This Must be Fiction

He tugged my hand. I dragged my feet while we walked.

"Stop it." Ville said while laughing. I giggled and squeezed his hand.

"I'm sorry that I'm frustrated that I have no idea where I am or where I'm going and can't even see!" It would have been more spontaneous or romantic of me to just let Ville lead me to this destination, but there is always that five year old alive in me that got upset when I didn't have control over everything.

Ville stopped walking and took both of my hand in his.

"Listen, trust me, you're going to like where we're going. Now, stop being immature and let met lead you."

He kissed me quickly in hopes to shut me up. I sighed and smiled with half of my mouth.
"Lead away."

We walked for what felt like an hour. I stayed quiet and told myself to enjoy the fact that Ville was doing something romantic for me.
He stopped abruptly and took both of my hands.

"Are we here?" I whispered. I could feel his breath spread across my face as he leaned down to kiss me.

"Yes." his low voice made me weak at the knees. His fingers easily undid the blindfold and my eyes adjusted to the dim lighting surrounding the two of us.

"Ville.." I said as my voice started to crack from the fit of crying I felt coming on. In front of me was the Eiffel Tower, as I had seen in so many pictures. It looked even more spectacular than I'd ever imagined it would. It was lit up in the darkness, but it cast a glow onto the ground below.

We were in a park in front of the tower with no one around, it was just the two of us. A few feet ahead of us was a blanket with a picnic basket settled on it along with a few scattered tea-light candles.

I put my hand to my mouth to cover the sound of my quiet crying.

"Tell me those are happy tears." He said from behind me. He put his hands in my front jean pockets and his chin settled nicely on my shoulder.
I nodded to answer him. We walked closer to the blanket and sat down without speaking. Ville opened the basket and revealed a bottle of wine and two glasses. He poured us each and drink and handed me a glass.

"This is really beautiful." I said. My tears had stopped flowing, allowing me to speak clearly.

"I remembered you telling me once about how you loved the Eiffel Tower." He sipped his wine. I crawled into his legs with my back pressed against his front. My head tilted back until I was well rested on Ville. He hummed softly and stroked a piece of hair from my face. We gazed up at the Eiffel Tower in front of us, neither one wanting to speak to break the moment.

I'm not sure just how long we were seated that way, but I wished it was forever. After Ville finished humming another song, he spoke up.

"I have something for you."
I sat up a little and turned to face him. I couldn't figure out what I wanted to say. He reached into the basket and grasped something in his hand.

"Before I give this to you, I want to explain it first." He paused and waited for some sort of reaction from me.

"Ok." Was all I said.

"My mother gave this to me before I was changed. I've kept it up until now, always hesitant to tell anyone about it." He paused again and flipped the object over in his hand a few times before picking up where he left off. "Molly, are you going to marry me?" He asked, his eyes picking up every trace of reaction on my face. I struggled with words.

"Are you asking me to?" The question seemed to hang in the air.

"I want to know, are you going to marry me?" I still wasn't quite clear on if he was proposing or just asking me a question.

"Yes, I'd like to think so." The thought of marrying Ville had never really crossed my mind. I'd always just imagined being with him, but marriage was not my focus.

"I'd like to give this to you as an engagement ring. But I don't want to get married quite yet. I want us to be together for years before we take that step. Now, I'm positive that I'll never find anyone that I love more than you, but I've had a century to think about things like this. You've had nearly two decades. But I want to be yours forever, if you'll have me." His free hand gently stroked my face which was paralyzed in surprise.

Ville revealed the object to me, a stunning ring. It was a skinny silver band with small diamonds tracing the outside. In the center was a large circular ruby, glinting in the Eiffel Tower's light. I clasped my hand over my mouth.

"Ville.. I... this is..." I shook my head while staring at the beautiful ring. "I'd love to marry you." I whispered. Ville took my hand and slipped the ring onto my shaking finger. It was a bit big, which caused him to grin before crashing his lips onto mine.

