Falling in Love Again: A Valentine's Day Proposal

“Come back to mine,” he pleads. “I want to spend some more time with you there.”

I nod, agreeing with him without a moment of hesitation. I want to go to his house, to learn even more about this wonderful man. I now want to know absolutely everything about him. “Yes, of course. Let’s go.”

As we break apart, there isn’t any of the awkwardness that there was before. It’s all just gone… I guess along with opening up to one another a bit more, we have also chipped away at all of that. It’s nice.

“We can walk there, if you like?” he asks me. “I live within walking distance, I just usually drive because I’m so late, or in case I need to leave the office in a hurry for any reason.”

“Such as?” I cock an eyebrow curiously at him.

“I don’t know, a meeting or something.” He laughs. “Okay, it’s usually just the late thing.”

“If we walk, you’ll have to be up early tomorrow to make sure you can walk.”

“If you’re at my place, I don’t think I’ll be going to sleep at all.”

Those words send a shiver racing up and down my spine. Instantly, I start thinking about all the different ways that we might spend the time alone together, and that thrills me. We have only been able to explore one another so much. It would be nice to have more time, more space, more freedom…

“Okay, sure. Let’s go.”

He holds out his hand to me and I take it. As we walk, it feels as natural as breathing to have his fingers laced around mine. I can’t even understand why it was weird before. What was the point of the barriers when it could be so good? I can’t keep the smile off my face as we move through the alleyways in a strange direction.

“Do we have to walk this way through the shadows?” I giggle. “Can’t we go a more public way?”

“We could, but if we did, I wouldn’t be able to do this…”

He grabs me and pushes me back against the wall, kissing me hard once more. Even though he’s just sent me spinning into heaven, I’m on fire again. Flames race all over me and I seriously can’t wait until we get back to his place and I can do all the things that I want to with him.

“Okay yeah, fair enough,” I pant as we split apart. “I like this way now.”

“I don’t live far anyway. We don’t have far to go now. This way is a little quicker.”

He pulls me close to him. He tugs me nearer to his body, and his warmth tingles all over me. His warmth washes over me and makes me feel safe and secure. Like I’ve never felt before. Thank God things didn’t work out with Thomas. I’m glad now that he was boring and arrogant. If I’d liked him even a little bit, then this would be really complicated now. Or not, because there isn’t anywhere I’d want to be other than here.

“What was that?” I hiss as I hear voices coming from… well, I don’t know where really. It’s all disorientating in this labyrinth of alleyways. “Did you hear that, or am I going mad?”

It felt dangerous. I don’t know why but my gut instinct is fearful. Unless it’s looking for a reason to get closer to

Carter. I do like the sensation of his arm wrapped around my shoulder, I can’t deny that.

“I don’t know. Maybe I did hear something then, I’m not sure.”

It rings out again. A gruff yelling. I can’t hear anything that’s being said, but the sound is definitely there.

“Ooh, something is going on. Should we go and investigate or should we run off in the other direction?”

“We wouldn’t have liked it if someone came to watch us a moment ago.”

“I wouldn’t have cared. Let them watch!”

I shove him in the side. “Yeah, because it wouldn’t have been your body on show.”

He smiles brightly, and it honestly makes him look more handsome than I have ever seen before. The dark shadows he usually wears on his expression is gone. Whether that’s to do with saying goodbye to his past or hello to a potential future with me, I’m not sure, but I like it.

“I don’t think that sounds like what we were doing anyway.”

“No, maybe not, but I think we should avoid it anyway.” I nod determinedly. “Just to be on the safe side.”

“Okay, I agree. But it’s hard to tell where the noise is coming from here.”