Her Eyes

Mason O’Rear’s first reaction was to gather up most of the sheets and wrap them around her body as she calmly got out of bed. Her second reaction was to calmly bend down and retrieve the wine bottle that had been dropped in their haste to make it to the bed. Her third reaction was neither calm, nor slow as she chucked the bottle at the wall behind Jordan Staal.

“What the hell did you do that for?” He yelled at her, and her calm façade that had cracked with the bottle completely broke.

“You asked me to marry you!” She screamed back at him.

“Yeah. I did. I love you and you love me, so why should that be such a big deal?”

“Because I’m going to die, Jordan.” The temperature in the room dropped a few degrees as the silence that had suddenly captured the two swelled.

He knew she was going to die. He had already shown her he would be there, through sickness and health, but he wanted to show the whole world. He wanted to brag to everyone who would listen about the wonderful, engaging, funny girl he had fallen in love with. He wanted to show the world that he would spend as long as he could with this girl, because that’s how much she meant to him. And he wanted to show her, that sickness or not, she was his, and only his.

“I don’t want you to propose to me because you feel bad that I’m going to die. I don’t want to get married knowing you felt obligated to make however long I have left happy.” She said, looking into his eyes. She was baring her soul, something she rarely did, and it broke his heart. How could this tiny girl in front of him really believe that?

“Do you really believe that? Do you really believe that this is supposed to be some kind of pity marriage? Because that might be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.” He scolded. Her face momentarily brightened before she furrowed her eyebrows at his attitude. He reached for her hand and pulled her back onto the bed, wrapping one arm around her. “You are the only person I want to be with Mason. I love you, with my whole heart.”

And then Jordan held his breath. Mason didn’t speak for a long time, she just took one deep breath after another. She thought long and hard about his proposal, and she finally came to a conclusion.

“You know, you’re going to have to try better than that.” With that, Jordan hopped out of bed, and reached into the pocket of his jacket that was lying on the floor, pulling out a black velvet box. He got down on one knee in front of Mason, opened the box and asked her, quietly, if she would marry him. This time, she smiled softly, leaned in to kiss him, and murmured the answer he’d been hoping for against his lips.

“Yes.”

Notes