To Caress My Day

“Everything. Everything could change in a few months when you fall in love with the one that is meant to be your soulmate.” Seth explained, studying the many dubious faces waiting for his explanation. His family recently learned of his protected secret, that he planned to propose to Twigs with an engagement ring he just discovered earlier that afternoon while out with his dad. He predicted stunned receptions from them, but not exactly the mistrust he was receiving just now.

Everyone was against his choice to spend the rest of his life with Twigs as his wife, something he's fantasized and visualized in every rare moment of privacy he had in his hectic life. At first, it greatly offended him that his own family didn't approve of his plans, but...when they went into details it helped him step out of his own shoes to understand his relationship with Twigs from an outside perspective.

“I had no idea what was going to happen the morning in London when I left to grab coffee in a small cafe. Love, and I'm talking about the purest, most compelling form of it, wasn't something I was looking for when I turned around and saw her for the first time sitting with her friends, but there it was. I didn't recognize it at first for love because like I said, this love came in a different form that I hadn't ever come across before.” Seth shook his head in admiration, his eyes lifting to the ceiling as a small smile stretched his lips. “I had no idea love came in different forms. For me, they've always been the same predictable procedure, but with Tahliah, it wasn't. It was mystifying, and foreign, but it attracted me in without me ever being aware of the stretch between us was physically and mentally closing. Her love has an ethereal feel that urgently captivated my interest because it made her seem so much more transcending than everyone else around me, as if I was the only one that could see this exquisite magical ambiance she was enveloped in everywhere. By the time I introduced myself to her, I was already under her spell, and there was no coming back from it.”

Lowering his eyes to his clasped hands, Seth grappled to come up with the right words to express his love for Twigs to be genuine. It was an arduous task for sure, for he never knew a love like this one and so had no idea how to describe it. “I don't know how to explain what it was like when I discovered that my heart was already ensnared by her. It was like swimming in the middle of a black sea in the murky abyss of night. I was alone, with nothing to keep me above water and nothing else in sight to keep me from sinking. As eerie as that sounds, the water felt like her to me, and so I wasn't the least bit fearful as I would be if I found myself in an actual place like that. When I sunk beneath the surface, I found her right in front of me.”

Seth raised his eyes to his family. “I was never alone from the very beginning. She'd always been there for me from the start of my whole life. She's just been dormant, in wait for me to find her, and I finally have. I know this all seems so soon and that perhaps she's just a rebound for Avery, but that's the farthest from the truth. Tahliah is it for me. Our love surpasses any I have ever experienced. It's month in your eyes that we've been together, but in mine, it's been centuries. I'm not making a miscalculation here. A miscalculation would be to let her go and move on to the same old starlets I find myself diverting all the time, not the one woman I want to be with the most. I'm in love with her, and she's in love with me. We're meant to be together. She's meant to be my wife.”

Rachael and her family stared at him in astonishment. Her brother had depicted a rather somber picture of the love he was currently experiencing with Twigs and it wasn't exactly the kind of likeness she'd never heard illustrated before...and yet it sounded like another of many forms love. “Wow, that's an striking way to describe your love for Tahliah.”

“Yeah, I...I never quite heard a love like that before.” Ronald admitted, looking a bit confused.

“Sounded like something out of a Tim Burton film to me.” Spencer shared, scratching the stubble on his chin.

“Didn't exactly have the red hearts and pink aura along with Cupid and his bow in it.” Xiang also pointed out then shrugged. “But I do believe love comes in various shapes, and sizes.”

Seth gave her a grateful nod. “Thank you. I agree that it did sound a bit ominous there for a minute. I didn't mean it to, it just...kinda came out that way.”

“Either way you spell it son, you're a grown man. We can only tell you how we feel, and give you guidance as often as we can, but when it all comes down to it, it's your relationship.” Ronald reported with a wave of his hand. “If you truly feel like that talented young lady out there is the woman for you, then I won't stand in your way.”

Rachael nodded lamely, still feeling a bit overprotective of her big brother. “Same here. We love you, Seth, and naturally we don't want to see you get hurt again. I hope your relationship with Tahliah will treat you better than your past relationships though, and that'll you both will be happy together.”

Seth broke out in his billion dollar smile, his perfect teeth twinkling white. “And that's all I could hope for from you guys. Truly, it means a lot. I know your support should be expected because you're my family, but I can't thank you enough for it and your love.”

“You can thank us by telling us when you plan on purposing to your Tahliah?” Xiang eagerly put in, a grin on her face. “Think of it as a little sneak peek.”

The whole family burst into laughter before Seth replied, scratching the back of his head anxiously. “Actually...I'm not sure when I'm gonna propose to her. I haven't gotten that far into thinking. As soon as I saw the ring, I just knew it was the perfect one for her.”

“How about proposing to her right now with all of us here?” Rachael submitted, spreading her arms out to their surroundings. “I think Dad's living room would be the ideal place.”

“Not gonna happen, Rachael. Sorry.” Seth declined with a smile. “I may have picked out the ring because I'm ready to settle down in a life of marriage with her, but...the that might not be the same for her.”

“What do you mean?” Spencer inquired, raising a thick brow. “Why wouldn't she be ready? You just said she loved you.”

Seth rolled his eyes, noticing that his brother-in-law completely forgot that he wasn't public with Twigs yet in their relationship. “Don't you remember? We're not publicly dating! The media has no idea that I'm seeing her.”

“Ooooooh right!” Spencer droned, chuckling at his inattention. “I totally forgot about all that.”

“I want to wait until she's comfortable with the idea of the world knowing about us first before I propose to her.” Seth revealed, wringing his hands nervously. “I mean, it's hard enough keeping my relationship with her as my girlfriend a secret, can you imagine trying to hide a whole fiancee? Or a wife?”

“Yeah, that's actually an exceptional idea, brother.” Rachael supported with a thumbs up sign. “If y'all are gonna get marry she needs to accept being in the public's eyes.”

“There is no way you'll be able to protect your relationship for long when it comes to the media.” Spencer warned him. “At some point, they'll find out. Unless you're one of the rare lucky ones that can hide a whole slew of kids for years.”

“I know, that's why I'm doing whatever it takes to make sure I remain successful.” Seth said before they heard the back door slide open, signaling Twig's return.

For some reason, because they all knew about the engagement ring that Seth hastily hurled back into his pocket, the family broke out into a scare at her arrival.

Spencer went limp and feigned being dead asleep with his daughter Bella still asleep on his chest.

Xiang pretended to pick out food debris from her husband's great white mustache and beard while he sat still in an unnecessary Egyptian pose.

Rachael had frantically reached out and struck a magnifying glass on the table stand next to her end of the couch. She urgently plucked it up and began to scan her dad's living room couch with it's magnified perception.

Seth, having fought to put the ring box back had no option, but to pretend to readjust his testicles more comfortably in his pants.

Twigs rounded the couch and immediately halted in her step by everyone's odd demeanor, except for Spencer who certainly looked asleep. Her brows furrowed as her full lips stretch in a suspicious smile at what she just walked into and what she speculated was a cover up for something. “Um...what's going on in here, you guys?”