Here I Am, There You Are

Jack and I had officially moved into our house. Once the painting was done and the bathrooms were completely finished, we left Jack’s apartment. It made everything so much more real. While we were still renovating, it seemed so far in the future, like it was still to come. But as Jack’s apartment became emptier and our house became more and more furnished and decorated, it turned into reality. The first night we spent at our house made it all concrete.

Things changed. They changed a lot.

Even compared to living together back in Jack’s apartment, things changed significantly. It was only good changes, though. I wasn’t living in Jack’s space anymore, this was our space. We worked on it together, we decorated it together. There were no more fights about the dishwasher because we got a new one and both figured out what the best way to load it was. This was our home together.

Of course, moving was stressful, and it didn’t happen without fights. We would fight about the strangest things. One day we’d be fighting about where exactly to put the couch. Three feet closer to the wall or further away? Then we’d be fighting about which plant to put where. These obviously weren’t things to really get into arguments about, but we were both just exhausted. After our first proper full night’s sleep, that all ended.

The last thing we had to do was fix up our backyard. It really was just a matter of cutting all the grass, trimming the bushes, cleaning out the pool, and making the gazebo accessible. There were a few planks of wood that had come loose, it really needed painting, and we had to put some furniture in it so we could actually use it. The gazebo was literally the only thing that we actually had to do after living there for a few weeks. We had fixed it and painted the inside, all that was left was the outside now.

But it was a weekend, and that meant that Jack and I slept in. Sometimes we wouldn’t even leave our bed all day, but usually I’d get up before Jack did. I was just in a routine of waking up relatively early and the imaginary concept of a weekend didn’t rewire my body. However, for the first time since we had moved into our house, Jack was actually up before me.

After I took a shower and put on my clothes, I left our bedroom. I fully expected Jack to be up so early because he had a guitar riff or something in his head that he needed to record before he forgot it. However, once I popped my head into his workspace in our extra spare bedroom, I found it empty. The next best thing was to just go downstairs and see if he was there. But once I went back out to our hallway, I could already smell the sweet aroma of something cooking.

I followed the trail all the way to the kitchen and found Jack hanging over the stove. There was definitely something nice of the menu for breakfast. He was wearing shorts that came to his knees and a t-shirt, but he looked so damn good. I sneaked up to him and wrapped my arms around his waist, looking over his shoulder to see him flipping a pancake. A smile crept up onto my lips and I pressed a kiss to the back of his neck.

“Hmm, pancakes,” I whispered, licking my lips. “What’s the special occasion?”

“No special occasion,” he shook his head and picked up the pan to slide the pancake on the pile he had started before making the next one, “just pancakes.”

“Just pancakes?” I repeated, not believing him at all. There was something fishy going on. “I highly doubt that.”

“What makes you so certain that it’s a special occasion?” he retorted, turning the questions on me.

“Well, for starters, you got up before me and I didn’t even notice.” I hugged him tighter and pressed the side of my face into his back. “And you never make pancakes unless something’s up. Like whenever I would come over when I was still in Vancouver.”

“Hmm, true.” He gave in with a nod. “But we live together now. It’s not your birthday, it’s not mine, it’s not our anniversary. I’m just making pancakes for m’lady.”

“I’m no lady,” I whispered as I let my hands travel down his chest until I reached the waistband of his shorts and kissed his neck.

“Ay!” He slapped my hands away. “I’m making pancakes here!”

“Alright.” I ended the conversation just as I had started it, with a brief kiss to the back of his neck, and removed myself from him.

If Jack was going to make pancakes for no reason other than wanting to, then the least I could do was set the table. I reached into our cupboards and pulled out two plates and two glasses. After putting them down on our wooden kitchen table, I pulled out the freshly squeezed orange juice I had made the evening before from our fridge.

Yes, I was turning into one of those girls. Somebody who enjoyed making things and DIY-ing. It wasn’t because I wanted to be one of those pinterest-slash-instagram-blogger girls nor did I really have the time for it all. I just really did enjoy doing it. And Jack didn’t seem to mind trying homemade pasta or some weird cake recipe occasionally. If anything, he enjoyed it.

