Unwanted Heat

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…” Nicholas pulls me from my thoughts which were about to absolutely ruin the moment.

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

“Will you marry me, Kenzie?”

“Yes, I will, Nicholas,” 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 places 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 glanced 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 explain what I’m feeling right now. “This… today… it was just perfect and completely unexpected, Nicholas. 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 the last 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 Nicholas 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. The last thing he needs right now is for things to get complicated between us. What happens if the lines are blurred even more between us, and then we suddenly become uncomfortable with each other?

“Julie sent some sandwiches, fruit and bottled water for lunch,” he has unpacked the picnic basket and placed everything on the blanket in front of us, completely 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 a large 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 the large ring which all glimmer in the sunlight.

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

“No, Nicholas. 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 internet this weekend, and I found a few places 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.”Content rights by NôvelDr//ama.Org.

He goes on to describe the different venues, showing me pictures on his iPad that was packed in the picnic 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 places would allow us to manage security for the event; a few of the other places 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 plan 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 plan 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 plan the wedding. My mother uses an event planner 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 available 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 plans for the wedding. Assuming the venue is still available, in less than two weeks we will be married on a beautiful beach off the coast. We will be meeting with a wedding planner hopefully tomorrow or Tuesday at the latest to outline the necessary plans. Due to concerns with the press, everything will be brought to the Accord 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.