Our fingers lace together after a long conversation filled with stories of adventures while we were apart. I’ve almost forgotten how it feels to have someone physically close to me. She gives me an astonished look then her face softens. I could see the colour red forming around her cheekbones, making her freckles easier to see.
“I can’t believe you wanted to marry me,” she laughs in between her words.
“Yeah,” I chuckle too, trying to cover up the embarrassing feelings that I still have. “About that…” I start.
I let her fingers gracefully slip off of mine and start to kneel down. Her mouth flings open, “Um.”
I reach for something.
“David, what’s going on?” she looks down at me with her hands pressed above her chest.
I pull the strings, cross them over and did the loopty loop and pull. I brush off my shoes and smile up at her, “Just tying my shoes, dear.”
She punches me hard in the arm and starts mumbling curses under her breath.
“Don’t ever do that!” she says.
***
“Marry her already!!” my mother screams at me with excitement. Her scream called out my siblings to gather around us. I feel like a helpless Giselle being hunted by a lioness. Guess who’s who.
“But Ma…”
“You’ve been with that girl for years! I thought your father was the slowest man on Earth but no, hijo, you proved me wrong!” she flings her rag around in her hand. My siblings giggle at the sight of my mom throwing a fit about my relationship.
“Ma—”
“Not a single word, David James, you will try and propose to her. If she says no, then make her regret refusing,” she wiggles her finger in front of me.
“I can’t do that to my own girlfriend! She wants to make her own decisions not me making it up for her—”
“Just kidding,” she wears a smile and straightens her back. “But really, if she doesn’t go on with the proposal then you should just leave her or something—”
“Mom!” Claudia cries from behind her.
My mother turns around to look at her then laughs loudly, “Maybe you should help him, not me.” She looks back at me and touches my shoulder, “I’ll be back in a few years for your couples’ counselling.”
Before leaving the room, she salutes with the hand that held a rag. Once she has officially left the room, Claudia folds her arms and makes a face at me.
“I’m glad you didn’t take her advice.”
Daniel snickers in the corner of the room with his cap almost falling off his head. Amber and Jazzy walk over to me with skips in their steps.
“Oh my God! She’s gonna be part of the family!” Jazzy squeals and Amber slaps her hand onto Jazzy’s mouth.
“When are you gonna propose?” Amber leans closer to me with big dark eyes digging into my soul.
Daniel pushes Amber aside, still laughing, “He already did.”
The two jump all together and shriek on top of their lungs.
“Uh-uh-uh,” Daniel wiggles his finger at them. “But she turned him down due to unforeseen circumstances.”
The room gives a pitiful ‘aww’. Daniel chuckles at me, “Loser.”
My lips form a great upside-down ‘U’ with my eyebrows meeting at one point; like Grumpy from Snow White.
“So…” Claudia stands in front of Daniel, pushing him back to the two short girls. “You want to know how to make a proposal irresistible, eh, little bro?”
I shrug, “Well, not too frilly or else she’ll just think it’s really stupid.”
“When Adam did it, I thought it was pretty simple—”
“Yeah, I did that. A picnic in the park… Under the stars! What more can there possibly be?! The setting was perfect then I just asked and she… I don’t know, kind of said no. We never talked about it since then. Now she thinks it’s some funny story to tell to all her friends.”
Jazzy squeezes herself into the conversation and suggests, “The way to propose is not always going for the simple will-you-marry-me tactic. Some guys out there do flash mobs and release balloons into the sky or something. Girls love ‘big proposals’. I know I do,” she smirks.
Claudia looks at her in disbelief. Jazzy’s smirk wears off and shrugs, “What? Just suggesting. I think David should give her a ride on a hot air balloon. Don’t get me wrong but isn’t she the really super adventurous perfect girl?”
I cock an eyebrow at her. If only she knew the image of the ‘super adventurous perfect girl’ isn’t all that perfect.
“No. One, she’s not the perfect girl. And please just refer her to her name. Two, I don’t want a hot air balloon. What if she falls out?!”
