In the End

67: I Want To Get This Right

Chewing absent-mindedly on the end of her pencil, Ariella looked down at the sketch which sat in front of her, a slight smile pulling lightly at the corner of her mouth. It had been a while, with her still on maternity leave after Toby’s arrival, it had been months since she had taken any time to sit down and sketch, but with her and Gerard’s engagement on her mind, she had taken advantage of Toby’s afternoon nap, setting herself up in Gerard’s study with a sketchpad.

It had been a few weeks, after Gerard had proposed, a little under a month had passed, and whilst they were both still excited by the idea that they’d gotten engaged, they hadn’t got around to discussing what came next, too caught up in the novelty of their engagement. She knew that it was a conversation that they were in need of, other than knowing that they were both set on getting married, neither one of them knew what the other one had in mind when it came to actually planning a wedding, but neither one of them had been keen to push it, instead wanting to focus on the giddy feeling of being newly engaged.

Scanning the sketch, she smiled gently to herself before she felt an arm around her waist, something which caused her to let out a squeal before she wheeled around, glaring up at Gerard who stood behind her, an amused smirk on his face. “You didn’t hear me come in?” he quipped, greeting her with a soft kiss on the cheek “I mean, I’ve been home for nearly ten minutes. You didn’t hear me call your name?” he added, offering her waist a little hug.

Ariella smiled sheepishly and shook her head. “I guess I was distracted” she mumbled “How was training?” she asked.

Gerard offered a shrug. “The same as it always is” he replied “But I am glad to be home. Where’s Toby? It’s a pretty nice day out and I was thinking we could head to the park or something. We could get a late lunch, take a nice family walk together...” he trailed off with an enthusiastic smile.

Ariella marveled at his bright smile, wordlessly fussing about how much she liked seeing it, before she gently shook her head. “It sounds lovely” she mused “But it’s going to have to wait a little while. Toby’s having his nap and he’s only been down for about half an hour. So unless you want to go and wake him and have him be grumpy for the rest of the day...” she trailed off playfully.

Gerard huffed out a playful sigh. “I suppose that we can wait” he grumbled.

Ariella giggled at his teasing before she shook her head, turning away so that she could tidy away her things.

Gerard, who’d taken a couple of steps backwards, lifted an eyebrow. “Is that your sketchpad?” he asked, gesturing to the pad she held in her hands.

Ariella’s cheeks flushed a soft shade of pink before she nodded, her eyes fixed on the pad which she clutched in her hands. “It is” she confirmed “I mean, with Toby taking his nap, I thought...uh... I thought I’d sketch a couple of things. I guess weddings have been on my mind lately and I thought I’d try and get a couple of ideas down. I mean, I don’t have any clients, but I...” she trailed off as she tentatively lifted her head, her eyes settling on the wide smile that Gerard wore on his face.

Shaking her head, she felt her cheeks warm a little more, before she dropped her stare. “What are you smiling at?” she mumbled.

Gerard grinned at her. “You” he quipped “I mean, weddings have been on your mind lately? I proposed to you a month ago. I’d be surprised if they weren’t. I mean, they’re on my mind too” he added, his voice softening slightly.

Ariella tilted her head. “Really?” she posed softly.

Gerard nodded his head gently before he offered his hand out towards her, wordlessly encouraging her to put hers into it. Ariella offered him a slightly dubious look before she reached her hand out, slipping it into his before he pulled it to his lips, allowing him to pressing a soft kiss against her skin. “I asked you to marry me, Ella” he mumbled “And I did that because I want to marry you. I know we’ve not talked about it much since the proposal, but if you want to start planning, then I’d love that” he insisted, gently brushing his thumb over the back of her hand.

Ariella, who’d been quietly staring down at their hands, quirked a soft smile. “Yeah?” she posed.

Gerard nodded and lifted her hand again, kissing the back of it softly. “You’re going to think I am being dorky” he mumbled.

“I already think you’re dorky” Ariella countered, her voice caught between soft and impish.

Gerard breathed out a laugh before he shook his head. “As I was saying” he mused “it’s going to sound dorky, but I kind of don’t want to hang around when it comes to planning. I know what I want, Ella, that’s why I asked, and if we could get through the planning sooner rather than later, then I’d be happy. But if you want to have a long engagement, then that’s OK too. I just...I guess I really want to get this right, right for you, right for me...right for us” he added, smiling bashfully at his own words.

Ariella looked up at him, admiring the bashful expression which had spread over his features for a couple of seconds, before she pushed herself up onto her toes, kissing him softly. Gerard flinched in surprise, slightly caught off guard by the soft kiss, but he warmed to it quickly, wrapping his arms around her for a few moments before Ariella pulled away from him, smiling up at him shyly. “I love you” she breathed.

Gerard smirked. “I know” he quipped.

Ariella shook her head with a grin before she lowered her stare, looking down towards her feet. “Soon” she murmured.

“Huh?” Gerard asked.

“I’d like to get married soon” Ariella clarified softly “I mean, I am not talking about eloping or trying to rush through the planning just so that we can get it over with, but I...I think that I’d quite like to get married soon” she added.

Gerard smiled. “I am sure that we can get that arranged” he quipped.

Ariella smiled at him gently, a soft blush on her cheeks, before the sound to Toby’s cries filled the air, something which caused Gerard to gently pull away from her, mumbling about going to check on the baby before he padded out of the room. Ariella watched him out for the door before she shook her head, still not quite able to shift the smile away from her face.
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Thanks to Jayme112234, FootieJo and mslou1 for the comments :)