It didn’t take much longer for Jack to finish making all the pancakes. He brought the plate with the large pile to the table along with some syrup. After sitting across from me, he gave the first pancake to himself, the next two to me, and the next one to himself. While he poured some syrup on his and started digging in, I just looked down at mine and back up at him.

“What?” He asked with his mouth full.

“What did you do to them?” I squinted at him and inspected the pancakes from afar again.

He frowned back at me and swallowed what was in his mouth. “Nothing…?”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah! What would I have done to them?”

I still was too skeptical to pick up my fork and knife and touch them. “I don’t know. For all I know, you jacked off in them so I’d eat your cum.”

“Why would I do that?” he snorted and continued to eat. “I don’t need to, you already swallow.”

I glared at him. If he hadn’t gone out of his way to actually make these pancakes, I would have gotten mad. He thought it was funny, but was it really necessary? I was still allowed to get a little pissed off, though. So, I crossed my arms and continued to refuse to touch the food.

“Oh, come on. Look,” he reached over, cut off a big chunk of one of my pancakes and stuffed it in his mouth, “it’s all safe.”

I continued to stare at him, but when he didn’t even flinch, I gave in. I poured some syrup on then and started eating, keeping a close eye on Jack’s reaction. You know, just to be safe.

“Damn, do you really not trust me?” He shook his head, noticing how careful I was being.

“I’ve been friends with you for too long, Jack. I know to watch my back,” I responded.

“And we’ve been dating for three years. Have I ever done something like that in that time?”

I wanted to give him examples, but I could only think of things that happened before 2016, before we got together. He actually did stop playing stupid jokes ever sinace then. “Then why did you hand out the pancakes so weirdly!”

“Because I was greedy and gave myself one first, decided it was rude, gave you some next before giving myself another.” He shrugged.

“God, you’re weird,” I scoffed and knocked his leg with one of my feet, “and to think I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

He grinned at me. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” I rolled my eyes.

After we finished our pancakes, Jack and I were in the kitchen cleaning everything up. That basically meant putting everything in the dishwasher and putting the syrup back into the fridge. Jack was once again doing most of the work, but only because he started.

“Hey,” he tried to get my attention as he tried fitting the pan into the dishwasher. When I gave it to him, he continued, “why don’t you go get your nails done today?”

I frowned and looked down at my hands. My nails were a mixture of short, broken and chipped. Usually, I liked to keep them up, have them taken care of. But that all went to shit when we were renovating and moving.

“I dunno.” I shrugged although thinking my hands hadn’t looked this bad in a while. “They’re practically ruined. I’m not sure if it will be worth it.”

“Don’t you want to make them look good again?” he wondered as he closed the dishwasher and took my hand to take a look himself. “I’ll pay for it.”

I slowly took my hand out of his. “Why are you being so nice today?”

He raised his shoulders. “Just cause I want to. Also, we’re finally done moving, so you should treat yourself. Or, actually, I’m treating you.”

“It’s like you’re trying to get me to warm up to you. Like you used to do with your mom when you wanted to have a sleepover.”

“Hey, I’m just offering.” He raised his hands up in defense.

I checked out my nails again. Who was I if I didn’t take this opportunity? Jack was literally offering to pay for me to go out and get my nails done. “Okay, I will.”

“Good.” He smiled and hooked one hand around my waist before leaning forward and kissing me.

“What colour should I go for?” I asked him despite knowing I probably wouldn’t follow his advice once I was at the place anyway. I rarely did. He’d tell me to go blue when I’d be wearing pink to an event.

“Something neutral,” he suggested, “maybe white.”

“No, not white,” I rejected the latter. “That’ll be like wedding nails.”

“If you say so.”

I did exactly as I said and did not go for white. That was something I was keeping for when I was going to get married. Last time I checked, I wasn’t getting married anytime soon. Sure, if I had been single, I wouldn’t have cared. I would have rocked that white. But, now I wanted to keep it for something special.

