“But I’m not interested in you being uncomfortable either. I’d rather you be able to rest and relax. We can do this on another night when you can enjoy yourself.”
“I’m going to enjoy myself, baby. Can you get me some water or juice? I’ll be fine.”
“How about I get you both?” he suggested as he stood and returned to the kitchen.
I applied a couple of strokes to the canvas while he went to get me something to drink. When he returned, he handed me a large glass of juice and a bottle of water. We talked while we painted. He shared what was going on at his job now that he was a detective. We hadn’t talked much about his cases, because he had been so immersed in the trial no sooner than he made detective.
I was excited to hear the passion in his voice when he talked about his new position. He shared with me how he had to go back and discuss with his former supervisor why he hadn’t disclosed his relationship with Lena among other things. He told me that things were tense for a while between him and some of his old coworkers, but what made it easy was that he was no longer in the same department, and his new coworkers weren’t interested in the issues from the prior department.
An hour and a half later, we had finished painting.
“Are you ready?” he asked, removing his canvas from his stand.
“Yeah.”
He turned the canvas around. He had painted a table covered by a black velvet tablecloth with a bottle of wine and two glasses of wine sitting on the table. At the bottom of one of the wine glasses was a ring. Everything was so detailed that it almost looked like a 3-D painting. It took me by surprise, not only the details but also how quickly he completed the painting.
“I didn’t know you could paint that well.”
Deuce shrugged and replied, “It’s just a hobby. I rarely have time to paint anymore.”
I looked at the canvas closer and asked, “What’s this about?”
“Look at the paintings on the wall in the background of the painting.”
I looked closer and saw that the images I thought were flowers were actually words. There were four paintings with one word each, and they spelled out “Will you marry me?”
“Deuce, is this for real?”
He bobbed his head, and I sobbed so hard. I couldn’t believe that he was asking me to marry him and in the most romantic way possible. It took several seconds for me to calm down.
“Why would you want to marry me?”
“Why wouldn’t I, baby? You’re everything that I could ever want in a wife. You became my purpose for fighting to live another day. You gave me a reason to get up each morning and look forward to the day again. When I didn’t want to live, because I was in so much pain, you were my reason for not giving up. You became my literal breath that gave me life, purpose, and hope. I never want to lose that or the way you make me feel, Sevyn. You are my day and night, my world and my universe. I need more of you.”
I laughed as I wiped away the tears. “Yes, Deuce. I will marry you.”
He shocked me further when he pulled a small box from his pocket and showed me a beautiful emerald cut diamond ring and slid it on my finger. It fit perfectly.
“It even fits. How did you know my size?”
“I took one of your rings with me the day that I bought it and had the jeweler size it for me.”
“When was this?”
“Almost four months ago. The day after you tried driving from the mall and had that anxiety attack. I knew then that I wanted you in my life forever. I wanted to protect you, provide for you, and be the one person you could depend on whenever your world fell apart.”
“But you didn’t ask me right away.”
“I wouldn’t allow myself to ask you that knowing that I hadn’t been completely honest with you. I couldn’t start a marriage with a lie. You didn’t deserve that. You’d already done that before, and I wasn’t about to let you do it again. So, I decided to wait until I found the courage to tell you the truth. It didn’t happen the way that I wanted it to, but here I am.”
“It happened at the right time, the way that it was supposed to, Deuce. It happened in God’s timing.”
“You’re right, babe.”
He covered my mouth with his and kissed me softly and sweetly. It was romantic and slow, but his heart and love were in it. I could feel his soul in the way that he poured himself into that kiss. When he pulled back, he gave me three small pecks on the lips as he stared into my eyes and then kissed my forehead.
“Our future is so bright. You just made this old man happy.”