Claudia rolls her eyes, “Come on, Jazz. Let the professional handle this.”
She slumps and walks back to Daniel and Amber, where they both pat her back while mouthing, “You tried.”
“I can’t practically plan out your whole proposal. That’d be like spoon feeding you, and I hate spoon feeding especially when it’s for you.”
She narrows her eyes at me and I lean back, avoiding her dangerous gaze.
“However,” she stands back again, “I can give you a few pointers. Like the do’s and don’ts to a good proposal. You might want to take notes for this.”
I mindlessly nod then start to sit up straight.
“First, you have to treat this whole proposal thing as a big deal because she doesn’t want to say yes to a person who doesn’t make the wedding a big deal and just pushes all the wedding work to her.
Second, never, I mean never start the proposal with a joke. That gives her the impression that you’re not taking it seriously.”
“Yeah, um, we’re just gonna go…” Daniel squeaks from behind with my sisters huddling to his side as he points at the door next to him. Without the approval of Claudia, he gingerly turns the doorknob and makes a beeline for the kitchen—followed by Amber and Jazzy. The door slams after that. It made Claudia stop and turn around for a second, “Did someone just leave?”
I say nothing.
“Whatever. Anyway, back to the topic. Third; stay classy. Nothing like a classy proposal. She won’t be able to say no to being classy. Fourth… Hmm… Fourth…”
I bat my eyelashes at her subconsciously. Honestly, I didn’t know Claudia knew so much about proposals. Now, I’m wondering why Adam proposed instead of her.
“I know!” she gasps. “A great proposal is to propose from the heart. Tell her why you’re really doing this and what’s it for. You know, get intact with your feminine side or whatever,” she plays with her fingers.
And then it hit me, that whatever Claudia said in the last part was right. I should. I tried that for the first time and it failed miserably.
I can officially say that I’m gonna do this. And I’m gonna do this the right way.
***
Our feet make clomping noises against the wooden boards of the pier. The moist wind blow against our faces harshly. I can almost taste the salt from the air. This is sort of a bad place, isn’t it? But too late now, we’re already here and if we move to somewhere else then…
But the proposal.
“Why did you take me here? You know I don’t like to see a wide river! Not to mention a deep and calm one,” she looks down into the clear water.
Oops.
***
“Look at that!” she triumphantly yells out. I couldn’t hear her voice through the rushing waters. The mist blurred my vision on the way up here. Why did she take me here?
After catching my breath, I look up at the strong, skinny build standing on the edge of a cliff that overlooks the multiple waterfalls.
“They say that the falls here are created by a series of faults of the plates, isn’t that cool!” she turns and looks at me with a radiant smile. Her hands are on her hips. I love the way she looks whenever we reach the top after hours of hiking up a hill.
I nod as I pant a little more, “Yeah, yeah, nice.”
Is it there? I reach for my pocket to feel a square lump. I sigh in relief—it’s there.
“Hey,” I walk over to her. “I’ve been meaning to ask you.” My hand digs into the pocket where the box is in, preparing myself for a long heart-felt speech.
“You know what would be fun?” she leans into me, standing on her toes. I guess she completely didn’t hear what I said.
Instead, I clear my throat, “Um, what is it?”
“Look over there!” she grabs my chin and redirects my gaze to the point of where the water falls. The jagged rocks peek from the rushing water, leaving some of the tips visible. The chain of jagged rocks runs along the whole of the waterfall until the other side.
“We can totally walk to the other side, plus with a close up view of the waterfall!”
I’m going to be sick.
“Come on, lazy!” she hooks her arm around mine and runs for the chain of jagged rocks.
***
After a week since the hike, my ankles and hamstrings are still aching like there’s no tomorrow but I don’t bother telling her. I’m just gonna suffer in silence for a while. It’s okay; it’s just muscle strain and… a bruise thing. Jazzy certainly got one thing right about her: she’s adventurous and a risk taker too.
“What’s up with your walk?” she munches on her cereal.
“Oh, um,” I stop walking and adjust myself to a proper walking position and not like a crippled old man. “Nothing.”
