams at them.
Bronwyn's grandfather turns to his wife, nothing but affection in his eyes. He grabs her hand. "Not true, mi amor. We're living proof it can last forever."
Bronwyn smiles at her grandparents, then turns to Nate, finding him already staring at her, a similar look of affection in his eyes. Her smile widens because she knows he’s thinking the same thing as her.
If we’re lucky, that’ll be us one day.
“So, tell us about your week, then, cariño” Bronwyn’s grandmother says.
She twists back to face her grandparents, scooping up rice on her fork. “This week started off rough, goodness. But my little angel over here helped me with my paper and saved me from losing it, so it ended up being a pretty good week.”
“Just ‘pretty good’?” Nate asks.
Bronwyn shrugs. “Well, I guess it was pretty awesome, actually. I got two of my midterm grades back. Both A’s.” She smirks at him.
“That’s my girl,” her grandfather says proudly.
“How’s our other girl?” her abuela asks.
“Oh, she’s perfectly fine,” Nate replies. “She adjusted to college so much faster than I did.”
Maeve had decided to go to community college this year after taking a gap year so she could figure out what she wanted to do with her life before committing to anything. Since Nate was at the same school, he’d taken the responsibility to guide her and mentor her through her first months at college. Part of Bronwyn was sad that she wasn’t the one to help her little sister through all of it, after having been the source of all her help her entire life, but she knew how good Nate was with Maeve and she was glad Maeve had someone like him to look out for her when she couldn’t.
“I miss her,” Bronwyn says glumly. “I haven’t seen her in months and I feel like she’s gonna be all changed when I see her again.”
Nate snorts over his cup of water. “Oh, don’t worry. She’s still same old Maeve. She literally hacked into my account and took thirty dollars, like, last week. She’s not changing anytime soon.”
“Excuse me?” Bronwyn looks at him. “Wait, how do you know it was her and not an actual hacker?”
“Uh, maybe because she couldn’t stop showing off her new jacket to me when I saw her the next day or maybe because she’s the only one who ever steals money from me.”
Bronwyn’s eyes widen. “You mean she’s done this before? Nate! You can’t just let her keep stealing money from you! You need to save for the apartment and college.”
Nate laughs. “It’s cool, Bronwyn. We have a thing.”
“You have a thing with my sister?”
“Don't make it sound weird, Bronwyn. I just mean I finally have the annoying, younger sister I’ve always wanted and she finally has the cooler, older sibling she’s always wanted. So we’re having fun. She steals my money and I crash her dates with Luis, embarrassing the hell out of her. It’s fun.”
Bronwyn scowls. “Hey!”
Nate looks at her with a smirk. “Oh, sorry. Did I say ‘older sibling’? I meant ‘older brother’.”
“Mhm.”
They continue to bicker and tease each other as if they’ve forgotten about the presence of her grandparents. But her grandparents don’t mind. They watch them silently, sharing secret smiles over their glasses of wine.
Because while both Bronwyn and Nate are very smart, they still tend to have their dumb moments. Today was one of them. They didn’t take off their paperclip rings and of course, her grandparents are very perceptive, so they saw them immediately. They don’t bring it up, though, letting the kids enjoy their bliss in private.
They’re just happy their little Bronwyn has found the other half of her heart and that that other half of her heart is Nate.
It’s the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and Nate is helping Bronwyn off his bike. She has a blindfold over her eyes, but she’s been here plenty to know he’s brought her to Marshall’s Peak.
Nate takes her hand and guides her to wherever he wants to take her.
“I swear, Nate, if you’re about to break your promise, I will kill you.”
“Ah, but you wouldn’t be able to, because you’d already be dead.”
“Don’t underestimate my murdering skills.”
He laughs. “Don’t worry, neither one of us is dying tonight.”
She pauses when he stops and then she feels him go behind her. His arms go around her, pulling the blindfold off her eyes. She gasps when she sees the sight in front of her.
There, near the edge of the cliff, are two poles stuck into the ground with a white bed sheet hanging between them. Strings of lights are wrapped around the poles and going across from one pole to the other on top and beneath the sheet. In front of Bronwyn and Nate is a little table set up with a projector and snacks. On the ground in between the makeshift movie screen and the table a blanket is spread out with pillows and fake flower petals scattered on top.
