6:00 PM
RING. RING. RING.
After hearing my doorbell ring, I open the front door.
"You look...beautiful," Simon says breathlessly, his cheeks tinted red from embarrassment.
He's right, though. I do look beautiful.
Simon promised a fancy steak dinner so I wore my nicest dress: a silky dark blue fitted gown that hugs all my curves just right. Accompanying the dress I decorated my ears and neck with pearls, am holding a small clutch, and have loose and bouncy curls.
"So do you," I smile brightly at seeing him in a suit, looking absolutely delectable.
"Ready?" He holds his hand out for me to hold and I do.
Simon drove us to the restaurant, the car ride was quiet but calming.
He is being quite the gentleman, too.
When we parked, he opened my car door and held my arm.
After being seated and having our orders taken, we begin talking.
"How are the recruits doing?" I ask him.
"Better than expected," he says was pride. "There's one that has the potential for the Task Force."
To replace my spot...or Soap's.
"That's great." I smile softly. "Not much time left till you're done training right?" I ask carefully.
Simon's eyes warily meet mine, "One week."
"And after that?" A dangerously loaded question.
The server places down our meals.
"Thank you," Simon tells the server and then brings his attention back to me. "I'm not sure. It depends."
"On?" I ask curiously but also anxiously.
"How about we save that for after dinner, sweetheart." He takes a bite of his food.
Normally I'd say fuck that and hash it out here but Dr. Griffin said it'd be good for me to work on my reactivity. So instead I say, "What are we doing after dinner?"
"Now that, love, is a surprise." Simon mischievously smirks at me.
I playfully roll my eyes and dig into my plate. I'm going to enjoy this meal and every second I'm spending with Simon.
- TIME SKIP -
"This is where you wanted to have dessert? Not at the fancy restaurant?" he asks incredulously, arching a brow, as we walk up to a rinky-dink ice cream parlor.
"What?" I laugh. "They have the best rocky road!"
Simon playfully rolls his eyes and opens the door for us to enter.
As we wait in line, a voice breaks through the silence.
"Simon?" A female voice calls out and Simon and I both turn to face the direction of the voice.
It's a pretty woman: light brown hair, green eyes, and tall.
"Kaitlyn..." Simon says her name softly and I can pick up on the tension.
A former lover?
"How long has it been? Three months maybe?" She chuckles and they embrace in a brief hug.
Three months ago...
A recent former lover, then.
"Something like that," he dismisses with a nervous chuckle.
"Who's this?" Kaitlyn looks at me with a preppy smile.
Simon begins to speak but I cut him off.
"Breanna," I say and shake her hand.
"Are you two?" Kaitlin looks back and forth at us, her suggestion hanging in the air.
"Friends," I say curtly and when I look at Simon I can see worry in his eyes. I turn my attention back to Kaitlyn and say, "And you are?"
"Kaitlyn." She smiles. "Simon and I met at a bar maybe five months ago?" She looks to him for confirmation and he nods his head.
One month after he returned. After I found out he wasn't dead.
Simon looks uncomfortable.
"We have a movie to catch right?" We don't. But Simon looks like he might hurl.
"Right," he loosens a deep breath and gives me a grateful smile.
"Well, it was nice to meet you, Kaitlyn." I give her a fake smile and she returns one.
We finished getting our ice cream and went back into the car.
"I..." Simon starts but then bites down on his lip, cutting off his words.
"It's okay," I sigh but then give him a soft smile. "You don't have to explain."
"It was only a couple of times." A muscle feathers in his jaw. "And it didn't-"
I cut him off.
"Mean anything?" I finish his sentence. "Fucking her didn't mean anything?"
He lets out a deep sigh. "It didn't. I was angry after finding you with two different men and I knew you hated me at the moment. It was stupid of me," Simon confesses shamefully.
"I think it means something to her," I say, pausing for a moment. "It's obvious she has feelings for you even if you don't return them."
"Breanna..." he sighs again. "What do you want me to say?"
"Nothing," I deadpan and then contemplate for a moment. "I'm not upset, Simon. You walked in on me fucking a stranger at a bar..." I meet his gaze and his frown tells me he doesn't like rehearing that memory. "Listen, I'm not upset. I get it. It's not like we've been intimate or anything so..." I clear my throat, nervous. "I just want to know if you have feelings for her or anyone else." I finally let it out.
"What?" he asks, taken aback. "No, of course not. Why would you think that?"
"Because..." I bite my lip.
"When I say it meant nothing I mean it meant nothing. I was angry and lonely, and I needed..." Simon shakes his head, deciding not to voice his words. "Look, it doesn't matter. I have feelings for no one else." He gently grabs my hand. "I love you."
"I know." I softly squeeze his hand. "I just wanted to make sure."
"Why?"
