Chapter Text
As long as he lives, Conrad Fisher will never forget the day he knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Isabel Conklin.
He’d always known, really, but, the feeling shifted.
It’s Christmas time in Paris, the first time Conrad visits after they’ve decided to give the whole thing another try.
They’re walking around looking at a light display and Belly turns to look at him. They’ve been walking around almost holding each other, relishing the feeling of touch after many months of being stuck within the limits of long distance. There's nothing like being together, and he questions how he will ever go back home without her.
“I’m really glad you’re here,” she says softly.
She’s standing behind a Christmas tree, the glow is framing her just right, and he realizes that there’s nowhere else he’d rather be for the rest of time.
That was six months ago, and every day since he’s just gotten more sure. The time is now, and he’s ready to start making preparations to ask her the biggest question of her life.
Conrad wouldn’t say he’s nervous, he could never be nervous about something he’s wanted this much or known this deep in his soul for this long. But, as he sits in the living room, phone in his hand, finger hovering over Taylor’s contact photo, the weight of everything hits him.
Not because he's afraid, but because he really, really wants to get it right. He’s finally gonna marry the girl he’s loved his whole life.
This is Belly’s chance to get everything she ever pictured, and he will stop at nothing to ensure that is exactly what happens.
Conrad knows how important the people that Belly surrounds herself with are to her, and how important they will be to the experience, so he finds it only right to inform them first. He’s shooed Belly from the house for the afternoon, getting off work early and sending her off to get a manicure. Luckily, she’s so happy with that that she doesn’t suspect anything else is going on.
Conrad takes a deep breath and holds the phone to his ear. Taylor answers, as usual breezy and light. “Hey Fisher, what’s up?”
“Hey Taylor, sorry to call you out of nowhere but I was really hoping I could ask you about something,”
He’s trying to sound casual, hide his emotions, but oddly, maybe this is really the moment that it hits him.
If Conrad is Belly’s everything, Taylor is her other everything. He’s always known that, and it feels special to be sharing this moment with her, even if they’re not that close individually.
“Of course,” Taylor is more serious now, she knows something important is coming. “What’s up?”
Then she pauses a beat, and he can’t see, but on the other end of the line, she’s clasped a hand to her mouth. “Oh my god,” she says as the realization hits her. “You’re finally gonna do it..”
Conrad can’t help it, he laughs. “Taylor, oh my god, you didn’t even let me finish my sentence.”
“Conrad, please,” she says, quickly back to being breezy. “First of all, you never call me to begin with, and now suddenly you’re calling me nervous as hell? What else am I supposed to think?” Taylor laughs.
“Touché.” Conrad is back to his old habit of pacing around while on the phone now. He told himself he wouldn’t do this, but well, the nerves got the better of him. “But yes,” he finally spits out. “I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna propose to Belly,”
He takes a breath then, really lets himself feel the impact of saying it aloud. This is the first time he’s said it anywhere other than outside of his own head.
And suddenly, there’s no nerves anymore. Just a lightness. It feels right.
Taylor is in full on protective bestie mode now, but she’s also feeling a little confused. “I love that for her, and for you, but like, why did you call me? You don’t need my permission to propose to your own girlfriend.”
Conrad laughs slightly. “I know that, obviously. But, you’re one of the most important people in her life too. I want you to be involved. I want this to be everything she’s ever dreamed of. Maybe even more than that."
He pauses, and considers whether he should say the next part out loud, but impulsive thoughts win.
“I want it to be everything that the last time..wasn’t.”
Of course Conrad loves his brother, and yes, they’ve made peace, for the most part at least.
But he’d be lying if he said he didn’t have the tiniest sense of I want to do this better than you did inside of him.
Again, he can’t see this, but on the other end of the line, now Taylor is crying.
The hardest part of being a best friend is when the girl who may as well be the other half of your heart is going through something hard- when you know she’s lost but can’t seem to hear anyone trying to help her.
That’s how Taylor felt when she was watching Belly prepare to marry Jeremiah. She played the part of the doting bestie, shopped for dresses, planned a bachelorette.
But inside? She knew he was never the one. Ever since they were kids, everyone knew it was always Conrad, and she prayed and hoped and waited for the day the universe would bring them back to each other. It was finally here.
“But Conrad,” she says trying not to sniffle. “Just promise me one thing.”
“Of course,” he says as happy tears of his own are bubbling up. Even if he doesn’t always understand the full depth of female friendships, he’s happy to know Belly has someone that loves her just as much as he does. “Anything.”
“Don’t hurt her. Ever. You guys have been through too much to get to this point, and I will always take her side of any argument.”
“You have my complete word, Taylor,” Conrad says, tone serious. “I’ve never loved any girl the way I love Belly. I know how lucky I am to get this second chance with her. I thank my lucky stars every day we ended up here, she’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“Good.” Taylor says, satisfied with that response. Then she’s suddenly back in bubbly mode, and Conrad laughs at the switch happening so fast.