"I love you." He said into my lips. The words never sounded so melodic as they did at that moment.

"I love you." I responded into his.

"To think... after a day of being together again, we're getting married." I said as my eyes were glued onto the ring. A few minutes had passed which allowed me to dry my eyes and regain my composure.

"Like I said, this is kind of a promise to be married. I'd like to wait, if you're ok with that." Ville said as his fingers traced over the symbol of our love.

"I'm great with that... This ring is perfect. It's like it was made for me." I brought my hand closer to my face and then set it back down on the blanket underneath us. I cuddled into Ville.

"I think it was. Somehow, I don't know how, I think this ring was meant for you. I've had it for so, so long and have never even considered giving it to anyone else."

My lips brushed his neck lightly. "I don't know if the ring was meant for me, but I know that you are."

"You're making me blush." He held a hand to his cheek as his lips curled into a that gorgeous grin.

We finished the bottle of wine rather quickly and enjoyed the rest of the evening in front of the Eiffel Tower.

"How'd you get the park to be nearly empty?" I asked, knowing that this was one of the most romantic spots on the planet.

"I made some phone calls. You'd be amazed what I'm capable of."
We stood together and began our walk back towards the hotel.

The walk was shorter than I expected, apparently Ville had given me the run-around while I was blind folded.

"Very clever Mr. Valo, very clever." I said.

"I thought so." He smirked. We walked in to the room and found about twenty balloons that were ready to bombard us. They read 'congratulations' across them.

"Bam." We said in unison. Ville tied them all together and shoved the bunch into a corner. I sat on the edge of the bed and shook off my sneakers. He got on his knees in front of me and took my ringed hand.

"It should have been done more like this." He said, taking the ring off my finger and then back on. He kissed the back of my hand and looked up at my laughing face.

"I liked the way you did it better. It was very you, very us."
Ville slipped his arms under my legs and hoisted me backwards on the bed so he was hovering above me.

"It wasn't traditional."

"When have we ever been traditional?"

"Good point." He kissed me with intensity. "You're going to be my wife." He beamed at me.

"You're going to be my husband." I said back. Our bodies shook together in laughter for a moment before Ville's face turned serious.

"You're the most amazing person." He said.

"Ditto."

XXXXXX

"When's the wedding?" Bam shouted as he barged into the room.

"Years." Ville responded.

"Well I hope I'm the best man."

"Of course." I jumped in the conversation. I threw on a hoodie over my light tank top and shorts. "You told Bam everything?" I asked. My eyes quickly raced over to the balloons in the corner of the room.

"Who do you think cleared the park?" Ville responded with a grin.

"Should have known." I shook my head. "What's up Bammy?"

"Ville needs to finish his scenes. You might have to come in tomorrow to finish up some of yours." Bam spoke as he began sniffing some things in the kitchen area.

"Do you want to stay here or come with?" Ville asked as he took a jar from Bam and closed the lid on it.

I bit my lip as I thought about going to the shoot. On one hand, I didn't want to leave Ville. On the other hand, I didn't want to have to face his band again. Not today.

"I think I'll stay. I've got some things to do." I said, pointing to my laptop.

"Ok, if you're sure." Ville said as he crawled on the bed next to me. He inched closer to my face so we could kiss before he pulled away and got some clothes from his bag. I had something in the back of my throat that stopped me from telling Ville that I did want to go with him, I was just afraid of his band mates.

"You ok? You've got this 'I'm going to throw up' look on your face." Bam said once Ville had gotten off the bed and was putting his jacket on. Ville turned around and I did my best to put on a smile.

"I'm fine. Just tired. I'll probably nap once you guys leave." I turned around and lit a cigarette as I hung myself out the window. Ville approached me from behind.

"You're sure." He said in an asking manor. I turned to him and kissed him.

"Yes. Now go. Don't be late because of me."

"I love you, my future wife."

"I love you too."