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Bob Floyd was a romantic, always had been. All he ever wanted was to fall in love with the one. But meeting anyone special was proving to be difficult. Between his babyface, nerdy looks, and awkward, wallflower personality and the fact he had a job that meant long periods away, he hadn’t attracted a lot of interest.
His friends, particularly Hangman, always had a good-natured plan to find him a date or a funny joke about him needing to get laid. The one about having the ability to light a black flamed candle during a Halloween full moon, was his current favourite.
At 31 years old, Bob had never been in love, well except for the massive crush he had on the girl who lived down the street when he was 11.
He just couldn’t help but want to fall stupidly, madly, hopelessly, head over heels in love with the one.
Bob was a little lonely and his right hand was certainly very overworked, but for the most part he was okay with waiting to find them.
You see, 90’s romantic comedies were Bob’s guilty pleasure. He loved watching them with his ma growing up, and after she died, he kept on watching. Firstly, it was because they reminded him of her, but then he grew to appreciate how the characters would fall accidentally in love, in the most ridiculous of ways.
Gradual feelings for your annoying stepbrother, or your teacher when you’re an undercover reporter in high school, or even the sex worker you hired because you were lonely, were the order of the day. So was realising you were in love with the feminist you were paid to date or the arty girl you bet you could make into prom queen or your best friend when they were about to get married.
Your sworn enemy would really end up being the love of your life, or you’d meet up with a stranger you met through talk back radio and live happily ever after. Or like, his ma’s personal favourite, you’d save your pretend comatose fiancé then fall in love with his brother.
He knew those movies were stupid, but Bob secretly hoped that something like that would happen to him.
Sadly, it looked like it he might never get the chance, seeing as he and Phoenix were about to burn into the ocean in the middle of winter.
They had been a successful, formidable team since their first mission with the dagger squad years ago and Phoenix had become the best friend Bob had ever had. They’d been through a lot together but surviving a second ejection from a F-18 seemed pretty unlikely, especially since this time they’d been shot out of the sky.
“Eject, eject, eject!” Phoenix cried out, voice clear and calm despite the fact they were about to abandon their burning aircraft at low altitude and plunge into the almost freezing temperatures below.
Bob didn’t hesitate and grabbed the ejection rings, lifted his head, pulled hard, and was propelled into the air. The rest of the sequence happened on pure instinct, and he anxiously searched the sky, making sure Phoenix had followed. He shakily let out the breath he was holding when he saw her parachute deploy safely seconds after his, and Bob braced himself for the rough landing in the frigid water.
……
Even with adrenaline coursing through Bob, he could tell he was injured. At a minimum, something was pretty wrong with a shoulder and some of his ribs. The ocean had done little to soften the impact of landing, and despite his best efforts to position himself correctly, he’s pretty sure he’d fractured an ankle.
Given the high risk of spinal injuries, protocol stated he should inflate his one-man life raft and stay put, but his seat kit had become detached, and he’d lost it somewhere. At least he had his life preserver around his neck keeping him afloat and there was no way in hell he wasn’t going to find Phoenix. Thankfully his glasses had remained intact under his flight helmet, and he could make her out in the distance.
Bob managed the slow, excruciating process of sidestroke, and conserving as much energy as he could, he made his way towards her. The cold water made it a little difficult to breathe and it pricked him painfully all over his body, and his shoulders and sternum screamed with the effort of swimming.
“Bob!” he heard Phoenix shout as he got closer. He had no idea how long it took him to get to her, but she had managed to inflate her life raft and was inside it, using her hands to paddle towards him.
“Nix… Nix are you okay?” he managed to grit out as he came up alongside her and lifted what he hoped was an uninjured shoulder over the lip of her life raft.
Phoenix barked out a teary laugh. “Not really. My collarbone I think, maybe more. Where’s your raft?”
“Fucked if I know.” Bob chuckled and winced as pain bloomed in his chest with the movement.
Her mouth lifted in a small smirk. “Ah… I think that’s the first time I’ve ever heard you swear Bob.”
“Pretty sure it won’t be the last time today.” He gave her a wry smile and tried to keep calm despite his short breaths and the pins and needles stabbing his extremities from the near freezing water.
“Shit it’s so cold. Is your SATCOM workin’ Nix? Our last coordinates showed we were maybe 20-30 miles north-east from the carrier before we had to eject.”
“Yeah, it’s transmitting. We gotta get you out of that water asap.” Phoenix said anxiously.
Bob shook his head at her. “Too injured. Don’t think I can pull myself up.” And she tried to haul his large upper body out of the water resulting in almost tipping herself out of the raft.
