JJ Maybank imagines

falling in love

"Yes."

Although that's when I knew, with certainty, that I loved Rudy, I wanted to know when I fell in love with him, when I knew I wanted to be with him forever. Perhaps it was when I watched him get down on one knee with an engagement ring in a small velvet box.

"Where are we going?" I giggled as Rudy's hands gently held onto my shoulders to guide my wobbling steps to who knows where.

"It's a surprise," He repeated. I could tell we were outside from the breeze and the ocean was near since I could hear the waves crashing, "be patient."

"I hate surprises," I argued and went to tug the blindfold off but he stopped me, "and I don't have patience, you know that."

"Then good thing we're here," He stopped me from walking and untied the blindfold. My eyes took a second to adjust and when they did I was met with a gorgeous sunset in the background of a candle lit picnic at our favorite spot. While filming in Barbados, Rudy and I took it upon ourselves to find the most private, adorable little area of trees, a place for just us.

"Rudy, oh my gosh," I gasped and took a step toward, "You did all of this?" I spun around to see him scratch the back of his neck with a small smile.

"With some help from the girls. Carlacia packed the food, Madelyn picked out the candles, and Madison hung up these little lights," He reached above us and flicked the small strand of lights, "but this, I did this on my own." Rudy excitedly sat down and patted the blanketed ground next to him, so I sat, "This is a scrapbook of all my favorite memories of us." The book sat on his lap. The front cover was our very first picture together, crazy how big of a difference three years can make.

The first page was titled 'year one', and as he flipped through the book I felt myself tearing up.

"When was this taken?" I asked and stopped him on the third page of 'year two'. It was a picture of Rudy and I sleeping on the couch in one of our rental houses while filming season two. I recognized the scenery through the window in the background. 

"JD took it." He informed and I leaned my head onto his shoulder, "It was the day we all had a sleepover and played Uno for, like, three hours."

I grinned at him while remembering that night, "We were all so tired the next day." We continued flipping through the pages, 'year three' was next. As the story of us was told through pictures we sat and reminisced. Our laughs mixing together like a sweet symphony.

"Did you get more scrapbooks? I want to keep doing this," I said as the book closed. Now that he started this tradition, I wanted to keep it going, it was the most thoughtful gift anyone had ever given to me.

"Way ahead of you," He chuckled and swapped the filled scrapbook with another that he had behind the basket full of food, "This one starts with a question."

"A question?" I asked cluelessly as he sat the empty book in my lap and got up, "Why not just 'year four'?" I joked as my eyes stared at the empty book in front of me, trying to imagine what it would look like filled with three more years of amazing memories.

I flipped open the cover and saw words written on the first page, not just any words, four words. Four words forming the biggest question.

"Will you marry me?" Rudy's voice said from behind me and I spun around, the book falling of my lap onto the blanket. He was on one knee with a small box in his hand containing a beautiful ring.

Since I was sitting on the ground, I pushed myself onto my knees and threw my arms around him, "Yes!" I choked out, happy tears spilling from my eyes as I pulled away. He slid the ring onto my finger and I couldn't help but stare at it in awe, it was perfect.

"Congratulations!!!" Chase jumped out from the bushes with a Polaroid camera in his hands. Seconds later the rest of our friends stood up from their hiding spots with over the moon smiles on their faces.

"We got the perfect picture!" Madison cooed as she snagged the Polaroids from Chase and ran towards us. She held three Polaroid pictures in front of us. The first was Rudy on one knee behind my back, the second was me hugging him, and the third was him putting the ring onto my finger, both of us had the biggest smiles on our faces.

"These are perfect," I said breathlessly, "Did you bring tape or something?"

Instead of using words, Rudy grabbed some double sided tape from the basket and I quickly put them into the book.

Now, underneath the words 'Will you marry me?', were three Polaroid pictures of us sharing one of our happiest moments together.

"What are you doing?" Rudy asked, pulling me out of my memories and joining me on the couch, his arms opening to invite me to lay onto his chest. As my back rested onto him I held my hand up and let the sun reflect off the engagement ring on my finger.

"Falling in love with you all over again," I smiled and closed my eyes. I let every memory, every smile, hug, kiss, every late night conversation and calm Sunday afternoon play through my mind on repeat.

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This has taken me awhile to type since I've had so much going on, but I hope you all like some Rudy fluff <3