I'm terrified to say it—that I want him. That I want to be with him forever and have a life with him. I'm terrified to open up and let my guard down again.
"Breanna." He gently cups my face and assesses it like he knows my mind is wandering. "Tell me, please."
So I take a deep and steadying breath, muster up all my courage, and say, "Because I want to be with you and I don't want anyone else to have you."
Simon tenses, his hand flinching against my cheek.
"Because I'm in love with you." I throw my hands up. "And I always have been. I want a life with you, Simon and that scares me but I want it anyway," I cry, my voice trembling, and my throat hoarse. "If you don't want those things I understand but I need you to know how I feel and I need to know if you don't feel the same way so I can move on." I meet his gaze that I've been avoiding. "And I'm tired of pretending like I don't want to have you inside of me every time I see you." I chuckle through my tears. "Because it's driving me crazy."
Simon chuckles too and gives me the most heartfelt smile I've ever seen.
"Remember that surprise I was telling you about?" he asks me.
"Yes?" I wait in anticipation.
He turns his key, starts the engine, and winks at me. "You'll have your answer, don't worry."
Rolling my eyes I buckle my seatbelt and Simon drives us to this so-called "surprise".
After a forty-minute drive, we arrive back at the Task Force 141 base.
"This is my surprise?" I pout playfully, but let my disappointment shine through.
"Don't be a smart ass, sweetheart," Simon chuckles and we exit his truck. "Come on." He grabs my hand and we begin walking.
After a few minutes, I notice we're walking to the airplane hangar. When we get inside, I see a table with a bouquet of flowers and a present on top.
"What is this?" I ask curiously as we approach the table.
Simon picks up the present and says, "Open."
I give him a silly look and then open the present to find keys inside.
"Don't tell me you got me a car," I laugh, my tone incredulous.
"No." He shakes his head and chuckles. "They're for a house."
My heart starts racing.
"A house?" My brows furrow and I ask anxiously, "What are you talking about?"
"Our house." He looks at me with love in his eyes.
"Our...house?" I say slowly, trying to process the news.
He bought us a house.
Without saying anything Simon gets down on one knee.
The air around us stills and all there is in this moment is him and me.
"This is where we first met." He looks around the hangar. "When you, Price, and Laswell came into the hangar and I saw you I thought to myself: there's no way this young and pretty little thing will be able to keep up with us." He gives me a cheeky grin which in turn makes me chuckle.
Simon pulls a small box out of his pants pocket and opens it to reveal an elegant and beautiful ring.
My heart skips a beat and my entire body warms.
"But you proved me wrong." He smiles at me. "You are strong, way too smart for your own good, and you have a beautiful heart." His voice breaks. "I love you. Fuck, I am so in love with you and I never thought I'd say that. I never imagined the day when I'd be able to have something like this." Tears start to form in his eyes. "I was cold—a shell of a man—and I never let anyone get too close. But with you, I couldn't stop it. I just couldn't help myself. And I don't want to live another day without you, without calling you mine." His voice trembles and he hits his lip. "Breanna Roberts, will you marry me?"
My knees buckle, threatening to drop me to the ground. Warm tears are streaming down my face.
"But...but the Task Force and-"
He cuts me off.
"Already done," he says softly, smiling. "The team knows. I've resigned."
"What?" I raise my brows, and my shock is evident. "Simon, you can't. That's your life! I could never ask you to do that. That's..." I shake my head, processing and trying to find the right words.
"No." He shakes his head softly. "You. Us. That's what I want." He takes a steadying breath. "I told you that I decided that a few months into being in Las Almas. Since then it has always been my plan: to leave the Task Force and start a life with you. But when I came back, and when I found you broken and hurting, I knew it had to wait," he sniffles. "I didn't want to seduce you back into this relationship with me. Why do you think I haven't done more than just kiss you? You needed to want me to, and I needed you to be better, not for me, but for yourself."
My heart is thundering in my chest and it's taking everything in me not to collapse.
"Will you marry me, Sergeant?" Simon repeats his earlier question, his tone soft and vulnerable.
I'm being presented with what I've always wanted: a life, a happy one, with someone I love and someone I can trust.
But I'm so fucking scared. I've spent the majority of my life alone, unable to trust others, and being miserable. My mind can't help but wonder about all the things that could go wrong...
"Yes," I chuckle through my tears, wiping them away.
But my heart can't help from yearning for all the things that could go right. If I keep living my life in fear, holding myself back, then I'll never get what I want; and I'll never be happy.
"Of course, yes!" I cry happily and Simon places the ring on my finger.
He stands, kisses me, and picks me up to spin me around.
"I was afraid you'd say no," he chuckles. "The team made bets."
Idiots...haha.
"Of course they did." I smile happily.
"Let's go home." He kisses my forehead, grabs my hand, and leads us out of the hangar. "One last surprise."