A painful groan ripped from both of them, and Bob stopped her from trying again. “Don’t Nix. You’ll hurt yourself more. There’s not enough room and you don’t need to be in the water too.”
“It’s like that wooden door in ‘Titanic’ all over again. Just don’t let go this time, Rose!” Bob laughed lightly despite the overwhelming situation. His body was shivering, and his heart was pounding. He had started to slowly turn a little numb, so at least he couldn’t feel the pain in his body as much anymore.
Phoenix glared at him with red rimmed eyes. “You and your 90’s fucking rom coms.”
“To b-be fair. I don’t think ‘Titanic’ is cl-classified as romance when a thousand p-people die,” he stuttered as his teeth started to chatter.
“Shit you’re gonna freeze. Bob, I’m so sorry. This is all my fault,” she said softly, pain lacing her voice.
Bob grabbed her hand with the one he had on the raft and squeezed. “N-no way. Don’t you say s-sorry. You d-d-did everythin’ you could, and it helped the t-team get out of there. G-got a couple of good shots off b-before we w-went in… I’m the idiot who l-l-lost their seat pack. Nix just, j-just keep talkin’ to me. Make me laugh. Till s-s-search and r-rescue come.”
He wasn’t an idiot. Even though it was daylight, floating in the frigid ocean in a flight suit, the signs of mild hypothermia were already setting in. If he was lucky, Bob maybe had 45 minutes until he was unconscious. But he needed to keep himself and Phoenix calm and he was pretty sure his calculations about their position was correct.
“You know when we get back, Bagman’s gonna double down on his efforts to get you laid. Near death experience and all that. He’ll probably even offer to fuck you himself.” Phoenix laughed faintly and squeezed his hand.
Bob managed a small smile. “I’m s-sure Roo will h-have somethin’ to s-say ‘bout that. I k-know you g-guys think it’s s-stupid but I d-don’t really c-care ‘bout that, w-wanna be in…”
“Love. Yeah, we know. We think it’s sweet Bob. Have a feeling it’ll be just like those shitty movies you like so much.” Phoenix smiled at him warmly as she interrupted, holding his hand over the side of the raft.
“H-hope s-so. N-not picky how it h-happens. L-love at first s-s-sight or some s-stupid mix up, f-friends who f-f-fall in love. P-pity I d-don’t have the r-r-right equipment or m-maybe you and I c-c-could have ended up together.” Bob joked as he stammered violently from the cold.
“Oh so you swear and you’re a shit too now? You’re right, your cock’s lost on me. I just hope it doesn’t freeze before SAR gets here,” she snickered softly, although her watery eyes showed how upset she was.
“C-can’t feel my dick r-right now s-so it’s entirely p-p-possible it could f-fall off before I g-get to use it a-g-gain,” he snorted weakly. Bob’s brain was starting to go fuzzy so he might be imagining it, but his ears pricked up at a very faint mechanical sound. “D-do you h-hear that N-nix?”
Phoenix listened intently and whipped her head around in every which way, and a small, relieved smile crept over her face. “I think I see it in the distance. I’m gonna set off my smoke flare.”
Bob didn’t follow any particular religion, but he closed his eyes and said a silent prayer to whoever was listening, that Phoenix and himself would be rescued, preferably with all appendages still in working order.
The acrid smell and the sizzling sound signalled that she had ignited their only flare. Bob’s legs and arms were almost completely numb, and he started to feel drowsy. Phoenix must have noticed because she grabbed his upper arm with a tight grip.
“Hey Bob!” she shouted loudly, and his eyes opened at her voice, and he saw the bright, red-orange smoke billowing upwards. “Stay awake! They’re almost here.”
He nodded his head slightly and he fought to keep his eyes on her. “M-maybe todays the d-day I m-meet the one. G-got the r-ring and everythin’…”
“Bob! Hey! Talk to me. What ring?!” Phoenix shook him to keep him awake.
Her jostling kept him from nodding off. “M-my g-g-grandma’s ring. S-s-somethin’ told me t-to put it in m-my flight s-suit t-t-today.”
Phoenix laughed breathlessly, maybe at his comment or in relief at the sound of the helicopter above them. “Where the hell did you think you would meet the love of your life out here?”
Bob was so very tired but vaguely registered someone drop and land in the water, and his eyes grew heavy again as they started swimming towards him and Phoenix.
“M-m-maybe they’ll f-fall out of t-the s-sky…” he mumbled sleepily.
“Holy shit. Robbie…” Bob heard a sweet female voice call out to him before his vision blurred and everything faded into black.
