Broken Pieces

45

45

     “What?” Any moisture in my mouth was instantly gone, and if I thought my heart had been beating quickly before, it definitely surpassed any pace it had ever been at.

     “Marry me. Please? I know it might sound crazy, but I don’t know that anything we’ve done before hasn’t been. And I love you. You know I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Marry me, Sam.”

     My teeth sunk into my lip to try to recoil all the emotions that were swirling around my head. I was excited, yes, but also terrified. Commitment was always an issue for me… until Elliot-

     “Sam?”

     “Hm?” I opened my eyes that I hadn’t realized I’d closed and saw the panic that had come over his face. “O-Of course, Elliot,” I nodded quickly. “Yes!”

     Relief replaced the trepidation of his features and he engulfed me in his arms. “I love you, Sam. And I will always love you.”

     I felt tears beginning to well up in my eyes. “I love you, too, Elliot.”

     “Oh, wait!” His arms fell from around my waist.

     “What?”

     “I have a ring! Damn. I had this all planned out but I even forgot the ring.” He pulled a small black box from his pocket, causing my heart to race again. “That’s what you do to me. You make me love you so much that it’s the only thing I know how to do.”

     He slowly pulled the box open to reveal a delicate—but definitely not small—ring that gleamed in its exposure to the light. Tears flowed freely from my eyes at the sight of it. This really is real.

     “Elliot… It’s beautiful.”

     “It’s nothing compared to you, darling.”

…

     “Oh, Sam… It’s beautiful!” Jessa exclaimed as she grabbed my hand. “I can’t believe this is happening!”

     I smiled and felt my cheeks flush—though I knew Elliot couldn’t hear us, it felt strange discussing my brand new engagement to him as he sat just out front.

     Jessa’s eyes gleamed with tears as she nodded, seemingly reassuring herself of something. “He’s good for you sweetie.”

     “I know…” My eyes nervously glanced around to the timer on the oven.

     “What’s wrong?”

     I sighed and let my eyes fall shut and my head fall backward to lean against the wall. “What if I screw everything up? What if… I’m not good enough?”

     “Well now why would you go off saying something crazy like that? That’s nonsense! The boy loves you, Sam. You can see it in his eyes every time he looks at you.”

     “I know…” I peered through my eyelashes at her patient face and sighed again. “That doesn’t mean I can’t do something stupid and mess everything up.”

     “We all do stupid things, honey. It’s part of life. But Elliot… he’s not going anywhere.”

     “You really think so?” I opened my eyes and leaned forward as her hand gently stroked my cheek.

     “I know so. And don’t you think you owe it to yourself to stop doubting every good thing in your life and finally enjoy it? Bad things are going to happen, but Elliot is going to be right there to go through them with you.”

     I nodded and hastily blinked the tears away from my eyes. “Thanks, Jess. It really means a lot to me.”

     “No problem, sweetie. Now, go. Spend some time with your new fiancée,” she said winking at me.

     I smiled genuinely and hugged her goodbye. “Thanks again, Jessa.”

     “I’ll always be here for you, Sam. Congratulations.”

     I rounded the corner to see Elliot at the same table he first sat at in the café. His phone was pressed to his ear, but he looked too relaxed to be doing business.

     “Yes, mom,” he drawled lovingly through the phone as I approached him. “Okay, I’ll talk to her and then get back to you… No, mom, you haven’t even given me the chance yet,” he chuckled.

     I smiled and sat in the seat next to him.

     “I kind of have to get off of the phone to do that… Okay, thank you. Love you too.” He put his phone in his pocket and grabbed my hand in his. “That was my mom.”

     “Really? I totally didn’t get that from the multiple times you called her mom,” I teased.

     “Well she wants us to come to dinner tonight to celebrate with the family. Is that okay?”

     I swallowed through the dryness in my mouth and smiled. Though I loved Elliot’s family, I still felt an overwhelming sense of nervousness when I knew I was going to be around them. “Of course. I’d love to.”

     “Are you sure?”

    “Yeah. She seemed, at least from your end of the conversation, to be excited to have us over, so we really should go.”

     He smiled. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. I guess I’m just being a little selfish, but I was looking forward to cooking for both of us tonight and spending the evening with you. But I guess I can wait.”

     “We’ll still be spending the evening together, Elliot. We just won’t be alone for dinner. I’m sure you can manage,” I grinned. “But I need to go get a new dress. I don’t have anything to wear.”

     “Can I go?” He smiled cheekily.

     “No, I don’t want you to see it without shoes and jewelry and all.”

     “But I want to help pick it out,” he pouted, sticking his bottom lip out and crossing his arms disapprovingly.

     “You can help me pick out the next one.”

     He pursed his lips for a brief moment and leaned in close to me. “Then I guess I’ll just have to make sure you don’t need another dress until you need one for the wedding.”

     My jaw fell open, causing a triumphant smile to creep

     “You wouldn’t!”

     “You know me well enough to know that I would, sweetheart,” he said quietly, smiling as if he just won the lottery.

     “I won’t let you!”

     “We’ll see.”

…

     I came home with an armful of bags and about three hundred dollars drained from my bank account. I wasn’t usually the type to spend so much money in one day on clothes, but, hell, I was celebrating my engagement, so why not?

     “Elliot? I’m home,” I called as I dropped my keys into the empty bowl. “Elliot?”

     The responding silence stopped me in my tracks. What if he’s hurt again? What if something bad happened again? He said he’d be here when I got home. What if I never-

     My phone chimed causing me to jump a whole two feet in the air.

Hey, darling. I’m running a little late, but I’m headed home. I can’t wait to see you. –Elliot

     My body instantly relaxed so much that I almost fell over. Whoever was putting both of us in danger was going to pay for stressing me out so much.