Bronwyn turns to Nate. “You did all of this?”
He nods. “We haven’t gotten a chance to actually celebrate, so I had to do something.”
“It’s perfect, Nate.” She leans up to kiss him.
“And that’s Kiss Number 43.” He grabs her hand again and leads her to the blanket.
“What movie are we watching?” A realization strikes her and she turns to him worriedly. “Please don’t tell me we’re watching a horror movie.”
Nate smirks, moving to press play on the projector. “Okay, I won’t tell you. You can just see for yourself.”
“Nate,” Bronwyn whines. “I can’t watch a horror movie on the edge of a cliff. At night!”
“It’s not even night, yet,” Nate points out. “The sun is still setting.”
Bronwyn just glares at him.
He sits down next to her, placing a bowl of popcorn in front of them. Wrapping an arm around her shoulder, he brings her closer into him. He kisses the top of her head. “Don’t worry. I’m right here.”
The movie starts and Bronwyn watches the screen warily. Then, they’re 20 minutes in and Bronwyn’s exceptionally bored.
The horror of this movie is how much it sucks. She couldn’t even pretend to be scared if she tried.
She pokes Nate’s side. “Nate.”
His gaze is still on the screen. “Hmm?”
“This is the worst movie you’ve ever picked.”
He laughs, looking at her. There’s a glint in his eyes as he says, “Good thing I brought back up, then.”
He stands up and goes back to the projector.
Bronwyn swallows a handful of popcorn and when she looks up at the screen again, there’s a pink screen with ‘The Nate and Bronwyn Story’ in giant cursive across it.
She turns to Nate as he walks back to her, perplexed.
He smiles, returning his arm back over her shoulders and grabbing a handful of popcorn for himself.
“Just watch.”
It was a Monday in March when little Nate Macauley fell in love with Bronwyn Rojas, comes Nate’s overly deep voice from the speakers. As Nate narrates, the screen shifts to sketched out scenes that follow what he’s describing.
Bronwyn leans into Nate as she watches their story play out on screen. She sees the sketched versions of them play out her life with Nate from when they were kids all the way until now.
She tears up more than once.
At the end of the “movie”, a montage of their pictures plays with Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” in the background.
“Dance with me?”
Bronwyn faces Nate, who’s now standing, a hand held out to her.
She smiles and takes his hand as she stands.
Her arms wrap around his neck, while his wrap around her waist, and they sway to the music.
“This was the best thing ever, Nate. I can’t even describe how much I loved it.”
“I’m glad you liked it.”
He spins her out. When she turns back to him, he reaches out to place a hand on her leg to steady her.
And then she gasps for the second time that night.
Nate’s on one knee, one hand still on her leg and the other holding a small velvet box.
“Oh my God. Nate.”
Nate grins up at her. “So, you kind of already beat me to this, the little overachiever that you are. But Addy and Maeve would’ve killed me if I didn’t give you an actual proposal, so. Here we are.”
“Hey, this is not on us!” A voice yells from behind Bronwyn.
Bronwyn startles and turns to see Addy, Maeve, and Cooper standing a few feet away, phones in hand, filming her and Nate. They wave to her, grinning.
“For the record, though, we would have killed you,” Maeve adds, looking at Nate over Bronwyn’s shoulder.
“Hey! I am trying to ask my girl to marry me and you guys are ruining it. Shut up,” Nate yells back.
“Apparently, she’s already asked you. Which, what the heck?” Addy screeches.
Nate glares at her, before turning back to look at Bronwyn. “They insisted on coming.”
She smiles. “I’m glad they’re here. Anyways, you were saying?”
“Right.” Nate clears his throat and straightens his shoulders, getting back into the moment. “Bronwyn Rojas, you are the best thing that’s ever happened to me. You are my sun, my heart, my entire life. I love you so much, it’s crazy. I never thought it was possible to love anyone as much as I do you, but there you go, once again proving all odds.”
Bronwyn lets out a small laugh.
