Sometime after one in the morning, Olivia and I stumble into my childhood bedroom at my own family’s estate. We’ve been staying here for a couple of days since we came down early to help Gray and Corinne with any last-minute wedding activities and for the rehearsal dinner. Ever since we arrived, Olivia has treated herself to any and all opportunities to go through my things and to laugh at the remnants of my nineties upbring.
“Hand me the Pikachu, please,” she requests as she flops onto my bed, still in her formal dress.
I shoot her a look, but I don’t deny her anything she asks for. I grab the little stuffed Pokémon toy that still sits on my bookshelf and toss it to her before I start to undress.
“I always wanted one of these when I was a kid.”
Pointedly, I raise an eyebrow and glance at the yellow stuffed animal in my girlfriend’s hands. “Why is that?”
“Because this thing is so damn cute,” she murmurs as she pokes its fluffy face. “Like, be honest: Have you ever seen anything cuter in your life?”
“I’ve seen you.”
Olivia glances past the toy and smirks at me. “Even I know that I’m not cuter than this thing. Although, you know what might be cute is a bunch of Davis and Olivia kids. Could you imagine that? Wiggly babies with your blond hair and my eyes. I bet they’d be big though. Were you a big baby, Davis?”
“How drunk are you that you’re talking about babies?” I ask as I finally shed my pants and crawl onto my bed in my underwear.
“Not drunk,” she protests (although it’s clear she’s tipsy). “Weddings just make me happy.”
Reaching over, I gently take the toy from her.
“Hey!” she protests, making a grab for him.
I’m able to dodge her. “I don’t want him here for this.”
“For what?”
“Marry me,” I request.
Olivia’s indignant expression fades as she slowly realizes that I’m serious. Without a word, I hold up the ring box that I brought over to the bed and open it for her.
“Good god,” she mutters as she stares into the box, eyes locked on the nine-carat diamond that I spent a month painstakingly selecting.
“I thought about taking you to Amsterdam,” I say as I move to a seated position, still holding out the box. “I thought about doing this back at my apartment. Your apartment. The Eiffel Tower. Briefly, I considered doing this at the Mall of America. But at the end of the day, I decided to do this here in the place where I grew up.”
Olivia sits up as well and shifts her body to face me, her expression unsteady like she’s trying not to cry.
“We’re going to be together forever,” I tell her. “I’m so sure of that, I would bet my inheritance on it. But I know it’s important for you to feel like you don’t owe me anything. So, I’m asking you to marry me here in my old bedroom because I want you to know that no matter what, our kids are going to have a happier childhood than either of us ever had. The reason why I wanted this to happen here is because I’ve never had a happy moment in this room until today. You never had a happy moment in the place where you grew up either, but for the rest of our lives, we’re going to be so embarrassingly, disgustingly happy.”
“Do you promise?” Olivia asks, looking up at me as she poses the question. “I mean it, Davis. Can you promise me that?”
“I do if you do,” I agree. “Because it’s up to both of us, right? Push and pull. Give and take. I’m going to take care of you, and you’re going to do the same for me. No contracts. No games. No schemes. Just us.”
“Just us,” she confirms as she holds out her hand. “Of course I’ll marry you.”
I give her the biggest smile I’ve ever mustered. “You mean it?”
“Honesty clause,” Olivia replies with a smile just as big, “I’ve been waiting so long for you to ask.”
“No more waiting,” I promise her as I put the ring on her finger. “We’re never waiting again, Olivia.”
The end