“If it was from that hike the other day, then I’m really sorry,” she tilts her head to the side with a pout.
“Nah, I’ll be all right.” I limp to the kitchen to pour myself some cereal and milk in a bowl that says, ‘Mommy’s Boy’. It was a birthday gift from her before the whole proposal thing happened and the fight that came along with it.
“Do you mind if we go for another hike this weekend?” her eyes trail to me.
I put my bowl on the glass dining table, just across her.
“Actually… Yeah, I do mind,” I say quietly as I mix my cereal and milk with a tablespoon.
“Oh. Why? Can’t handle the extremes?” she breaks into a chuckle. I glare at her then she abruptly stops.
“I’m sorry. Maybe I’m too invested with my career, I just tend to channel my inner… palaeontologist. I can’t help it,” she shrugs. After that she eats another spoonful of cereal.
“When can we have some down time? You know, like actually sit by a fireplace and play a board game or sing songs?” I suggest, flinging my spoon around in the air.
Her eyes look up at me instantly; the room shakes with her laugh, “Are you serious? David, you know I’m the worst indoor-sy person ever, right? Why can’t you get a cat or invite Katsu over to do all of that?”
I put my elbows on the table and point my spoon at her, “Hey, I tagged along to many of your crazy expeditions so it’s about time you do the mellow stuff I want.”
She smiles to her bowl that’s now half full of milk, “All right, the whole week is yours to plan, not mine.”
“Good,” I smile.
***
Fall is almost over and the nights have gotten colder. I take out more woolly blankets out from the closet to attend to her needs. In the living room is just her and a crackling fireplace (china filled with tea but who really cares, it’s just tea).
I plop a bundle of blankets in front of her. She’s still shivering through the quilt wrapped around her. I reach for a red blanket in the bundle and wrap it nicely around her body.
“We should play Scrabble now,” I suggest, walking over to the shelves.
“Oh man, Scrabble? I’m so bad at that! Can’t we play Jenga or something?” she whines from the back.
“Nooo,” I sing, “Scrabble’s a good game! Give it chance, won’t you?”
I reach for the box that sits on the top of the shelf together with the other board games I brought from my old room.
“Ugh,” she spews out the words like fireballs. “Why are you putting me in this torture chamber.”
“Hush up,” I laugh.
I place the box onto the antique rug and start to set up the game. We sit across each other, making eye contact constantly as the other quietly plans for the next word. She keeps track of the points scored and I’m just waiting for the right moment to put it out there. I can already feel my pulse getting quicker by the minute.
When I get an ‘I’, I sweep it underneath my blanket. Same goes to ‘A’, ‘O’, two ‘R’s, two ‘M’s, ‘W’, two ‘L’s, ‘Y’, and ‘U’. I’m surprised to see that she didn’t notice what I’ve been doing. Really, I’m not playing the game. All I gave so far were 3 and 4 letter words.
“You’re not much of a competitor at this, you know,” she points out the obvious.
It’s my turn and all the letters are in my hands now. I start to find an empty space on the board. After that, I start taking out the ‘W’ tile and pinning it into the four holes—followed by ‘I’, the two ‘L’s, ‘Y’, ‘O’, ‘U’ and so on until the empty space is filled with the words:
WILL YOU MARRY ME
I take the tiny blue velvet box from my pocket and open it up for her to see. It’s the same thing I used to propose to her the first time. I really like it, actually. That’s why I didn’t change it to a ring.
She starts laughing uncontrollably, clutching her stomach and throwing her head back.
Suddenly my confidence melts away.
“Oh, David,” she sniffs and wipes away a tear rolling down her cheek. “That’s not a word. That’s a sentence.”
“I know,” I mumble.
She throws the blanket and quilt away, letting the tiles spill all over the floorboards. And then at that moment, I don’t know what happened. She just crawled toward me and threw her arms around me.
“You idiot,” she squeaks. “I love you.”
I close my eyes and lay my hand on her back. I guess that’s a yes.