Chapter Two

Annabelle's POV

I splutter the cake all over the table. Walter comes around my chair hitting my back and I violently cough. He hands me water and I down it gratefully.

When I'm sufficiently calm, he goes back to his chair, eyeing me skeptically and I know he's expecting a response.

“Umm, can we go now?” I ask, already rising from my chair. He frowns at the fact that he's a gentleman through and through. Pulling chairs for me.. opening doors for me, holding my hands when we walk…

My head is spinning fast and I feel like I'm hyperventilating..

The drive home is quiet. Too quiet. And awkward.

Well, that's a first.

“Annabelle__”

“Don't say anything, please”. I cut him off, my head fixed on my toe nails.

I got them pedicures just this morning for this date and although I knew this date was a game changer I didn't expect to be asked out this way.

“Can you please pull over?” We're still a few blocks from my apartment.

Walter parks by a bridge. I step out, gulping the cool night air like it’s medicine. It clears my mind, slows my racing heart. I feel him behind me, so I turn.

He looks... scared? Hopeful? Vulnerable? It’s hard to tell. He’s always so composed, so sure.

“Walter, I’d like to be your girlfriend.” My voice trembles. “But why me?”

His eyebrows fly up. Like I just asked why water is wet.

“Why you?” he repeats, incredulous. “Anna, you're stubborn, brilliant, and ridiculously beautiful.”

He runs a hand through his thick dark hair, and I track the movement, mesmerized.

“You make me feel things I didn’t think I was capable of,” he says. “You make me happy. So damn happy.”

He steps closer, his eyes burning.

“I love you. Damn it, Annabelle Wright, I love you. With everything in me. You make me come alive. I don’t know how it happened, I just know it’s real. It's beyond logic. Beyond doubt. Beyond my own fu—”

I kiss him. Hard.

All the love I’ve buried deep inside pours out of me and crashes into him. His breath hitches. He’s crying.

He’s crying.

It breaks my heart… but somehow, it heals me too.

We simply hug for what feels like hours but I know it's barely minutes.

After what feels like forever we head to the car hand in hand too reluctant to let go.

The few months after, are the most perfect magical moments of my life. Like something straight out of a romance book.

Like late night conversations, dates, picnics, flowers and chocolate.

When Walter asked me to be his wife some months later in an evening I felt like I was like any other. Walter asks me to dinner and I accept, just to find out it isn't a dinner but a surprise engagement party with my family and friends present. Saying yes felt like the most natural thing to do.

Later that, we’re curled up on his couch, watching M3GAN on Netflix, limbs tangled, hearts full, my ring twinkling under the dim TV light.

“Do you want to meet my parents?” he asks suddenly.

I freeze. Blink. Did I hear him right?

“Of course,” I say. Then pause. “I just think… maybe it’s a little soon?”

He pulls back to look at me. I keep my eyes glued to the screen.

“We’re engaged,” he says. “Soon to be married. What’s ‘too soon’?”

I swallow. I was just about to tell him I think I might be pregnant. And now he hits me with this?

The sweetness might actually kill me.

“We’ve been engaged for barely an hour,” I say. “We still have time.”

His face tightens.

“My mum’s been dying to meet you,” he says, voice quiet but firm. “Why are you always avoiding it?”

I sit up, sensing the shift in his energy. “What’s wrong, babe?”

Walter is patient, gentle… but he has a temper. I've seen glimpses. Never toward me, but enough to know not to poke the bear.

“What’s wrong,” he says, too calmly, “is that you’re my fiancée, and you’ve been dodging my parents since the beginning.”

There it is. The calm before the storm.

“I've met your parents, your friends, everyone you care about but you don't even bother to ask about mine,” my face falls, I know I'm guilty.

“Baby, I'm sorry,” I say quietly, avoiding his eyes.

“I guess I was scared to believe what we had was really true. And I think I'm still getting used to the fact that we got engaged,” His face relaxes. He takes my hand squeezing it lightly.

“I’m here, Anna. What we have is real. It's us,” He kisses me gently on the head, drawing me closely to him.

“We'll see them whenever you're ready, okay?”

“Okay,” I snuggle more closely to him, feeling more at peace than I've ever been.