I blankly stare at her. “You’ve mentioned.”
She balks at me, eyes wide.
“No.”
Her face falls. “W-what?”
“No. You have impeccable timing. Really? You can’t ask me while my cock is still inside you.”
“That makes it all the better,” she says, and her voice squeaks.
I splay my hands against her back to keep her in place as a smirk begins to draw on my mouth. “And no, you can’t ask me.”
“Why not?” she protests.
“Because that’s my role, and we are going to do it my way.”
Her jaw drops. “I ask you to marry me and this is what you say?”
Esme slides off of me, and I follow her off the bed. Standing up, we face one another, completely naked. This isn’t how Sunday was supposed to go. "I’m saying that I’m saying no to you."
She points her finger at me. "So you don’t want to marry me?” She looks like she is about to burst into tears.
I don’t step forward in a flash, choosing to stay in place to watch my beautiful Esme about to go from fearful to elated. “I do want to marry you. That’s why I had planned to ask you when we got back. So yeah, you can’t ask me to marry you. We are going traditional, and I’m the one to ask.”
Her eyes flutter as she stares at me. “Really?” She seems to doubt me.
“Yeah, really.” I grab a fresh pair of boxer briefs from the open suitcase as it sinks in for her.
“You’re not just saying that? I mean, we are at a wedding, so maybe we are both wrapped up in the wedding fever.”
“Is that why you asked?” Now, I’m a little concerned.
She shakes her head frantically. “No. It’s just the words rolled out of my mouth. Maybe this weekend has been a little confronting… for what I want. Which is you, a future, you as my husband, babies one day.”
I pause and take a breath. "Esme," I grit out because I’m kind of annoyed that she’s taken away the element of surprise in our future.
My mouth tightens, and I bite my bottom lip, but I grabbed her attention and now she's trying to read my face.
"What?" she wonders
"I was going to ask you to marry me next week." Her eyes grow and her lips part, but no words come. "I even have the ring ready. My sister helped me pick it."
Her mouth goes slack. "W-what?"
I walk toward her slowly. “I had this whole thing planned. I was going to leave the ring in the mailbox for you to find. We would have a family BBQ to surprise you. I mean, we can still have the BBQ since I have a sandbox in my yard, and it needs my nephew to play in it… maybe one day our own kid too.”
She stammers for a second but then rushes to me, cups my face, and slams her lips onto mine. “Yes.” That was the most overzealous answer I’ve ever heard, and it causes my grin to appear.
“I didn’t even ask.”
She swats my shoulder. “Then why the hell tell me that tidbit of information? So, yes.”
My eyes squinch at her. “I can’t even actually ask?”
“No. I say yes.”
I have to laugh now. Stubborn Esme is one of the best things to experience. Or at least when we are not disputing about the shopping list for the week.