“So tell me the tea,” she says. “How are you going to do it?”
Conrad rubs his head a bit nervously. He’s thought of so many ideas, but none of them feel like the one yet.
“I’m not really sure,” he admits. “I haven’t had the perfect vision yet, but I’ll figure it out.”
From Taylor’s end of the line, there’s a knock at the door- Steven’s home from work. “Sorry man, I gotta go,” she says. “We’ve got date night plans. But please, please keep me updated and let me know if you need anything.. oh wait,” she pauses. “Can.. can I tell him?”
Conrad laughs. “I don’t see why not. Just make sure he doesn’t spill the beans to his sister. Thanks for your help, Taylor.”
Conrad hangs up the phone and sits in the silence of the room for a moment, feeling a sense of peace that the plans are in motion.
Belly sits in the nail salon, a hum of people around her as she’s getting her manicure. She doesn’t normally pay much attention to the tables around her when she’s getting her nails done, but today, a group catches her eye.
Seven girls pile into the building, and immediately, they are hard not to pay attention to. In fact, it’s immediately clear that that’s exactly what they seek. They’re all dressed in matching outfits: tee shirts that say “Hannah’s Getting Hitched!” in giant, obtrusive, sparkle font, and they all have tiaras on their heads. Belly tunes into their conversation, because even though Laurel tried to teach her that it was bad manners, she does love a good eavesdrop.
“Can you believe that he finally did it, Brooke?” one of them chirps to the other as she’s holding her hand out for the manicurist to massage.
“Calm down, Emily.” Brooke replies flatly. “They’ve only been together a year!”
“Yeah, sure, but they’ve known each other like, literally their whole lives…what took him so long? Don’t they say when you know you know?”
Something in Belly’s heart pings then. It’s like she’s listening to someone repeat her own story.
She doesn’t consider herself obsessive about marriage by any standard- she’s been back with Conrad a year now, and that’s always been the thing she wanted (even when she spent years trying to deny to herself that that was indeed what she wanted). There’s an ease between them, something she wouldn’t trade for the world and would put above any large declaration.
But hearing this, she realizes that yeah, maybe she wants the large declaration also. And maybe she wants it more desperately than she’s let herself acknowledge.
Before she knows it, her thought process is spiraling out of control.
It was true once she thought about it, they’d fallen hard and fast ever since they decided that they were going to give the whole thing another try, their lives blended together so well that it was hard to believe it was ever any other way. She knew that this was what they both wanted, what they were working towards.
In that case, why hadn’t he done it yet? Didn’t he have the same intuitive “when you know, you know” feeling those girls were talking about?
For as hard as she's trying not to spin out, it's happening anyway. She finds herself slumping further in her chair, a sigh falling out of her. Kira, her regular nail lady, who seems to be able to read her incredibly well despite only seeing her on occasion, puts the cuticle pusher down and looks up.
“Something’s on your mind, Isabel,” Kira says sagely. You can talk to me.”
The people-pleasing, overly socialized daughter that Belly was raised to be knows that she should say no, that everything is fine, she’s okay, maybe make up something about just getting over a cold or having a long day at work.
But that mask has to slip sometimes, and there’s a certain freedom to letting it all out in front of someone you know isn’t connected to anyone else in your life, knowing that anything you say will never leave the room.
“That group over there,” Belly points discreetly. “They’re getting wedding nails done and it’s making me realize how much I want to be in that phase with my boyfriend..”
Kira nods and hums knowingly. “I get it,” she almost whispers. She has a husband, and she was young once. She’s been here before.
Belly watches as Kira swipes the polish onto her nail, and unexpectedly, her heart tugs again. She’s chosen a soft blush pink color with a slight shimmer.
To most, this would be nothing, a normal everyday nail choice. But in Belly’s heart, it’s the look she always wanted for her wedding day. She never got it when she was with Jeremiah, because Kayleigh insisted it would clash with the prearranged color scheme. Maybe that was the first omen.
She keeps trying to deny it to herself, but it’s as if even her subconscious is reminding her how much she wants that ring on her finger.
“Honey,” Kira says softly. “Every time you come in here, you talk about how much you love this boy; you tell me how happy he makes you. Why don’t you just tell him how you feel?”
Belly considers this. Of course she trusts Conrad and she knows they can make it through the hard conversations. But she’s been fed this fantasy her whole life- one of getting the picture perfect surprise proposal, perfectly planned and heartfelt.
Though she knows this isn’t the most mature thought pattern, it really stuck with her that she didn’t get that the first time she was engaged, so she really hopes for it now.
“Yeah,” Belly relents. “It’s just that, when I was young, I was sold this fantasy of the perfect proposal, and I was engaged before..”
She notably leaves out the to his brother of it all. “But it wasn’t like that, and I still look for that moment, I think.”
Kira guides Belly’s nails into the UV light and gives her a sympathetic smile.
