All I Want Is You

This dinner was awkward. These people were my best friends, so I couldn’t understand why every seemed so nervous. Jackson was fidgeting, and everyone kept glancing at us. I picked at my pasta dish, not really tasting anything that I ate. Something was wrong. It had to be, why else would everyone be acting so weird?

I was on the edge of nervous breakdown when it happened.

Jackson cleared his throat nervously. I looked at him, one eyebrow raised.

“Lizzie.” He said, offering me his hand. I looked at Ada, who was smiling like at kid at Christmas. I stood with Jackson. He pushed our chairs in and looked at Kellan, who gave him an encouraging thumbs up.

“What in God’s name is going on?” I practically shouted.

“Lizzie.” Jackson said again, kneeling on one knee on the ground. He was sweating nervously.

“Oh. My. God.” I said, dragging out each word.

“Elizabeth. Seven months ago when I met you, I knew you were special. The more I got to know you, the more amazing you became. You are the most beautiful, wonderful, funny, caring, intelligent woman I know. I love you with all my heart and I can’t imagine spending my life with anyone else. Elizabeth Jillian Evans, will you marry me?”

He opened a cream coloured box, and looked up at me with those emerald green eyes. A beautiful ring was nestled in the box. The diamond had a blue tint to it, and tiny little diamonds surrounded it.

I realized after a few seconds that I hadn’t answered. I was shaking, and my heart was pounding in my chest. But I loved Jackson more than anything or anyone in the world. I wanted this, I wanted to spend my life with him, like he did with me.

“Yes.” I whispered, tears streaming down my face. “Yes Jackson, I’ll marry you.”

Everyone clapped, but I wasn’t paying any attention to them. I felt like it was just me and him. He took my shaking hand and slid the beautiful ring on my finger. He leaned into me, kissing me lightly on the lips.

“For a minute there, I thought you were going to turn me down.” He whispered into my ear.

I chuckled softly. “Never. I love you.”

“I love you too.” He said.

“Yay!” Ashley squealed.

I looked at everyone and smiled. “You all knew about this didn’t you?”

“Someone had to help the poor guy, he’s had the ring for a month.” Rob said, casually swigging his beer.

“And he was so damn nervous.” Kellan added.

“Okay guys. That’s enough.” Jackson said, flushing red.

“Thank you all so much. It was perfect.” I said, tearing up again.

We finished our dinner slowly, not wanting to leave each other. We would all go our separate ways when we got back to the States. Sure we would see each other every once and a while, but we wouldn’t see everyone, everyday. We laughed and joked, giggling like a bunch of fools. It was nearly midnight when we said our goodbyes and made our way back to the hotel.

We were still pretty giddy, a combination of the engagement and the cocktails and beer we had drank afterwards.

I was struggling to pull my long cashmere sweater over my head.

“Need some help?” Jackson asked form behind me. I turned to face him, stumbling because I was tangled in my sweater. He was wearing nothing but his boxers, his dyed blonde hair wet form the shower.

He gently pulled the sweater off my head, kissing the bare skin of my shoulder before resting his lips on my neck.

“You made so happy tonight.” He whispered into my neck.

I tangled my hands in his wet hair, and I hitched my leg around his hip. He moaned into my neck, his warm breath sending shivers across my skin.

I pulled him down onto the bed, pushing aside the books and magazines that littered the bed. His hands worked quickly on the clasp of my bra and then moved on to my underwear.

I used my toes to push his boxers down his thighs. We were a sweaty mess of half-drunken hormones. It was awkward and I think I ended up bruised, because I fell off the bed.

When we were finally just lying there in bed, I wrapped my body tightly around his, listening to his soft snores. My life couldn’t get any better. Everything was going exactly has well as it could. I had never been so happy.