I did listen to Jack for the neutral idea, though. He was pretty spot on with that one, ignoring how vague it actually was. There were so many options and I was nearly tempted to just say ‘fuck it’ and go crazy like a neon orange or a bright green. But, Jack was probably right to go for something more calm. I could always decide to go crazy a few weeks later. So, I just went with an ombre of pink to white at the tips in a coffin shape. It really did look so much better than my natural nails. Jack just had to make sure he didn’t expect me to help finish the gazebo, or else they were probably going to break off as well.

Once I came back home, I obviously wanted to show Jack what I had gotten with his credit card. The first thing I did was call out his name and tell him that I was home, but I didn’t get a response. I called it out again, thinking maybe he hadn’t heard me, but I still didn’t even get an acknowledgement. So, I took a little snoop around the house, not bothering to check the garden.

It almost seemed abandoned.

When I also couldn’t find Olive around, I just assumed that Jack must have been out taking her for a walk. So, I just flopped onto the couch and turned on the TV to see if anything interesting was on. Unfortunately, it just left me looking lazy while doing some channel surfing. I was sure that Olive couldn’t have waited any longer for her walk, but I would have much rather been out with them.

And then something unexpected happened.

Olive came bolting through the door to our second living room, coming right up to me. I gave her a few good head scratches and my mind immediately went to Jack also being around somewhere. So, I called out for him again with yet again no answer.

However, that’s when I noticed Olive had something attached to her collar. I was confused. It was some yellow-toned capsule. Because I knew it wasn’t meant to be there, I clipped it off and opened it. Inside was a rolled up piece of paper, not much bigger than the size of half a notebook page ripped in half. Jack’s handwriting was scribbled on it. All it said was:

Hey! Come out. I want to show you something!

I held onto the note and turned off the TV before shuffling past Olive, who decided to follow me anyway. This instruction was almost just as vague as the nail colour he chose. I was fully assuming he meant the backyard, so I made my way there. After opening the door, I saw Jack standing in the gazebo already expecting me. What was once green from moss and had been sanded down, was now all painted in with a nice white coat, exactly like we had done with the inside earlier.

“You finished it!” I exclaimed in glee as I approached him. The way he announced it was a little extra, but I was happy.

“We’re officially done with our house now!” Jack cheered and pressed a deep yet short kiss to my lips before taking a step to the side and showing off the pillows and blankets he put down on the floor. “What better way to celebrate than a picnic in our own backyard?”

“You already made pancakes this morning, and now this. Are you sure it’s not my birthday?” I teased and decided I wasn’t satisfied with the brief kiss we shared. To keep the contact longer, I circled my arms around his neck and shuffled closer to him.

“It’s not November for another few months.” He wiggled his eyebrows and leaned in for another kiss while I could hear Olive barking and zooming around the entire garden in the background.

“Then what did I do to deserve all this?” I mumbled against his lips.

“A lot of things,” he breathed back and let his hand creep up my back underneath my shirt.

I decided to challenge him. “Like?”

“For not thinking I was a weird eleven-year-old when I was moved to sit next to you after disrupting the class too often,” he whispered and pecked me. “For dealing with me throughout high school and not letting my stupid crushes get in the way of our friendship.” He brushed his lips against mine again. “For being my best friend throughout all that time and staying with me after.” Another kiss. “For making me realise how shitty it was to deny my feelings and not giving up on me.” Another one. “For not letting my past ruin us.” And again. “For giving me another chance after I fucked up.” One last kiss. “For loving me and letting me love you.”

Nope. There was another kiss. Only, this one was much longer and deeper. He pushed into me, using the hand on my back to keep us steady. I pulled him closer as well. I was so lucky. Never did I ever believe that I would be kissing and dating the boy in middle school who annoyed the living shit out of me. And I certainly did think I’d end up with the boy in high school who was such a big dork and would drag me to concerts super early. But now I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Jack pulled away before I wanted him to. I didn’t want this moment to ever end.