“I understand that, but Isabel, let me tell you this. I’ve been married twenty years, I married my husband when we were both twenty two. I wanted all those things too, I think every girl does. But you have to know, marriage isn’t like that. It can be beautiful, but it’s not a fantasy. It’s messy, it’s hard, it’s real. It’s making a commitment for a lifetime. If this is what you want, that’s wonderful, but you have to consider if you’re truly ready for everything else that comes with it. Have that hard conversation with him, I promise you you’ll feel better.”
Belly leaves the nail salon with much to consider. In some circles, they wouldn’t be considered ready for marriage, but when it came to navigating hard things, it could never be denied that they’d already faced that together, moving through the trials of growing up, grief that almost broke them apart, even nearly having to watch each other move on.
A single thought comes to her mind.
Every time my world feels like it’s falling apart, all I want is him by my side.
Evening is drawing in as Belly returns, and as they’re sat eating dinner, Conrad can tell something is up. Normally, when Belly gets home from work, she’s happy, full of stories, expressing how much she missed him,
Today she’s reticent, withdrawn, pushing her food around instead of really eating it. Conrad lets this pass for a beat, knowing she does better when she’s given space for her feelings. But when the meal finishes and the dishes are cleaned with a silence still hanging in the air, his concern grows. This isn’t like her, he thinks. Something has to be wrong.
His natural instinct is always to hold her close, to give her touch when she’s upset, but he can sense that’s not a good idea right now. So he just waits quietly.
But when she almost turns to go to bed a few moments later without speaking to him, he knows he must do something. When they first got together, they made a promise to the other that they would never go to bed angry, and he can’t bear to ever have that break.
“Belly, what’s wrong?” he asks as she’s still got her back to him. “You haven’t spoken to me all night.”
His voice breaks when he says it— if one thing in this world hurts him, it’s when Belly is upset. But when he can tell she’s upset at him? It’s ten times worse.
She finally turns to look him in the eye. He can tell her eyes are wet, but she’s trying to hold back.
“Are you sure you want me, Conrad?” she almost whispers, as if letting out a painful secret.
He feels as if the wind has been knocked out of him. He’s dumbfounded, why would she ever think that? He has never wanted anyone in the way he wants her.
“Belly.. what?” he sputters. “Why would you ever think that I don’t?”
In a million years, he never would have guessed she felt this.
He can see that tears are forming in her eyes, and he moves tentatively to hold her close.
Even though she feels upset at him, she can’t resist drawing herself closer. Being held by him is one of the safest things she’s ever felt.
Conrad lifts her chin slowly so she’s looking him in the eye. “Tell me what’s bothering you, Belly. Why would you ever think that of me?”
She sniffles, and in this moment, when he’s looking at her so full of love and concern, she feels incredibly stupid. Why did she ever think that of him?
“It’s so silly, but…” she starts and then trails off.
Conrad squeezes her hand in reassurance. “No, Belly. If something’s bothering you, then it’s bothering you. It’s not silly, talk to me.”
Belly looks up at him and her heart just squeezes. These are the moments that reassure her he’s the one— the hard stuff, the times that it would be easier to back away—he never does, and she never should have doubted him. She sits on the couch next to him, flopping down dramatically with a sigh.“When I was at the nail salon today, there was a group of girls there getting their nails done for one of their weddings, and I think it made me feel a little sad that we’re not there yet, and it made me realize how much I truly want that. With you.”
Conrad startles a bit, internally. There’s no way she heard any of the conversation that he had earlier, she was out of the house and across town. But it feels so on the nose that he almost wonders if she can read his mind.
He steadies himself a bit, wanting to reassure her but not give anything away. “I want that too, Belly, don’t worry. More than you know. I just.. I want to approach it with care for you given everything that happened before,”
It’s a bit of an elephant in the room for them, the wedding that wasn’t. Not because either of them are scared of talking about it, but because they wish that they could erase it from their mutual histories.
But when it comes to being married, Belly’s not afraid this time. She knows it’s how it’s meant to be.
They pass the rest of the evening rhe way they do most every evening— tangled up in each other on the couch, watching mindless TV. To many, it would be boring and a waste of their free time, but Belly and Conrad could spend eternity like this.
Belly heads to bed first, being that she has a day of work ahead, whereas Conrad has worked long shifts all week and his supervisors helped him out by giving him a rare few days off.
He gets lost in his favorite guilty pleasure of video games for a few hours, and it makes him think about his child self— the one that loved Lord of the Rings, collecting stamps, and riding bikes down the boardwalk at Cousins. So much has changed in his life, good and bad, since he was that scrawny, nerdy kid.
But one thing had never, and would never, change— and that was his love for Belly, his devotion to protect her, and his feeling of incredible luck at the fact that she loves him too.
The bedroom is dark and quiet when he enters, Belly already long asleep. He takes a moment to just take her all in, and presses a soft kiss to her forehead. Even though she’s asleep, she smiles at the contact.
“It’s you and me forever,” he whispers, cuddling her close. “Just you wait,”