……
YFN sat quietly in a chair next to the bed in medical and let her gaze fall on the man lying in it. Now that he was no longer soaking wet and hypothermic, and not wearing his flight helmet, she could really appreciate how handsome he was. Curly sandy brown hair, long eyelashes, freckled nose, strong jaw and a pouty bottom lip.
His glasses were on the table, so she took the opportunity to play with his curls and trace the features of his face with her finger softly, before she decided it was probably weird to touch a sleeping person like this.
Instead, YFN took his hand in hers and looked at him in part concern, confusion, and awe as she remembered the events of the last couple of hours.
She had been on standby as a SAR for the dagger squad’s mission. They were considered as the finest aviators the US navy had to offer, so ordinarily search and rescue were never usually needed. But the order had come through about a missing F-18 and YFN and the team had been deployed immediately.
When she’d heard Lieutenant Bob Floyd was one of the aviators that had ejected after been fired on by an enemy aircraft, her spine stiffened. Surely it couldn’t be the same Robbie Floyd who she’d had a huge crush on when they were kids. She didn’t even realise they had both ended up in the navy.
But once YFN was in the water, she took one look at the near unconscious man and knew he was one and the same.
After what felt like an eternity of YFN working on him while he was barely conscious in the helicopter, his gorgeous blue eyes fluttered open from behind his wire frames and the relief she felt was immense.
And so was the overwhelming feeling of love.
Even though Robbie, or Bob as he was now called, was very drowsy from hypothermia and in a lot of pain from his multiple injuries, she swore he recognised her and silently mouthed her name.
Then he started mumbling stuff about fate, love, and soulmates and then all of a sudden, a diamond ring was placed on her finger.
The timing and the situation was entirely ridiculous. Plus it was really unprofessional to accept a proposal from an injured, confused man that she just rescued from the ocean.
But YFN couldn’t help but hold hope it was real, the whole thing was just so goddamn romantic.
It was like something out of a 90’s rom com.
YFN was snapped out of her thoughts by the pilot she recognised as the infamous Hangman. “Well well well. What do we have here…”
He had Bob’s pilot Phoenix in a wheelchair, and they approached her. “Who would have known all ‘baby on board’ needed to do to find the future Mrs Floyd was to be shot out of the sky,” he said with a cocky drawl.
YFN shook her head at him and took her hand off Bob’s. “What?! No… I’m not.”
“But you’re wearing his grandma’s ring.” Hangman smirked as he pointed at her hand.
YFN looked at and fiddled nervously with the beautiful foreign object on her finger. “Ah yeah I am. But he put it on there for safe keeping… I think. And he was slipping in and out of consciousness. That doesn’t count as a proposal.”
Phoenix fixed an intense gaze on her. Even though she was wounded and sitting down, she was very intimidating. “It counts. I was there. I saw the way you looked at him. You love him.”
She wasn’t wrong. When they had locked eyes on the helicopter, it was like some magical, fated moment that only exists in the movies and it felt like a kaleidoscope of butterflies had been released in her chest.
But she didn’t want Bob’s friends to know that she’d fallen instantly in love, so she stood her ground. “You were high on morphine.”
“Don’t care. It happened. You’re Bob’s fiancé,” the pilot countered.
“Darlin’ he let you strip his clothes. I’ve been practically shoving him in front of every single person with a heartbeat for years and he’s never even bat an eyelid. But with you… poof… he’s naked.” Hangman laughed as he made magic gestures with his hands.
YFN turned bright red and squeaked. “He had hypothermia, and his flight suit was freezing cold! I was warming him up!”
“Mmm-hmm,” he winked as he flipped a toothpick in his mouth and YFN rolled her eyes at him in frustration.
Phoenix raised an eyebrow at her. “So if you don’t love him, why you haven’t taken off the ring yet.”
Panic began to rise inside of her, she knew she was found out. “I ahh… umm… it’s stuck?”
Phoenix remained unwavering with her stare.
YFN sighed. She gave up denying it and admitted her feelings. “Okay fine. Yes! I’m in love. Accidently in love! I have no idea what happened.”
She looked at them incredulously and started muttering, “I mean who finds the boy who lived down the street that you had a crush on when you were like 11 in the middle of the ocean 20 years later? There’s no way he meant any of it. Right?”
“I knew it. You do know him. You kept calling him Robbie.” Phoenix said smugly and YFN nodded.
Phoenix’s expression changed and she smiled warmly at her. “Look Bob might have been out of it, but he meant it. He’s been waiting for this for a long time.”
YFN’s eyebrows nearly shot into her hairline when she heard Hangman practically squeal in delight. “This is too fuckin’ good! An American hero is shot down and rescued by the girl next door from decades ago. They fall instantly in love and he just so happens to be carrying his grandma’s engagement ring, so proposes while he’s near death! It’s just like one of Bob’s 90’s rom coms.”