“I love everything about you. How smart you are, how much you care about everyone around you, your dedication to things you’re passionate about. I love how you never give up on things that matter to you and how you’re always striving to be better than you already are. I love your terrible taste in movies and how you look in my shirts and how much you make me laugh and there’s so much more, I could keep on going forever. So, I’ll just say this - I have loved you my entire life and I’ll love you for the rest of my entire life. There’s no one else in my life I feel more safe and happy with than I do with you. You make me feel like I’m living my best dreams and without you, I’d be stuck in a nightmare. I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
He opens the box in his hands and Bronwyn’s hand goes up to her mouth when she sees the ring inside.
“So, Bronwyn Rojas, my partner in crime, will you be my partner in life?”
A snort escapes Bronwyn’s lips. “Who fed you that line?”
“Cooper said it’d be cute.”
“I don’t want a Cooper Clay line,” Bronwyn whispers. "I want a Nate Macauley line.”
Nate grins. “Bronwyn Rojas, will you be my study buddy for the rest of our lives?”
Bronwyn chokes on a laugh. “Oh my God, Nate. That’s so not what I meant. But yes.” She’s smiling what Nate calls her sunshine smile.
Addy, Maeve, and Cooper cheer behind them as Nate stands up. Bronwyn’s bouncing on her feet as she waits for Nate to slip the ring over the paperclip on her finger and then crashes her lips on his.
Breaking away, she gazes into his sparkling blue eyes, and grins. “Did we just get engaged again?”
Nate matches her smile. “Seems so, Rojas.”
“Awesome!” And she kisses him again.
When they pull away, Addy, Maeve, and Cooper are next to them.
“Congrats, Bron,” Copper says, kissing her cheek. “You finally secured the man.”
“Thanks, Coop. And your ‘partners in crime, partners in life’ line was cute. You better use it when you propose to Kris. Which is happening when, by the way?”
He blushes, but gives her a little smirk. “Sooner than you think.”
Bronwyn lights up, bouncing on her feet as she gives Cooper a little shake. “Oh my God! Ahhh! I can’t wait, Coop!”
“Hey, do I not get any congratulations? I got engaged, too,” Nate says, looking at Cooper as he moves away.
Cooper grins. “Sorry. I forgot how butthurt you get when we leave you out.” His lips press a sloppy kiss onto Nate’s cheek. “Congrats on finally growing up and asking her, Boy Scout.”
Nate scowls, pushing Cooper away as he laughs. “Oh, get off.”
And then his cheek is hit by a slap from Addy. “Ow! What the hell?” Nate’s hand goes up to his cheek as he glares at her.
She glares back at him. “That’s for annoying me with all your worrying about Bronwyn not saying yes for the past six months. You’re so dumb.”
“At least you were miles away in Peru and only had to deal with him annoying you over the phone,” Maeve says to Addy. “He’d come over literally every day and take over my bed, forcing me to listen to him. And he dragged me to go ring shopping with him, like, fifteen times.”
“Twice, Maeve. It was twice.”
“Oh, it most definitely was not. It was at least five times.”
“I just wanna say I haven’t FaceTimed with Kris in five years as much as I FaceTimed with Nate in the past five months to help with his little movie.” Cooper lets out an exhausted groan at the memory. “I did not know Nate was such a perfectionist, but my God, he’s even worse than you, Bronwyn.”
Nate narrows his eyes at the group. “Keep going and I will push you all over the edge.”
“Do you really want to go back to jail?” Maeve asks.
“It’d be better than dealing with all of you,” Nate fires back.
“And you!” Addy turns her glare to Bronwyn. “You didn’t tell me you and Nate were already engaged! I thought we left our secret-keeping back in high school.”
“We just wanted to keep it to ourselves for a while. We were planning on telling everyone at the party tomorrow.”
“I can’t believe you didn’t even tell me,” Maeve says, putting her hands on her hips. “I’m your sister. We tell each other everything.”
Bronwyn steps forward to hug Maeve. “I know. I’m sorry. But I still want you to be my maid of honor.”
Maeve pulls back. “I’ll have to think about it.” Then she breaks out into a grin. “Obviously, I’m gonna be your maid of honor!”
Bronwyn grins back and hugs her again. “Also, thank you for helping Nate with the ring,” she whispers. “It’s perfect.”
“I knew you’d like it,” Maeve says proudly. “I’m really happy for you.” Then she looks over at Nate. “Also, I knew that wasn’t a memory device.” She juts her chin towards the paperclip ring on his finger. “You’re an idiot.”
