Opposites Attract

Late One Night

He shrugged, not knowing what she wanted him to say.

"OK," she nodded. "Night then."

"Night? Why are you leaving?"

She paused and turned back to face him, arms crossing defensively. "Give me a reason to stay."

"Am I not reason enough?"

"Oh no, you aren't pulling that one."

"Which one?"

"You know full well that you are more than enough of a reason to stay. Unless it escaped your notice, you'll know that it's three in the morning and I got up to come and find you because I don't like waking up to find you gone. I miss you, I love you and I worry about you."

He wasn't looking at her, fiddling again with his tablet, but she knew he was listening, he always did.

"You don't need to worry about me."

There is was. Whenever he wanted to avoid a subject he focused on one particular thing she said and ignored the rest. Well it was late and she was far too tired for playing games.

She stomped back to the desk and slammed her left hand down in front of him.

"What's that?"

He barely glanced down. "Your hand."

"That's not what I meant, smart ass." She pointed at her ring finger. "I mean that."

He rolled his eyes at her and she resisted the urge to flick his forehead. Why had she not fallen for an easier man?

"What is it?"

"That would be your ring."

"Exactly, that ring is a promise. And, while I can't speak for you, to me that means that I agreed to marry your annoying self. And if I agreed to put aside my aversion to marriage for you, then it means you're pretty special. Did you ever wonder why I was so against marriage?"

"You said witches don't get married."

"Yeah, I lied."

He frowned. "You did?"

"Well, not technically, we don't get married the way most people do, as I said, I want a handfasting, the legal bit means very little to us. That's the thing, we don't believe a person can belong to someone, or that you should legally own someone because of a piece of paper. A handfasting is a promise, a commitment for as long as love lasts." She leant closer, bracing her weight on her hands as she bent over the desk, refusing to let him ignore her.

"I never wanted to get married because I didn't want a marriage like everyone else's. I didn't want a relationship where I was just seen as someone's wife, I wanted a partnership and I hadn't found anyone that I felt I could truly be myself with. Then I met you, and you wormed your way into my heart and made me love you."

He opened his mouth to talk but she stopped him.

"I accepted this ring, which is my promise to marry you, but that's not all it is to me. This is a promise that I will always love you, I will do everything in my power to make you happy, that I will always be open and honest with you, I will always include you in my life, because you are a part of my heart, you are my life. I thought it meant the same for you, that's why I said yes, because I thought we would be different from everyone else. Because I thought you were different."

John paused, letting her words sink in. When he spoke his voice was quieter than she had heard from him in a long time, more unsure of himself, reminding her of the man she had first met.