All Yours Somehow

March 2011

“John, where are we going?” I asked, as he drove along the roads of Phoenix.

“You’ll see,” he smiled, keeping his eyes on the road.

“Urgh, you’re killing me!” I moaned, moving in my seat and looking out of the window. The sun was setting behind the Arizona desert. John had told me earlier today to pack a bag for a couple of days because he was taking me away, but that was all he would tell me. I had no idea where he was taking me.

John’s hand moved to the radio and turned the volume up as we continued to drive. He then placed his hand on mine, as I turned back to look at his face smiling across at mine.

“Go to sleep,” he told me. “I’ll wake you up when we get there.”

I didn’t think I’d actually fall asleep in John’s truck, but he had put a bit of heat on and pulled a blanket from the back to put over me to keep me warm. I moved my body a bit closer to his and kissed the top of my head as I felt my eyelids go heavy.

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I woke up in a huge bed on my own. The sun was shining through the room and I had no idea what time it was. Behind my head was about eight pillows and covering me was a quilt and bed sheets and everything was a perfect crisp white. I sat up from the bed feeling slightly dazed and confused. This didn’t look like a hotel room and I couldn’t see or hear John anywhere nearby.

I groaned to myself and rubbed my eyes as my long blonde hair fell down my back. Standing up from the bed, I looked down at myself to see that I was just in my underwear and a tank top that I’d been wearing last night.

“John?” I called, as I began to look around the room. I walked over to the window that went from floor to ceiling and had a sliding door in it that led out to a balcony. The view out of the window was incredible. Wherever I was, it looked out onto a beach and the sea waves were crashing just a few metres away.

“Oh, I hoped I’d be back before you woke up,” John sighed as he walked into the bedroom.

“John, where are we?” I asked, looking from the window to him and back again.

“You like it? It’s my friend’s place but he’s selling it so I asked if I could borrow it for a couple of days before he did,” John said, sitting down on the bed.

“It’s beautiful!” I smiled. I walked away from the window and straddled his lap on the edge of the bed. “What are you up to, O’Callaghan?”

“Just spoiling my gorgeous girlfriend,” he grinned, kissing my lips and wrapping his arms tight around my waist.

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“Can we just stay here forever?” I sighed, as we laid out on the balcony the next day.

“I know, this is the life,” he smiled from behind his sunglasses. I laid on the sun lounger in my bikini as John laid next to me in his shorts. The sun beamed down on us. Yesterday, we spent most the day down on the beach and in the sea, followed by a romantic meal in a nearby restaurant.

After a while of sunning ourselves, my phone suddenly began ringing from inside.

“I guess the real world is still out there,” I said, getting up to answer it. It was my mom, checking in with me as she did every so often. As I talked to her, John began packing up our stuff and getting himself ready.

“We should think about leaving soon,” John said, as I ended the call.

“So early?” I asked, picking up my bag, trying to find some clothes to put on.

“Well, there’s a place I want to take you but it’s on the way home so we’ll need to leave here.”

I accepted what he said, found some clothes to wear home and got ready. Once we were back in the truck, we were back to playing a guessing game.

“Please tell me where you’re taking me!” I whined.

“No! You’ll know when we get close anyway,” he laughed.

“So tell me!”

“No, Hannah,” he smiled, turning the radio up to distract me.

We drove for hours, playing stupid car games to keep us both entertained and singing as loud as we could to songs on the radio.

“Know where we are yet?” John asked in the middle of a song.

I looked up to see we were back in the Arizona desert.

“Oh, we’re near our spot,” I smiled.

“We are,” John nodded.

He parked his truck to the side of the road near to where me and John went whenever we wanted to escape the city. It was also the place that John and I spent the first night getting to know each other over three years ago.

John was fumbling about in the truck as I got out and looked out at the desert, waiting for him to get out.

“Come on, John!” I called, beginning to walk to where we normally hung out. “What are you up to back there!?”

“Alright, alright!” he called, jogging over to catch up with me. He took my hand and we strolled for a bit, both of us with our sunglasses over our eyes, the sun beginning to set in front of us, the warm air still surrounding us. “Do you ever wonder why it took us so long to get here?” he asked after we’d been walking for a bit.

“We did come from LA, not home!” I laughed.

“No! I mean me and you, not here as in the place!” he laughed, softly.

“Oh,” I smiled. “Well, sometimes, I just think it wasn’t the right time for us before. I know I wasn’t ready for a big commitment, anyway. But I’ve grown up now, we both have. Things are better this time.”

“They are, aren’t they?” he asked, smiling down at me as I nodded. “That’s what I thought.”

“What makes you ask?”

“I’ve just been thinking recently,” he said, pulling on my arm to stop us both from walking. “Hannah, I sing songs about love and sex and girls every night we play a show and-”

“I hope this is going somewhere good,” I interrupted.

“It is, trust me,” he smiled. “I sing about all those things and about girls that never existed before. Never existed before I met you. Then I started to sing about you and every word had meaning, every line came from my heart,” he told me. “I’m the guy for you, Hannah Frazier, you know it, I know it, everyone else knows it,” he told me. “I love you more than anything else in this world. No one’s ever going to love you more than I do. I’m all yours, Han.”

“Oh stop it!” I laughed when inside I was melting. No guy had ever said something like that before, no one had ever fought so hard.

“I mean it, I’ve never met anyone else as perfect and understanding as you,” he continued. “Which is why I brought you here today,” he grinned and the next thing I knew, he pulled a small box from his pocket and was bending down on one knee.

“Oh my god, John, what are you doing?” I said, shocked at the sight.

“Something I’ve wanted to do for a while now,” he told me. “Hannah-”

“Seriously, John, stop it, get up, stop messing about,” I said, bringing my hands up to my face to hide my shocked expression.

“I’m not messing about, Hannah, I’ve never been more serious about anything in my life,” he said looking from the box in his hands to my hand. As he opened the box, he looked back up at me. “Hannah Mae Frazier, will you please do the honor of being my wife?”