He parted from me and got down. But he wasn’t getting down to sit and eat the food he had in a basket. No, he was doing something very different. He was getting down on one knee.

My eyes widened and my heart started racing as he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small black box. He cautiously opened it to reveal a diamond ring glistening in the light.

“Rach,” he started, looking up at me, his fingers trembling lightly, “I know things are moving pretty quickly right now–”

“Yes!” I practically squealed, slapping both of my hands to my cheeks in eagerness and anticipation.

He chuckled softly, the trembling calming down. “Let me finish.” I nodded, urging him to continue. “Will you m–”

“Yes!” I interrupted again.

“Rach!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” I rambled, moving my hands about, “continue.”

He took in a deep breath and gave me a warning look not to interrupt again. “Rachel, will you marry me?”

I nodded in excitement, holding out my arms so he’d stand back up. Before he got the chance to take the ring out of the box, I enveloped him into a hug. I dug my face into the crook of his neck, just wanting to take a second and bask in the moment so I would never forget it.

“You can say yes now,” he murmured into my ear.

I broke away from him and wiped away some tears that had managed to fall from my eyes onto my cheeks. I could barely manage to make the word come out for a third time. “Yes.”

Jack couldn’t stop smiling as he carefully took the ring out of its cushioned box. He held my left hand and gingerly slipped the ring onto my ring finger. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Jack could have gotten anything, and I would have been in love with it. But, damn, did that boy have a good taste. The band was thin, tiny diamonds all around it, leaving the rose gold to weave through them. On top was one large oval diamond that wouldn’t stop sparkling.

As soon as the ring was at the base of my finger, my arms were around Jack’s neck again and my lips were pressed against his in a very hungry kiss. I jumped up and wrapped my legs around his waist, his hands immediately went to my butt to keep me up. Everything was so surreal. Just earlier, I was skeptical about Jack’s pancakes, and now we were engaged. I didn’t want to paint my nails white because I wanted to wait until I got married, and now I was going to get married in the future.

We did end up actually eating the food Jack had brought outside. It took awhile for us to let go of each other, but eventually we did. We couldn’t stay and kiss each other forever, as much as I would have liked to.

I was just eating some of the grapes, still subconsciously smiling all the time, when I noticed that Jack was taking a picture of me.

“Hey!” I gasped in accusation.

“What?” he laughed back in defense. “I’ve gotta announce it in some way.”

“At least take a good picture!”

“It’s not a bad one.” He turned his phone to show me what he had taken. He was right, but that was only because I wasn’t in the middle of eating. I was just smiling and you could see the ring because of the grapes I was holding. “But if we’re going to take a proper photo, then it’s going to have both of us in it. I want to broadcast it to everybody. Except for the guys, I already sent this photo to them.”

I dropped my mouth open before grabbing my phone as well. Without giving him time to think, I raised my left hand and snapped a photo of it with him in the background. That went straight to my family and Sascha along with a caption saying ‘guess what’.

“Now we’re even.” I stuck my tongue out at him.

He shook his head at me, not caring as much that I had obviously just sent it to people. “Just get your butt over here so we have a photo to frame forever.”

The perfect photo didn’t happen immediately. There were a few tries. It was pretty difficult to get the optimal position. We had taken many selfies together before, but this was just a little different. For some reason, actually getting the ring in the shot was the most difficult part. However, eventually, we settled on a picture where I was on Jack’s lap and kissing his cheek. My one arm was around his neck, both my hands resting on his shoulder, the ring in full view.

While Jack was busy posting it on social media, his arms around me so he could type, my phone started ringing. I leaned over to grab it from where I was sitting and tried my best not to have to leave Jack’s lap. Not that he would let me leave. I could barely reach it to see that it was Ethan FaceTime calling me.

When I finally got to answer it, Ethan immediately greeted me. “Hey!”

“Hey, what’s up?” I replied as Jack locked his phone and put his chin on my shoulder to see who I was talking to. Only the bottom of his face was visible in the frame, so my moved my phone away a little so Ethan knew Jack was here as well.

