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“Marry me.”
She giggled and rose slightly to give him a quick kiss. “Be serious, Jackson.”
It was the middle of the night and they were tangled in his sheets. He was half-convinced he was dreaming this.
“I am serious.” He rolled off of her but kept his hand on her cheek. “I want you to be my wife again. We wasted so much time, why waste more?”
He was serious. When he looked at her, he saw his wife. His beautiful, kickass, amazing wife. No matter how far he’d run, how much he’d tried to move on, he was still in love with her. And he will always be in love with her. Yes, they had only gotten back together last night. And yes, they had a lot of things to talk about and figure out. But this was a long time coming. And these past couple of months in Boston gave them the opportunity to be best friends like they used to be.
April clearly didn’t feel the same, as her face grew more serious and she turned to her side to face him. Her eyes looked to the side as if she was contemplating how to articulate what she needed to say.
“Jackson, I–“ She sighed. “We can’t get married 24 hours after getting back together.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” he muttered.
“Exactly,” she replied. “We tend to rush into things, and while I would never regret marrying you, I think we should do things more carefully this time. There is a lot we still need to figure out.”
“We can figure it out while married.”
“I just want us to be sure of our relationship when we walk down the aisle.”
His mood suddenly dropped. “And we’re not sure now?”
He was sure. This had been his dream for years even if he’d never fully admitted it to himself. And last night, when everything had gotten out in the open, he’d been overjoyed to learn that she’d felt the same. Now it looked like that conclusion had been premature.
“We are sure. I am sure,” she reassured him. “It’s just– I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but… This, us, it feels delicate. We both want this, and I have faith we will make it this time. But getting married? I want to do that to celebrate that we did make it. I want to walk down the aisle towards you and know that we’ve rebuilt our relationship, that we’re stronger than ever.” She tentatively took his hand in hers. “You get that, right?”
Unfortunately for him, he did get it. He brought her hand to his lips and kissed it softly.
“Still, I can’t believe you said no,” he pouted. Her fingers went from his lips to the stubble on his chin and finally settled on his cheek.
“It’s not a no, but an ‘ask me again later’,” she said softly.
He could live with that. His arms moved to her waist and he pulled her on top of him. She leaned in to kiss him, while his hands roamed all over her body. Just as they settled on her ass, she burst out laughing.
“What?” He pulled back a bit.
“I can’t believe you proposed to me three times.”
He would propose to her a hundred times if necessary.
“Two. This one does not count.”
“Of course it counts.”
“Nope, I take it back.” He squeezed her tighter to him.
“You can’t take back a proposal, just because you got a no as an answer,” she said incredulously.
“Oh, but I thought it wasn’t a no, but an ‘ask me later’,” he teased.
April rolled her eyes. “If you continue like this, I’m going to say no to the fourth proposal, too.”
“You’re pure evil.”
“Too bad you’re going to marry me.”
April was exhausted when she finally entered the house after a long day at work. There had been an MVC, so she had spent most of the morning in the ER and then the rest of the day in and out of surgeries. Just when she’d thought she could head out, they’d had to rush a patient to another surgery.
When she walked into the living room, she could almost cry at how beautiful everything was. Granted, between Jackson’s expensive taste and her tendency to do the most to make the house as cozy as possible, their home had already looked pretty amazing. But, now the living room was free of the usual random items, like Harriet’s toys, or a stack of papers here and there. The lights were dimmed, and her eyes went to the most lit-up part of the room, the dining room table. There were candles and flowers on it, and two place settings. Something smelt amazing.
“I’m sorry,” April said, falling into Jackson’s open arms. He kissed her forehead, and then mumbled into her hair, “For what? Saving a guy’s life?”
“I really wish he didn’t go into a V-Fib.”
“He and you both.”
She laughed and then pulled back a bit to give him a soft kiss. “I’m gonna make it up to you, give me 10 minutes to shower and put something nice on, and then we can start our date.”
Tonight was supposed to be their first date in a while. Not that things were not going great. Because they were, their relationship was probably at its most stable point ever. Harriet had been thrilled that her parents were together now, and practically skipped with joy when they’d bought a house and moved in together a couple of months ago. Even their parents were all on board. Lately, however, work had been in the way of spending quality time together. So tonight, Harriet was at a sleepover, and they were supposed to finally get some alone time. Until April had been called into multiple emergency surgeries and work got in the way again.
“Number one, 10 minutes are not even enough for you to shower, let alone do anything else.”
She opened her mouth to contradict him, but Jackson continued, “Number two, you’re way too tired for that.” He raised his eyebrows and put his hands on her shoulders. “Don’t even try to deny it.”
