Despite knowing that this whole “marriage” and subsequent proposal is fake, my eyes can’t help but fill with tears at his words. I never expected an actual marriage proposal; I guess I just of expected him to slip a ring on my finger in the car on the way to his parents’ tonight or maybe before we left the condo. I never dreamed he would have gone through such lengths to actually propose. This entire day… all the trouble he went through to arrange this, with incredibly short time no less, has been nothing short of amazing. Hell, this puts my first marriage proposal to absolute shame, and this one isn’t even real.


    “Kenzie? You’re kind of freaking me out here…” Nichs pulls me from my thoughts which were about to absolutely ruin the moment.


    “I’m sorry, you took mepletely by surprise.”


    “Will you marry me, Kenzie?”


    “Yes, I will, Nichs,” I smile and quickly blink away the tears hoping that he didn’t see them. He slips the ring onto my finger, which is a perfect fit, despite not knowing my ring size. He stands up, pulls me close to him and hugs me tightly.


    “Thank you,” he whispers just before he ces a quick kiss on my lips. “Hey, what’s wrong? Is it the ring? If you don’t like it-”


    “God, no! The ring is perfect!” I barely nced at as he slid it on my finger, but no matter what it looks like, I would never ask him to exchange it.


    “Then, why do you look like you’re about to burst into tears?” his arms remain around my waist, not letting me move away from him and save myself the embarrassment I’m feeling right now.


    “Nothing is wrong,” I try to assure him while finding the words to exin what I’m feeling right now.  “This… today… it was just perfect andpletely unexpected, Nichs. Thank you for all of this, for making today…”


    “Kenzie,” he lifts my chin up so our eyes meet again. I desperately try to blink thest few tears threatening to fall away, not wanting him to think that he did something wrong. His proposal got to me: what he said to me, made me realize how little my ex really knew me and how little he thought of me. “You deserve this and so much more.”


    His lips once again find mine; they are soft and gentle as his arms hold me against him. Unlike the kiss by the horses, this one doesn’t deepen, but in an odd way is very different from that kiss. I don’t know how to describe it, but even without his hands sliding over my body, this kiss feels… more intimate. I quickly push those thoughts from my head; surely I’m just feeling that way because I’m emotional from his proposal. “What do you say we have some lunch?” he asks.


    “Sure.”


    I see Nichs try to adjust himself without being noticed before he sits down, and the heat immediately rushes to my face, with the realization that our kiss had turned him on. The lines between us are blurring already, and we haven’t even moved in together yet. I don’t know what I think about it either. Thest thing he needs right now is for things to getplicated between us. What happens if the lines are blurred even more between us, and then we suddenly be ufortable with each other?


    “Julie sent some sandwiches, fruit and bottled water for lunch,” he has unpacked the pic basket and ced everything on the nket in front of us,pletely oblivious to my worried thoughts.


    “Sounds good,” I smile and take one of the wrapped sandwiches from him.


    When we’re eating, I finally look at the ring he slipped on my finger. The center of the ring holds arge square diamond that is easily the biggest diamond that I’ve ever seen. There are at least a dozen smaller diamonds on each side of therge ring which all glimmer in the sunlight.


    “Are you sure you like it? I wanted something that you would feelfortable wearing every day, but if you would rather have something-”


    “No, Nichs. The ring is absolutely perfect; it’s really beautiful.”


    “I was thinking that until the wedding, you shouldn’t wear the ring in public, so the press doesn’t find out about the engagement before we’re ready for them to. Wearing it tonight to my parents’ and of course, around the condo is fine but for dinners or events…”


    “No, that makes sense.”


    “I’ve spent some time on the inte this weekend, and I found a few ces that I thought we might consider for the wedding.”


    “You’ve been busy,” I can’t hide the surprise that he managed to arrange all of this, purchase a ring and now spend time researching venues for our wedding, since I agreed to this arrangement less than two days ago.


    “I have.”


    “So what venues did you find for the wedding?”


    “There are a few on the coast that I think would be perfect for the beach wedding you said you wanted-”


    “That was just a dream. If you would rather-”


    “Kenzie, you’re doing this for me; the least I can do is give you the wedding you’ve dreamed of since you were a child.”


    He goes on to describe the different venues, showing me pictures on his iPad that was packed in the pic basket, but I’m still stuck on the fact that he is doing this for me. He is giving me the wedding I dreamed of, when he could have easily arranged a grand wedding in some country club somewhere. Instead, he has chosen venues that advertise small, intimate beach weddings.


    “Any of these three ces would allow us to manage security for the event; a few of the other ces I found online were too open to the public which would make security a challenge. What do you think of these options?”


    “Honestly, they all look amazing. I love this one with the rocks in the background-”


    “That was my favorite as well.”


    “So, we just need to pick a date?”


    “If you are agreeable, I’m thinking two weeks from yesterday.”


    “Two weeks? You want to n the wedding in two weeks?”


    “It’s fast, I know, but like I said I don’t want too much time to pass before we announce our marriage to the press. And with PFS-”


    “No, it’s not that. I just don’t know if we can pull all of this off in two weeks. People n weddings over several months… two weeks… wow.”


    “I learned very early on in my career that money talks. If you are agreeable with the date, I can guarantee that two weeks will be enough time to n the wedding. My mother uses an event nner that we could contract with to handle all the details of the wedding, and since we’re not inviting many people we don’t need to worry about giving everyone plenty of notice to attend.”


    “If you think we can make it happen, I’m fine with getting married in two weeks… wow, that sounds so weird to say!”


    “I know… I thought that when I was looking at these venues. I’ve called all three and they are avable for that weekend so if you definitely want this one, I’ll call them this afternoon and put the deposit down to hold the date.”


    “I think this one is perfect, and you said you liked it too, right?”


    “I do-the view from the beach is incredible.”


    “It really is.”


    Over the rest of lunch, we finalize some of the ns for the wedding. Assuming the venue is still avable, in less than two weeks we will be married on a beautiful beach off the coast. We will be meeting with a wedding nner hopefully tomorrow or Tuesday at thetest to outline the necessary ns. Due to concerns with the press, everything will be brought to the ord Towers, rather than us going out to look at cakes, decorations or gowns. It’s going to be a very busy two weeks; I suppose it’s a good thing that I needed to take time off from the bakery, I’m not sure how I would manage all of this otherwise.This content belongs to N?/velDra/ma.Org .