She chuckled and looked lovingly at Bob’s resting form and without thinking brushed back the curl of hair that fell on his forehead and smiled at the others. “He still likes those huh? I remember watching them with him and his ma. Her favourite was ‘While…”
“While You Were Sleepin’.” A southern voice croaked out and YFN’s head whipped back to look at Bob who was watching them with a small smile on his face.
“Robbie.” YFN breathed as she took in his cerulean blue eyes. She wasn’t sure what to do next so she blurt out, “Do you… do you want your glasses?”
He nodded and she picked them up and placed them gently on his face as he watched her closely.
“Hi YFN,” he said simply.
She smiled at him and wordlessly offered him water with a straw to his lips and he took a few sips. YFN was mesmerised when he caught a droplet on his lower lip with his tongue and blushed when she heard Phoenix snort a laugh.
“So Bob. How long have you been laying there pretending to be asleep?”
A wry smile spread across his face. “Long before you two came in.”
YFN gasped as she realised, he’d been awake when she’d been caressing his face. “You ass!” she cried out embarrassed and the other three burst out laughing.
“Ow ow ow.” Bob moaned and clutched his ribs at his outburst.
“Serves you right. God you probably think I’m some kind of creep.” YFN muttered.
Bob reached for her left hand and threaded their fingers together. “Not creepy if you love them.”
YFN looked at him in shock. “You… you love me?”
“Of course I do. I opened my eyes in that helicopter and saw you and I just knew. Accidently in love, same as you,” he grinned widely at her.
He lifted their hands and kissed the ring on her finger. “Accidently engaged as well. Although I don’t really remember if you said yes or not.” Bob chuckled.
YFN paled and ripped her hand away and hastily tried to remove his grandma’s engagement ring. “Shit. I knew you didn’t mean it.”
“Keep it on. Please.” Bob said firmly, and she stilled at his words. He gazed softly into her eyes, “YFN, as out of it as I was and as crazy as it is, I meant it. I meant every word.”
She frowned when he winced a little as he moved forward and cupped her face tenderly with his large hand. YFN looked reverently into his eyes and smiled as he stroked her cheek with his thumb, and she leant into it.
Suddenly, the sound of Faith Hill’s ‘This Kiss’ filled the room and they both turned to look at Hangman holding his phone up with a shit eating grin on his face. “What? Rom coms always have a song playing when the characters finally kiss.”
YFN watched Phoenix tip her head back laughing, and Bob snorted and rolled his eyes at their friend’s idiocy. She thought the stupid moment was perfect and exactly like the movies, so she pressed her lips to her distracted fiancé’s and kissed him for the first time. Bob hilariously squeaked out loud and his eyes widened comically, and she giggled against his lips before he finally got with the program and kissed her back.
……
5 months later
Bob stood in his dress whites under the simple arbour of flowers, calm but excited while he waited patiently for YFN’s presence so he could put another ring on her finger.
This time fully conscious.
“Well Bob. You called it. The day we ejected, you said the one would fall out of the sky, and she did.” Phoenix his ‘best woman’ smiled warmly at him.
He smirked back at her. “I’m so glad my dick didn’t freeze off.”
Hangman, who was Bob’s other groomsman, snorted from beside them. “Well we’re all aware it works. You fucked a baby into her in record time.” And Phoenix elbowed him in the ribs and Bob chuckled.
“I hope you and YFN like the song I picked for the ceremony.” Hangman said, eyes twinkling mischievously.
Bob sighed. The decision to let him pick the music was probably going to come back and bite them in the ass. “It better not be ‘White Wedding’ or ‘Like a Virgin’ or somethin’,” he moaned, and Hangman winked at him.
Phoenix snickered. “Don’t worry Bob. Bagman did good. You’re both gonna love it.”
The celebrant tapped them on the shoulder signalling the ceremony was about to start.
Bob gasped when he turned to face the end of the isle and saw YFN beaming at him. She looked breathtakingly beautiful. A huge smile overtook his face when he realised that she was wearing a replica of the dress in ‘The Wedding Singer’. YFN had started watching 90’s rom coms with him, just like she had when they were kids, and that movie was his favourite.
And then the music started.
A stupid grin spread over both of their faces as they gazed adoringly at one another, and they burst into laughter at Hangman’s choice.
Come on, come on, jump a little higher
Come on, come on, if you feel a little lighter
Come on, come on, we were once upon a time in love
We’re accidentally in love
Accidentally in love
Accidentally in love
Accidentally in love
Accidentally in love
Accidentally in love
Accidentally in love
Accidentally in love…