Maeve gives Nate a playful shove. He stumbles, and even though they’re not near the edge, Bronwyn reaches out to catch his arm.
“Hey, watch it, Maeve. I don’t wanna marry a ghost.”
Nate’s eyes twinkle as he looks at her. “You’d marry me even in death?”
“I’ve gotten engaged to you twice now. I’m not letting a silly little thing like death keep us apart.”
Smiling, Nate wraps his arm around her shoulders, and kisses the side of her head. “I love you.”
Bronwyn smiles up at him. “I love you, too.”
“Ugh, you two are too cute. It’s nauseating,” Cooper says, sitting down on the blanket.
Maeve follows suit. “Nu-uh. You can’t say that when you and Kris are equally as nauseating.”
“You can’t say anything either, Maeve. I’ve seen Luis’s posts,” Addy says, sitting down with a bag of chips she grabbed off the table. “I’m the only one who gets to complain.”
Bronwyn joins Addy on the floor. “I thought you and Carlos were going strong,” Bronwyn says, referring to Addy’s boyfriend back in Peru.
Addy had loved her experience teaching in Peru during the summer at the end of her gap year so much, she’d decided to stay in Peru for college and major in bilingual education. She’d had a few relationships over the years, but none of them ever stuck. Her most recent relationship was with Carlos, the sweet TA from one of her classes.
Addy sighs, nibbling on a chip. “Yeah, he was perfect. But the chemistry just wasn’t there. I want someone that makes me feel alive, you know?”
“Yeah, I know.” Bronwyn smiles, throwing an arm around Addy. “You’ll find the one, I promise.”
Addy leans her head on Bronwyn’s shoulder. “I hope so. Nate! Play the movie. We didn’t get a prime viewing position.”
Nate does as she says and then joins them on the blanket, settling down next to Bronwyn.
As everyone watches Nate’s cinematic masterpiece, Bronwyn turns to him. “So, you’ve been planning this for six months, huh?”
His eyes are fixed on the movie. “They exaggerated.”
Bronwyn’s lips twist into a mock frown. “Hmm. That’s a shame. Planning is so sexy.”
Nate turns to her. Without saying anything, he grabs her by the waist and pulls her into his lap, her back to his chest. “I said they exaggerated, not that they were lying. I did plan.” His voice lowers as he leans in closer to her ear. “I had a color-coding system and a spreadsheet.”
Bronwyn’s breath hitches. "Oh."
“And,” he continues, slow, breath hot on her neck. “I have a Pinterest account now.”
She turns to face him, eyes wide. “Addy got you to make a Pinterest? No way. You have to show me when we go home.”
Nate twists a strand of her hair around his finger and releases it with a little tug. “Sexy enough for you?” he asks her, challengingly.
“I fear I’d combust if you got any sexier.”
Nate smiles, satisfied, and kisses her.
“But seriously, though. Thank you. You didn’t have to do all of this, but it really is the best thing anyone’s done for me.” Bronwyn’s eyes are full of gratitude as she gazes into his loving ones.
“Anything for you, baby.” He kisses her forehead, before wrapping his arms around her waist. “Now, shh. No talking during the movies.”
Bronwyn settles into him. Her eyes drop to the white sapphire on her left finger and she admires the glint of it in the moonlight, smiling to herself.
It’s the perfect ring. And the boy who gave it to her is even more perfect. She can’t wait to begin the rest of her perfect life with him.
It will be a perfect day in the end of May when
Addy meets Janae Matthews again, who laughs harder at her jokes than she should, listens to all her wild stories of Peru, and then at the end of the night, slips a napkin into her clutch that says, "Call me if you're ever craving waffles."
Cooper is dragged around by Kris, who shoves his hand in everyone’s face so they can see the silver on his left hand, a wide grin on both men's faces.
Maeve squeals as she catches the bouquet of maroon and dusty pink roses and excitedly shows Luis, who simply smirks and twirls her into a dance.
It will be on this perfect day when Bronwyn Rojas walks down the aisle, all dressed in white, to the boy she’s loved her entire life and promises him forever. And it’ll be on this perfect day when Nate Macauley slips on a third ring on the hand of the girl he can’t live without and promises her forever.
It will be a perfect day at the end of May when Bronwyn and Nate Rojas-Macauley start their forever of perfect days.