“Umm, what do you think is up?’’ Ethan mocked. “I just saw your message. I’m calling to say congrats!”

I giggled and Jack nuzzled his nose into my hair. “Thanks.”

“I’m excited!” He grinned back. “When Jack told me he was going to propose, I had to do everything in me to not tell you. It was so difficult.”

I turned my head to look up at Jack. “You told him?”

“Yeah.” Jack nodded like it was a given and started listing and counting with his fingers. “I asked your dad for permission, I asked your mom for permission, and of course I checked with Ethan as well.”

I didn’t think that I could love Jack any more, but just the fact that he thought to include Ethan made me love him so much more. It was so adorable and heartwarming. I couldn’t help but smile at him and kiss him.

“Please, not in front of me,” Ethan groaned.

“You’re the one that called after we got engaged,” I teased back. If there hadn’t been food around, I would have let Jack fuck me right on this gazebo. Ethan could have called right in the middle of that, ignoring the fact that I wouldn’t have announced it to my family yet then.

“I know, I know,” he brushed it off. “But I’m still maid of honour, right?”

“You don’t want to be one of my groomsmen?” Jack asked, acting like he was personally hurt.

“As honoured as I would be,” Ethan apologised, putting his empty hand to his heart, “maid of honour sounds just a bit cooler.”

“Damn it,” Jack whispered underneath his breath, “it does, doesn’t it?”

“It does,” I confirmed with a nod. “He’s my boy.”

“I will keep the title maid of honour, I don’t want any of that man of honour bullshit,” Ethan made very clear.

I chuckled in response. I loved that kid with all my heart. He was nineteen now, which was just absolutely insane and unreal. To me, he was always going to be my baby brother. But now, he had graduated high school as well. He was just a few weeks away from starting college. Back when Jack and I first started dating, he was still an inexperienced high school kid. He was almost an adult now and he even had his own girlfriend.

I could still remember the day he called me in a panic asking me ‘how the fuck sex worked’ after his girlfriend expressed that she was willing for them to lose their virginities to each other. It was so adorable to me. He was super lucky, because Jack was visiting me at the time. He got both advice from me and Jack. Jack gave him some technique tips, while I was asked more about what his girlfriend would like. I loved how concerned he was about her and not just about his own pleasure.

He was a good kid, and I could only thank my parents for how amazing they were at raising us.

“Okay, before you hang up on me,” Ethan quickly added when he noticed the conversation was starting to die down, “let me go find mom so she doesn’t call you later as well.”

He didn’t even wait for us to reply before he was bolting down the stairs calling out ‘mom’ loudly over and over again. Although he was almost an adult, he did sometimes still really act like a kid, but we all did that. I could whine like I was a teenager going through a phase to my mom for hours as well. It wasn’t as frequent, but it did happen.

“Mom, I’ve got Rachel on the phone,” he said off camera although his phone was still pointed towards his face.

“Okay, that's nice,” was all my mom said in the background.

Ethan didn’t like the answer and forced his phone in front of her. She was wearing her reading glasses and I could tell she was working on her laptop because of the glare on them. Her eyes showed the annoyance brewing inside. I was fully prepared for her to shout.

She didn’t shout just yet, though. But she did sigh loudly. “Ethan, I’m working.”

“Didn’t you check your phone?!” he was quick to defend himself.

“I’m not constantly glued to that thing like you are,” she scoffed.

I had to hide my face in Jack’s neck to hold back the laughter. She had no idea what was going on. She hadn’t checked her phone and seen my message yet. In her mind, Ethan was just trying to disrupt and annoy her. Little did she know he was just trying to make things easier.

He tried to reason with her. “But Rachel–”

“What about her?” My mom turned to finally look at the screen. She looked like she was going to tell me exactly what she had told Ethan, just in a much nicer way. That she was busy and that she’d talk later. Usually, I’d respect that. This time, I slowly raised my left hand up to show the ring that was now nestled on my finger. Her eyes widened significantly and her mood changed completely. “Oh! Oh my god!”

“Thank you,” Ethan grumbled from the side of the screen.

