“Nicole Skye,” I said softly as I gazed up at her. “I promise I will always be yours. There will never be anyone else in my life but you. In my existence, I have never known anyone who has the capacity for love and compassion like you do, and you give them to me freely. You’ve made me a better person, and I love you so much, I can’t even put it into words. Will you please, please be my wife?”
I watched her eyes widen, and then they seemed to glisten a little in the light from the bedside table lamp. Her throat bobbed as she swallowed, and I realized I was actually holding my breath. The silence in the room was starting to hurt my ears until she finally whispered the only word I wanted to hear.
“Yes.”
My face started to hurt from my grin. Air finally filled my lungs again, and I reached out to take the ring from the box and slip it over her finger.
“Fuck, that looks good!” I murmured, and Nicole laughed. She wiggled her fingers around, and the light caught the diamonds.
“Feel like you’ve claimed me, don’t you?”
“Fuck yes.”
Using the bed for support, I pulled myself back up to stand and grabbed her face in my hands.
“My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep; the more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite.”
“I love you,” Nicole whispered.
“I love you more,” I told her and placed my lips against hers before she had the chance to argue the point.
Dinner was awesome. Greg turned six different colors when Nicole and I told him the news but finally relented and said he knew it would be coming sooner rather than later. Then he made Nicole call her mom and tell her the news. Like Nicole, Greg thought Yvette Skye would throw an absolutely fit, but they were both surprised when she didn’t.
We spent the next hour arguing about who was going to pay for the wedding. That conversation ended when Nicole said if we didn’t shut up about it, we’d be going to Vegas for the weekend.
Gardner just grinned and congratulated us.
That night, I drew a picture of Nicole’s hand with the ring on her finger. It made her cry though she said they were happy tears. I held her, and we agreed to wait until we had graduated before we actually did the deed.
Words from Shakespeare I had never considered before found their way into my head: “When this ring parts from this finger, then parts life from hence.” Somehow, just knowing it was there made all the difference to me.
Now I would be willing to wait.
“Are you okay?”
“No,” I said. I laughed, but the sound was a lot of nervous and not much joyful. “Do I really have to be here?”
“It’s rather customary,” Gardner said with a nod. “They aren’t just coming to see all this.”
His hand swept around the gallery—the gallery belonging to his girlfriend, Kathrine. It was filled with my sketches, drawings, and even a couple of paintings. Painting was still a little new to me—I preferred black and white. The whole show was titled “Spiral,” and it included images I painted from the memories of being trapped in my father’s house.
The whole thing was kind of freaking me out.
I would graduate at the end of the summer, and this was supposed to help me get my foot in the door when it came to the art community. My first showing in May, graduation in August, and wedding in September. It was a wonder I hadn’t pulled all my hair out.
Nicole just shrugged it all off, saying it would happen, perfectly or not, but it was all going to happen. Eventually it would be behind us, and we’ll wonder why the heck we ever worried about it. Of course, that came from the woman who already had her diploma in hand as well as an offer from the Portland Aquarium.
I still had to graduate, and I had no job offers.
Nicole’s “come what may” attitude sounded a lot like Justin. I didn’t see him regularly anymore, but we still talked on the phone sometimes. He and Danielle were both supposed to come to the opening tonight.
“Relax,” Gardner whispered. “We open in five.”
“How can you say relax, follow up with five minutes, and expect me to actually calm down?”
He chuckled.
I glanced out the window at the line of people outside and started freaking out again.