“Seriously, Aria?” He looked up as though expecting some answer. “Depends on what?”
“On whether you propose half naked on a dirty bathroom floor or you do it properly with a ring and some romance.”
His face lit up in realization and the blush from before was gone to my relief. He didn’t say anything on the matter however and just leaned in to kiss me passionately. In the midst of it, my mind went completely haywire, unable to believe what had just transpired. Zayden broke the kiss with a loud shriek of pain.
“Well, let’s put on some clothes and head back in. I bet your mom is already judging us – and don’t get me wrong, I’d be judging her if she wasn’t after what she just heard here – so let’s not give her more reasons to frown upon this.”
“It’s going to be okay,” I said, even though I felt awkward by the thought of seeing her shortly. “I will just tease her about our neighbor. That way she will be embarrassed and we can escape from here quickly.”
“Sounds like a plan.” He grinned.
Chapter 2
Zayden
It had been two whole days since I had contacted my lawyer’s office about the finalization of the divorce and they had yet to get back to me. I was fucking annoyed. How hard could the process possibly be? Gina and I were both amicable on the terms of the divorce. All the drama had subsided. It was an open and shut case.
My impatience to get Aria to say yes was taking over me and the stupid divorce proceedings were currently the bane of my existence. Even though I had been in my office all morning, I had been completely incapable of getting any work done whatsoever. The thought of how I was going to propose was occupying my mind.
I thought back to my original proposal in her mother’s bathroom and grinned to myself. What an idiotic thing to do. I had no idea what had gotten into me, but something about her mom hearing us fuck egged me on to do it on the spot. I had been planning to ask her to marry me ever since my conversation with Molly about how I loved her daughter. So when she heard us, I felt like I had to prove that we weren’t just screwing around and I proposed hastily. In hindsight, that was not the best idea in the world and I should hardly be surprised that Aria didn’t jump to say yes.
Any other girl in the world would have, I realized with an odd sort of a pride geared towards Aria. It was true. I was by any definition of the word, quite a catch. I had no reason to be coy about the fact that my money and my good looks made me the ideal husband for any woman in the world. But somehow I guess that neither of those things were good enough for Aria – at least not good enough to accept a shabby proposal on a bathroom floor – and that she loved me for reasons that had very little to do with my money. She was not going to settle for anything less than an extraordinary proposal and she deserved one. I was willing to do anything in the world to make her happy. I sighed deeply and covered my face in both my hands.
How had I come so far?
I had sworn off love a long time ago, after all. It was for lesser folk, for people who did not understand that feelings were at best a show of weakness, at worst a weapon of manipulation. With Aria, it was neither. Loving her did not make me feel weak, it made me feel stronger. The idea that I could feel this intensely about another human being and still keep my sanity and self-intact made me feel oddly powerful. And perhaps this whole ordeal was a weapon of manipulation at first, while I played games and she responded with perfectly crafted plays herself. But no, neither of us was looking for anything from the other anymore. There was only one explanation for what was going on between Aria and I.
We were madly and unconditionally in love with each other.
And why wouldn’t I be?
I saw her walking through the front door and towards her desk and felt a kind of awe. My god, she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. In a pretty blue blouse, black trousers and a cream colored blazer, she looked like she popped straight out of a career woman magazine. No other twenty year old I knew dressed as maturely and professionally as she did, and she pulled it off like nobody’s business. Her face was radiant and even with very little make up she outshone everybody else in the room. She outshone most people in most rooms. Usually looks like hers were enough to get by life. I had met many, many, women over the years who used their looks to get by. Not Aria, though.
More so than anything else about her, it was her brilliance and ambition that drew me towards her. A part of me realized that when we eventually got married, she would gladly handle half my business operations for me. Maybe I would make her the head of Credit Lending Analysts and eventually, if she was interested, the CFO. Knowing her though, if I tried to make her the CFO right away, she would protest claiming she hadn’t earned the title yet. I grinned again picturing that argument and then made a split second decision to go buy her the best ring I could find.
On my way out, I stopped by Aria’s desk as she was busy typing something on her computer and said, “Too busy to notice your boss now? Boyfriend. I meant boyfriend.” I smiled and noticed Mrs. Brian beside her try unsuccessfully to hide her gasp.
“Hi.” Aria looked up and smiled. I wanted to kiss her, but I would have to resist. I couldn’t quite do some things in the workplace just yet. “Sorry, my tyrannical boss gave me a lot of work so I am a little busy.”
“What a douche,” I said with a straight face. “Warn him that if he overworks you, your boyfriend will make him pay for it.”
She giggled and said, “What do you need, Zayden?”
“I need you, Aria, to say yes to my proposition.” I smirked and before she could open her mouth again, I added, “I know, I know. You made your points and they are completely valid, which is why I am off on a little mission right now that will hopefully satisfy you. But I just have one question. What do you prefer? Squares or Circles?”
She looked at me like I had just asked her something insane like whether two plus two equals seven.
“What now?” she asked.
“You heard me. Squares or circles?”
“Uhmm…” She raised her eyebrows and pursed her lips. “Squares I suppose. I have never really thought about it, to be honest. I mean, who even thinks about it? And how is this at all relevant to anything?”
“You’ll see.” I winked. “For now I have got to go.”
After turning around to head to the door and taking a few steps, I stopped and turned to look at her again. “I love you.” Ignoring the gasps from all over the place, I walked out casually as though I didn’t notice.
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