On Vacation With A Former Crush

Two Years Later

"Lemonade, Max?" Stacey, wearing a purple bikini, a purple sarong around her legs and purple flip-flops, was carrying a metal tray carrying a glass jug and two glasses full of lemonade.

Max, wearing blue shorts, was relaxing on an orange picnic mat. "As long as it's yours and yours only," he replied. He took one of the glasses and took a slip. "It's delicious, Stacey. As always. You never cease to amaze me."

"And you never cease to amaze me, too, Max," Stacey said, as she joined him on the mat in their lovely warm garden.

Today it had been two years since the day Max and Stacey bumped into each other in the Wildlife Sanctuary Resort since they graduated from Spoonerville High School and they had never been apart since then. The first thing they did after they paid for their vacation at the resort was head to Stacey's small apartment so she could collect her stuff. It took no more than an hour to pack everything and put them into Max's car. And luckily her ex-boyfriend Alec wasn't even there because the apartment receptionist told them as Stacey paid her final rent that she heard he was on a bender with his alcoholic friends since she left for her vacation and that they had been arrested for drink-driving, damage to many properties and violence, even to children.

Then they arrived at Max's tiny apartment in Watertown. He was very surprised when Stacey liked his apartment more than he thought she would. It wasn't bigger than her apartment, but it was better for being with Max and being away from Alec. She was glad to be out of her previous apartment and never ever had to go back to it as it brought nothing except only bad memories.

As promised, Max contacted a mental health charity called Healthy Minds, a charity that he himself volunteered at their office to make his resume look good enough to get a paid job, which it led to him getting his job at the gym. Even when he got his job, he still volunteered for them at their events, like their marathons and their local concerts. The charity needed volunteers in the office and immediately after Stacey's interview she was hired.

Stacey volunteered at the office of Healthy Minds for six months while looking for a paid job. Then she finally a job at being a children psychiatrist's assistant. Like Max, she still volunteered for the charity at their events.

Then, in less than two months, Stacey became a children psychiatrist herself because she was better at helping the children out than her boss herself. For more than two years, she used her psychiatrist skills to diagnose children for their problems, with autism, dyslexia and OCD among the many mental problems and learning disabilities she could diagnose. She became so good at it that she even became very popular with teenagers and adults who needed diagnosing. In fact, she became a celebrity psychiatrist after she diagnosed youngest daughter of the biggest rock star on the planet Powerline, who was only five and she had Asperger's syndrome and dyslexia, and gave her father and mother, who was one of Powerline's latest backup dancer were not married, the advice about the support she would need during her whole life.

Some time later, Stacey also wrote non-fiction books about how she would diagnose children for their problems, what their signs and symptoms would be and how to help them. Even charities who support certain people with certain problems came to her, more for advice and information than money even (though she would always put a few cents into their collection tins. And she even went on TV shows and talked to the most popular TV hosts about diagnosing children and how to help them.

Max had done very well for himself too. The gym he worked at was struggling and had to be sold and no one bought other than Max. Once he became the owner of the new gym and he gave it a name, calling it Gym For Life, he made it bigger and better than the previous owner did and the new gym was ten times popular in two years than the previous one was in the last twenty years. As if that wasn't successful enough, Max even bought two more gym buildings for sale and expanded his Gym For Life empire.

Then, with the money Stacey earned from her successful psychiatrist career and Max earned from his successful gym career and saved together, they bought a house that was big enough to be mistaken for a mini mansion with a garden that was big enough to be mistaken for a forest. As well as the big bedrooms, their massive offices and the vast kitchen among the many other enormous rooms, it even had its own gym and a swimming pool. And their garden was the perfect place for them to relax and meditate after stressful busy periods of work like they were doing on this lovely, warm day.

Despite their successful careers and the big house they moved into, the one achievement that Max and Stacey had achieved the most was entering a happy and healthy relationship. Stacey's parents had divorced and found new partners and had more children. She didn't visit them very often because she didn't know how to handle her parents with her new stepparents and her new half-siblings, but she wasn't too upset because she had Max. On the other hand, Max's dad Goofy and his partner Sylvia Marpole was so happy in their relationship that they got married and Sylvia was pregnant. No one knew if it would be a boy or a girl, but Max promised to be the best sibling he could be to it, whatever it would be.

"I know I keep saying this, Max," Stacey said, "but I'm so glad you're back in my life."

"And I'm glad you're back in my life, Stacey," Max said. "And, once again, I'm so sorry that we didn't date in high school. I just didn't notice that you –"

"It's okay, Max," Stacey said. "Besides, as you know, I was a very busy student body president," Stacey said. "I didn't have time for dating or things like that. It was lucky that Bobby was cool with me when we dated. Besides, Roxanne was like a sister to me and she always told me how happy she was and how wonderful you were when she dated you before she had to move to Australia."

"And that relationship wouldn't have happened if you didn't encourage her to talk to me when you did and I will never be able to thank you enough for that."

"And you will always be welcome for that," Stacey said.

"Say, Stacey, could you close your eyes for me?" Max asked.

She did.

He got out blue ring box out of his shorts. "Okay, you can open them."

When she opened them, Stacey saw Max open up the box and inside it was a proposal ring. She gasped with delight.

"Stacey, will you marry me?" Max asked.

"Yes, Max!" Stacey cried happily. "Of course, I will!" Then she hugged and kissed him. Then they lied on the mat and kissed passionately to celebrate their engagement.