The Time Capsule

Selena

I was beyond shocked, standing behind Amber and waiting for Greg’s reply. I looked to James who I could tell was having a tough time pretending to hate me. When Amber approached me about the fight I made up an excuse on why I’m mad at him. It was simple really; he was acting as if everything that happened in July didn’t happen. Surprisingly, she bought it.
But I could tell that Greg really didn’t believe what James had told him. And why would he? His excuse of being mad at me because I didn’t say yes was weak. He was actually disappointed, not mad. And Greg knew this. He also knew James was someone who wouldn’t give up that easily. We all knew that, and that’s probably why Greg was so skeptical.

Greg, James, and I all exchange glances. “guys! What’s going on?!” I chuckle as I see Greg throw James a glare before focusing all of his attention on Amber.

“this is so not how it was supposed to happen,” Greg mumbles, reaching into his pocket. “I had this whole speech planned out that I was going to practice and everything was going to be perfect. But someone had to ruin that. So here goes nothing.” Even with her back to me, I knew Amber was grinning. I was too, and I wasn’t the one getting proposed to. “Amber, I can’t exactly remember the first time I fell for you, it was so long ago. And this is the last thing I expected myself to do. I vowed early on to not let anyone else into my life, just because of the danger that it entails. But, well, you seem to not want to leave. That both scares me and makes me that much more intrigued. Twice you’ve been in danger because of me and, against my words, you’ve stuck around. So really, the only option left is to make it legal. So, Amber Grace Lawrence, will you marry me?”

Instead of a ‘yes’ she replied with a squeal, jump, hug, and tears. I’m sure there was a ‘yes’ tossed in there somewhere but it was pushed aside if that were the case. Either way, Greg caught on and I honestly have never seen two people happier before.

I look up at James and find him staring at me, disappointment written on his face. I knew that the topic of marriage was still a sore one for me. I wanted to forget that he did that he felt like it was something we needed to discuss. It’s not like I don’t want to get married, or I don’t want to get married to James. But we’d only been together for like, two days. That’s just not enough time for me to say ‘yes, I’ll marry you!’ James though, seemed to think it was.

Now, that isn’t to say that the past couple of weeks haven’t been amazing. I love New York, and my new job, and living in the house with James. It’s all a dream come true. I realized that I should have moved out of Florida a long time ago. So many things happened there, bad things, that having a fresh start would have been good for me. Luckily, it’s never too late for that.

“WE’RE GETTING MARRIED!!!!” Amber screams, pulling me into a hug and making me practically deaf.

I laugh, “so I heard.”

“and you’re going to be my maid of honor.”

“really?”

“yes silly, really. Who else would it be?”

“a friend from high school…college. I love you and all Amber but I don’t know about half of your life. I barely even know how you guys got together and I was actually there for that part.”

“we’ve got time to catch up. It’s not like we’re getting married tomorrow!”

Greg wraps his arms around her to calm her down some, “honey, I think we should go tell our parents now.” She literally jumps out of his arms and starts running downstairs like a kid on Christmas morning. “Well, I better follow her. You two behave each other.” With one last look at James and I, he follows his fiancée down to the main house.

I take a step into the room, knowing for a fact that I was probably the last person that James wanted to see right now. But if this relationship was going to work, we had to stop running from each other when things got tough. “I don’t want to hear it Selena,” he says, before I even open my mouth to speak.

“you can’t give me that look of disappointment and expect us not to talk about it James.” He ignores me and goes back to folding his clothes. I grab the shirt in his hands and toss it back down onto the bed, “stop it.”

“you don’t want to get married. It’s fine.”

“first of all, it’s obviously not fine. And second, I never said I didn’t want to get married James. I do, I really honestly do. And I want to get married to you. But not right now and not anytime soon. I love you, you know that. But marriage isn’t just something I toss around now, especially after Rick. You know this, so why are you being such a jerk about it?”

When he stayed silent and looked away, it dawned on me why he was acting so extreme about this. I wrap my arms around him and kiss the only thing I could reach without stretching, which happened to be his shoulder. “I’m not going anywhere, James. You don’t have to worry about that. And us getting married would never change that.”

“just promise me one thing?” He asks, staring straight into my eyes. It’s not everyday that James opens up like this. Most of the time he shoves his emotions aside and ignores them. So I wasn’t about to ignore him on this.

“Anything.”

“someday?

It took me a moment to realize what he was asking. A smile crept onto my face as I answered. “yes, someday. Someday we’ll get married. Someday we’ll start an amazing family. Someday all of that happened. But for right now, in the moment, let’s just enjoy the fact that we’ve made it through all of this and that we’re finally together.”

James pulls me in for a sweet peck on the lips, “I don’t deserve you.

“Maybe not,” I reply, “but you deserve us.”