“I just feel so bad, I promised–”
“It wasn’t your fault. And you can have a date with your handsome boyfriend some other night.”
Boyfriend. She didn’t hate the word. It was certainly miles better than an ex-husband. It just felt too... insignificant. Like they were two people getting to know one another and not a couple in love with each other for over a decade. And if she was being really honest, she kind of wanted to call him her husband. For a while, she was expecting him to propose. Things were great between them, and it felt like the time was right. But, maybe she had scared him off all those months ago when she’d said no. She knew she should talk about this with him. That was their deal – no assumptions about what the other was feeling or thinking, and always communicating whatever was bothering them. They really did follow that. In fact, the only reason she hadn’t brought up the question of marriage was because she kind of wanted to be surprised. She’d always been a romantic, and she hoped Jackson would think of it himself. But, no more of that, she promised herself. Tomorrow she would talk to him about it.
She conceded. “Let me help you clean this up.”
“Nope, I got this. Want me to heat something up for you?”
She shook her head. “I grabbed a bite between the surgeries so I wouldn’t pass out in the OR.”
“Then go shower and sleep, and let me handle this,” he said, pushing her gently towards the hall.
She was about to leave the room, but something on the table caught her eye. Jackson had already gone to the kitchen, when she squealed excitedly, “Fortune cookies!”
She heard him yell out, “Wait, no, don’t open it!” but by the time he came back, she was already holding the piece of paper in her hands, staring at it with tears beginning to form in her eyes.
“It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.” He walked towards her. “We were supposed to eat, and drink wine, and then you would open one of these and I would open this.” He pulled out a little box and opened it. Inside was a ring she’d worn with pride a long time ago, going perfectly with the two words written on the little piece of paper.
Marry me.
She was still mute, not really knowing what to say.
“We can get another ring, of course, if that’s what you want. I just– I thought since you kept it, that maybe you’d want–”
“I do,” she interrupted him, finally finding her voice. “I do, I want the ring and you and–” her arms were flailing around, paper crumpling in her hand. One second later, she was in his arms and he was picking her up and twirling her around. They kissed clumsily, their matching grins getting in the way.
“Wait, I had a whole speech prepared–”
“Oh, sorry.” She jumped down, releasing him from her tight grip. “Go on.”
April tried hard to school her face into a more serious expression, but the big smile she had on her face was unmoving.
“Okay.” He cleared his throat. “Last week, someone told me to say hi to my wife. I just nodded, not correcting them, not because I didn’t want to bother by explaining that we were not married, but because I forgot. I forgot you’re not my wife. And it’s because deep down, you’ve never stopped being my wife.”
Her eyes were beginning to well up with tears.
“I love you, April. So much. And I know we’ve been through a lot, but at no point did I stop loving you. I just didn’t know how to–” he paused for a second and then continued, “I guess I just didn’t have enough faith in us.” He smiled sadly, and she reached out for his hands.
“But, I do now. I know we can get through any heartache together, not just because we are crazily in love with each other, but because we will choose to. Because, at the end of the day you’re my best friend.”
Tears were falling down her face, but April didn’t bother to wipe them away.
“You’re my best friend and you’re the first person I want to tell when something good happens, and the one I want comforting me when things are bad. And I want to do the same for you, to make you laugh so hard your stomach hurts, to make you feel so happy and loved and comforted.”
“You already do,” she interrupted him, not being able to stay silent any longer. Her hands cupped his cheeks and she rose on her tiptoes, her nose touching his softly, their eyes closing, breathing each other in.
“I love you,” she said softly. Jackson closed the distance, kissing her firmly. She responded eagerly, her thumbs softly stroking his skin. Interrupting their kiss, he started to laugh.
April pulled back, her eyebrows scrunched together in confusion.
“I forgot to put the ring on,” he said laughing and added, feigning annoyance, “You’re a distraction. I try to plan a better proposal than the one on the side of the road or ‘you might be pregnant, marry me’, and you–”
“Hey, I loved those proposals.” She stuck out her hand and watched him put the ring on. She remembered how she’d thought she would never get used to the weight on her finger, and yet, years later, she missed it.
He brought her hand to his lips, kissing it gently, and her heart swelled. They’re going to spend the rest of their lives together, loving one another, bickering over stupid things, being each other’s best friends. Suddenly, she couldn’t contain her excitement, as she jumped into his arms again, squeezing him tightly.
“See what I mean? Such a distraction,” he teased.
“Now, is that a way to treat a woman you proposed to four times?”
“Three.”
“Four.”
“Three.”
“Fou–”
He kissed her, and suddenly she forgot what they were bickering about.