‘Look up,’ Quaddra told her.
‘What?’
‘Look up,’ he said again. ‘Right over there.’ He lifted his right arm and pointed at the sky to the east side of the bridge.
Mary’s gaze moved from Quaddra to the star-filled sky. ‘What am I look—’ She paused midsentence, her eyes narrowing at what she was seeing. All of a sudden, it looked like the stars were moving. Either that, or a whole bunch of UFOs had just come calling. ‘What’s going on right now?’ Her eyes went back to Quaddra.
‘Don’t look at me. Look at the sky.’
Mary did… again. The stars… the UFOs… whatever those were, they were still moving, and there were more coming… from both sides.
Passersby were now stopping to look as well, all pointing at the moving lights, which were now starting to form a pattern.
Mary finally realized that the lights weren’t stars, or UFOs… they were drones, flying at high speed.
In the blink of an eye, they all bunched together to form an enormous red heart, just like their padlock, before exploding in all different directions to spell the words:
MARY SMITH, WILL YOU MARRY ME?
An unsynchronized chorus of gasps and ‘Aww’s’ came at them from all corners of the bridge.
Mary’s jaw dropped, as her gaze returned to Quaddra, who was still on his knees, but now holding the most beautiful diamond ring, displayed inside an open Tiffany’s ring box. Her hands immediately cupped over her mouth, as her eyes welled up with tears.
Mary knew that Quaddra would propose during their trip to Europe, but not in a million years was she expecting it to be something as magical as this.
‘And if you give me the chance, Mary Smith…’ Quaddra said, as if he could read her thoughts, ‘… I’d love to show you how this magic will never end.’
The tenderness in his voice was like nothing Mary had ever heard before – from anyone.
Over the years, Mary had become an expert in pretending. She could cry on demand and at the blink of an eye… she could appear to be madly in love, when inside she was burning with hatred… and she knew how to lie and deceive better than any lawyer north or south of the Mississippi… but right then, the tears in her eyes were one hundred percent real, and so was the rapid beating of her heart. She chuckled nervously, as she nodded.
‘Yes!’ She smiled and the tears that had welled up in her eyes began streaming down her face.
‘Yes?’ Quaddra asked, just to be sure.
‘Yes,’ Mary repeated it, much louder this time, offering Quaddra her left hand.
Quaddra retrieved the ring from the box and slid it onto Mary’s ring finger.
Over in the distance, the drones dissolved into another crazy dance in the air, reshaping and reforming… first into a new, pulsating heart… and then to spell out a new sentence.
SHE SAID YES… CONGRATULATIONS!
The entire bridge erupted in cheers and applause.
Seventy-Two
From Mary and Quaddra’s engagement back in Salzburg, things moved fast – very fast, actually – and it was Quaddra who pushed for a speedy wedding.
His argument was simple – since Mary had said yes, why wait? What would they be waiting for, anyway? Neither of them wanted a big party, so there was no need to hire a wedding planner or go through months of preparation. Neither of them was religious, so a church wedding, where they’d have to wait months for a slot at the right church and have to go through countless hours of rehearsals, was also out of the equation. All they really needed to do was invite the few friends that they wanted to invite, book a date with a justice of the peace, and get married… no muss, no fuss.
Mary didn’t argue with Quaddra’s logic. In truth, the faster that they got married, the faster she could put the rest of her plan into action. There was only one thing that she needed to do first – sign a prenuptial agreement – and Mary had been the one who had suggested it, on the same night that they got engaged.
‘I love you, honey,’ Mary said, once they got back to their hotel after they got engaged on Markartsteg Bridge. ‘So, so much… and I would marry you tomorrow, if that’s what you wanted… but I’ll only do so if I sign a pre-nuptial agreement.’
Quaddra truly never saw that coming. ‘What? Why?’
‘Exactly because of the reason I just told you,’ Mary explained. ‘I love you, and that’s the reason why I’m going to marry you.’