“When did this happen?!” My mom continued to gush.

“Like half an hour ago,” I laughed. If my mom said ‘oh my god’, you knew she was in shock. She would never use that phrase otherwise.

Her mouth was literally agape. “How did it happen?”

“Well, I had a plan,” Jack scratched the back of his head, “but it immediately went wrong. But then it went better than expected. All credits go to Rachel, really, she just made the transition so smooth for me.”

“That’s why you made pancakes this morning!” I gasped and sat up straighter. He totally had been trying to butter me up. “And the nails! You planned all of it!”

“Of course, I did.” Jack shook his head softly at my ignorance. “I know pancakes make your day, I know you’re a sucker for a good picture, and I know you love our new backyard.”

“I can’t believe both of my daughters are going to be married now!” I mom smiled at us, her shock now turned into content. “I’m getting old.”

“I’m still a teenager.” Ethan shrugged.

“That doesn’t make me any younger…” She breathed out. “Anyway, I’m going to let you guys enjoy this moment, okay? I’ll make sure dad calls you later tonight.”

“Okay,” I nodded, “I love you.”

“I love you, bye,” she signed off before ending the call.

I immediately shifted in Jack’s lap so I could face his better without having to crane my neck as far. While I put down my phone again, I grinned sheepishly. “You’re going to have to tell me your original plan now.”

“Nope!” He shook his head and sealed his lips.

“What?! Come on!” I tried batting my eyelashes to sway him.

“No,” he refused, leaning back onto his hands. “The way it happened was perfect and I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

As much as I would have wanted to know, he was right. The way he proposed was just perfect. I couldn’t imagine it going differently. I loved how it wasn’t overly planned, how it just happened so naturally. I loved how he brought our entire history up. I loved that it was so unexpected and personal.

And, of course, I loved Jack.

I put my hand on his cheek and kissed him deeply. Jack, while still leaning backwards, returned it with the same amount of pressure. My hand slipped to his hair on the back of his head behind his ear and I shuffled around to straddle him. He sat up to make it more comfortable and easy while he put his hands on my waist to pull me closer. There was just one thing we hadn’t done yet, and it was on both of our minds.

His hands started traveling up my shirt when I realised something. I had been called by Ethan, but Jack’s phone had been awfully quiet. Strangely quiet. His instagram was probably blowing up, but he didn’t have those notifications on. Where were the other notifications?

I pulled away from him, causing him to lean forward to try and make sure it wouldn’t stop. “Hang on, did you tell your family?”

He looked annoyed and clouded with lust. There was this attitude like he was about to say ‘of course’ and get a little pissed off at me. But then his brow furrowed and he pursed his lips. “Oh… shit.”

I raised my eyebrows to say ‘I told you so’ without actually saying the words. He gave me a little apologetic grin and reluctantly took his hands off me to take hold of his phone instead. I could already see that there were in fact notifications on his lock screen and they were definitely from the group chat he had with his brother and sister.

I tried my best to read it all upside down and saw his sister freaking out just a little. She was mainly causing a fuss because she found out through his Instagram post instead of actually hearing something from him. Jack immediately sent an apology and an excuse. He even almost blamed it on me but noticed me reading along and deleted that sentence before it was even completed. Eventually, he just settled on being caught up in the moment, which was probably true. I couldn’t imagine him not wanting to tell his family.

After a few messages, he put his phone back on the floor and returned his hands to my hips. “I’ll call my parents later. Let’s enjoy it ourselves first.”

“Okay,” I agreed without a second thought and resumed the kiss I had interrupted before.

This time, Jack was the one to break away. “Eager much?”

“Like I’m the only one,” I whispered back against his lips and gingerly, yet not so subtly, put my hand on his crotch.

He stared back at me and breathed out. “Fair enough.”

As he restarted the kiss yet again, digging his fingertips into the back of my hips so I’d shuffle up closer to him. Once I was in the right position, he slowly started leaning back until his back hit the pillows he had put down. Everything was slow yet so passionate. I didn’t want to ever forget this day.