Margot's face heated. "I'm not a kid anymore, Eddie." Somehow it felt important to convey as much. She wanted him to think of her as her own woman, and not some sepia-colored photograph of a childhood obligation.
He watched her as she spooned a dollop of yogurt past her lips. It felt like the bravest thing she had done all morning. Her stomach gave a sharp twist as she swallowed, but almost immediately after she felt her insides overcome by a cool, soothing sensation. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply through her nose. When she opened them again, she noticed Eddie staring at her.
"I know you're not a kid, Margot." His hand touched her waist, almost shy in its hesitance. She knew she should pull away—at the very least to spare him if her stomach decided it still had more left in it to evacuate—but she did the exact opposite. She leaned in.
"What do you want from me, Eddie Jameson?"
"I want you to marry me," he replied. "I'm not above asking you again."
Margot could scarcely believe what he was saying. "Two marriage proposals in the same day?" she asked. She was trying to play it off lightly, but there was no easy joke to be found in their exchange.
"In the same day," Eddie confirmed. He smiled crookedly. "I never got a proper answer from you before."
"Maybe that's because I've never experienced a proper offer before." She knew she was stalling, and a part of her suspected that Eddie must know the same. This was all so sudden. First the unexpectedness of their one-night stand; then the baby; now marriage? It felt like the world's cruelest nursery rhyme played in reverse. First comes the baby carriage, then comes marriage, then comes…?
Did Eddie love her? Margot paused, her spoon hovering over the yogurt. When she next summoned the courage to glance up, she found Eddie watching her intently. "Eddie, I…"
He must have seen something in her face that encouraged him, although Margot couldn't imagine what. Her head was as turned around as her stomach, and even she didn't know how she intended to complete her sentence.
But when Eddie sensed an opening, he took it. He withdrew the clamshell Tiffany box from his pocket a second time and popped it open. Margot stared in disbelief at the diminutive ring that glinted at her, nestled in its velvet cushion. It was the most perfect princess cut diamond she had ever laid eyes on. It seemed to wink at her, its square edges understated yet somehow regal in their dimensions. The architect in her couldn't help but appreciate Eddie's aesthetic choice, even if the woman in her had never imagined herself becoming a bride. Not recently, anyway.
She still couldn't shake the memory of playing 'wedding' with a young Eddie Jameson. Wasn't this the natural conclusion to her childhood fantasy? Deep down, wasn't this what she had always wanted all along?
"I've always cared for you, Margot." He seemed to articulate her thoughts aloud now, and Margot froze. Eddie stepped nearer to her. "Maybe this baby is a sign. Maybe we really should consider joining our lives together. What do you say?"
Margot looked from the ring, to the yogurt, and back again. When her eyes finally alighted on one thing and one thing only, she beheld the image of Eddie Jameson: the boy she had known since childhood, all grown up now and ready to take the next terrifying leap into adulthood. Neither of them was prepared for this; she could see it in his face, despite his best attempts to hide his own misgivings. She knew him too well to not recognize the signs. His bold eyebrows knit together over the proud jut of his nose, and his lips held a smile that simply didn't match up with the concern his melting brown eyes were expressing. Two of the three Jameson boys were capable of poker faces in her experience, and Eddie wasn't one of them.
"Eddie…" Margot trailed off. She was suddenly unsure if she had the words to properly convey how much he meant to her, and how terrified she was of committing without the time to think first. He seemed to have it all figured out—Eddie Jameson seemed to have a plan for this. Did she? A year or two ago, the old Margot would have obsessed over every little detail until it was perfect.
But nothing about this situation with Eddie was perfect.
And yet...a part of her whispered. And yet…
And yet this was the boy, the one she had always loved, and never found a way to express as much. Somehow, the yogurt meant more to her than the peerless, priceless ring that glimmered just out of reach of her finger.
"All right," she said. "Why not? Let's give this marriage thing a shot."
It was probably the most anticlimactic form her answer could have taken, but Eddie expelled a long sigh of relief, and Margot realized she might have just single-handedly taken the weight of the world off his shoulders.
She tried not to notice how heavy the ring felt as he slipped it on her finger.
Chapter Six
Eddie
The last thing Eddie expected to do when he showed up at the bridal salon that afternoon was to cause a sensation.
He had too much on his mind to really take notice of the female attention he was receiving, much less let it go to his head. He was a father and a fiancé now; the old Eddie need not apply.
Still, it had taken him an embarrassing amount of time to recognize what everybody else was looking at. He arrived before Margot, and promptly introduced himself to the consultant he had spoken with over the phone. Zelma was a slender woman, maybe forty, with intelligent blue eyes framed by glasses; she didn't seem one to suffer nonsense, a type that usually steered clear of Eddie, but she had let her hand linger in Eddie's for longer than was expressly necessary to complete a handshake. All the other female employees of the salon, too, had taken turns indiscreetly peeking out from the front desk and around the door of the breakroom as Eddie followed Zelma through a head-spinning wonderland of glistening white fabric.
His head had yet to stop spinning since that fateful night with Margot.
"We will stick to the muumuus, then," Zelma was saying. "If what you say is true, and your bride will be showing by the time you walk her down the aisle.
Eddie nodded gratefully. He was glad he had thought to mention it. That was one less thing Margot would have to worry about; he had already narrowed their choices and expedited the process.
"And over here, you'll find we have a gorgeous selection of sheer nighties for the bride-to-be...forgive me for presuming, but I thought I would give you a brief tour before she arrives, in case you wanted to surprise her on your wedding night."