Julian made his decision when the first ray of sunlight began to filter through the half-closed curtains that hung gracefully by the library windows. This was it. The perfect time had come for him to make his move.
Slowly and carefully, he lifted himself from the uncomfortable position at the small desk, and without making a sound, pushed the chair closer to the desk, back to its usual unoccupied spot, and exited the room.
Glancing back and forth, left and right to make sure the area was clear, Julian made his way toward the familiar room. He could feel his heart beating faster and faster with every step he took as the door came into sight. It was then that his determination started to falter and he stopped for a brief moment. What if this was a bad idea?
No. You have to do it, it's now or never. His inner voice whispered. He hesitated for another moment before feeling his confidence resurface, and continued to walk, only halting in front of the door to take one more cautious look over his shoulder. He had come this far, there was no way he would let himself get caught while doing this.
Silence. Phew. He reached out and slowly turned the doorknob. Slight panic spread through his mind as the movement caused a clicking sound.
He stopped and listened, but all he could hear was his heart pounding against his ribcage. Damn it. In order to hear anything, he had to slow his heartbeat down a bit. Inhale. Exhale. And he listened again. Thankfully, the guards were still too sleepy to notice his presence. Double phew. He grabbed the doorknob again, turning it more carefully this time.
Julian opened the door just wide enough for his slender body to slip through and quickly closed it behind him. It took his eyes a good minute to adjust to the dark before he started to make his way toward her bed.
He gazed at her sleeping figure sleeping before him. She looked so peaceful, so innocent. Without even thinking, he reached his hand out to her, but stopped mid-way as he heard voices coming from the hallway. Anneliese mumbled something under her breath and shifted to her side.
Deep breath. It was now or never.
-x-
Anneliese yawned and opened her eyes. The light in her room was brighter than usual. She immediately sat up, eyes searching for the wall clock. The clock hands confirmed her initial intuition: She was late. Very late.
Oh no.
She was late for her morning lesson with Julian.
Panicking, she flung the covers off of her and was about to jump out of bed when comprehension finally dawned on her.
She would not be seeing Julian today. Or in another two weeks. According to schedule, he left early this morning for the long trip he had been planning for months. Just the thought of not being able to see his face everyday made her heart constrict with unbearable pain.
So that's why she was allowed to sleep in. Feeling a sense of loneliness and abandonment slowly taking over her mind, Anneliese lay back down and stretched out her arms when suddenly, her left hand touched something smooth and solid.
Anneliese sat up again and picked up the object that lay on one of her pillows. It obviously did not belong there, and she was certain there had been nothing like this on her bed when she went to sleep the previous night.
Who could have left it here? And more importantly, when? She felt chills running down her spine as she imagined someone sneaking in her room when she was asleep. Where were the guards when she needed them the most? Anneliese took a careful look at the object. It looked like a… She gasped. Could it be…?
It was a small velvet box, with a note attached to it. She found her heart beating madly in her chest as she opened the note with trembling hands.
Anneliese,
Your answer to my proposal will be indicated by whether or not you are wearing the ring when I come back.
Love,
Julian
The ring? Anneliese quickly opened the box, and couldn't believe her eyes when she saw the object sitting between small, white cushions. A diamond ring. An actual diamond ring. He had proposed to her. Julian had proposed to her. Julian, the man she had loved her entire life, had proposed to her. Could this be true?
Anneliese just sat there, staring at the ring still inside the box. She felt as if she was hypnotized by the way it sparkled in the morning sunlight. Still, she couldn't believe it. All she had ever wanted was now sitting before her eyes, in the form of this ring. All she had to do was wear it. It felt too good to be true.
"My answer is indicated by whether or not I'm wearing the ring…" She mused to herself. Then, without a second thought, she slipped it onto her ring finger, and continued to admire its beauty.
The diamond wasn't as big as the one on the ring that Dominick gave to Erika, she noticed, and overall, it didn't look exceptionally magnificent or flamboyant. It was just a simple silver band with a tiny diamond on it. But still to her it was the most beautiful ring she had ever seen, because it symbolized their love and their commitment to each other. It reflected everything that they've been through to be together; all the trials, tribulations and separations. It held the promise of a better tomorrow, a happily ever after. To her, it was everything, and it that moment, she was the happiest girl alive.
But she didn't have much time to dwell on it, because moments later, a knock on the door interrupted her train of thought. Ripping her mind from her daydream fantasy, Anneliese hid her left hand under her covers, cleared her throat and spoke, trying to sound as calm as possible. "Come in."
Almost immediately, her maid emerged from behind the door and walked over to her bed, carrying a tray of breakfast.
"My apologies, Your Highness. I meant to serve you your breakfast earlier, but you were sleeping and I did not want to disturb you." The maid apologized, in an ever gentle voice, as she placed the tray on Anneliese's bed. That voice made her melt everytime.
"It's perfectly fine. Thank you, you may go."
The maid nodded and slightly bowed. Then, as she caught sight of Anneliese's hidden hand, she gave out a suspicious look, but decided not to question the princess about its unusual and uncomfortable position. "Yes, Your Highness."
Anneliese patiently waited for the maid to close the door firmly behind her before raising her hand up so that the diamond sparkled again in the sunlight. Admiring the ring on her finger, she happily thought to herself. "I'm getting married."
-x-
Anneliese was happy. Really, she was more than happy. She was elated. She was in a state of absolute euphoria. But deep inside, there was still something nagging her. Something that made this perfect day suddenly imperfect. Something was missing.
She didn't have to wonder for long to figure out what it was. She wanted a proposal. Not the I-left-a-ring-on-your-bed-now-you-have-two-weeks-to-answer-me kind of proposal, a traditional, romantic I'm-on-my-knees-asking-you-to-marry-me kind of proposal. After all, wasn't that what every girl had always dreamed of experiencing?
She had to admit, no matter how happy Julian's proposal made her feel, the way he chose to do it reminded her more of an ultimatum rather than an actual marriage proposal. Knowing him, she assumed he might have been too shy and too scared to speak those four beautiful words to her, but that was no excuse.
And so she devised a plan during those two weeks, to achiever her life long dream and to keep herself from missing him at the same time. She wouldn't make her answer too easy to find out. He wouldn't have the easy way out. No matter how shy or scared he was, he would have to propose the right way.
Perhaps she was feeling a bit selfish, but the intrigue of the whole plan made her forget everything. After all, what was the worst that could happen? It was just a proposal.
-x-
Anneliese stared at the palace courtyard through the window. Her eyes were glued to the gate, where she knew Julian would appear anytime now, while tapping her fingers on the window still impatiently. After half an hour of waiting, she resorted to silently revising the plan in her head to kill time.
An hour later, Julian's carriage finally arrived. It drew to a stop in the courtyard, and Anneliese's heart skipped a beat when she saw his familiar figure getting off the carriage. She had missed him so much. In that moment, all she wanted was run to him, throw herself in his arms while telling him that yes, she would marry him and forget all about that stupid plan. But a part of her forced her to stay where she was, wait for him to come to her, and let the operation commence.
Minutes later, the doors parted and Julian's figure emerged. He walked to her and reached out to kiss her hand like he always did, a gesture that Anneliese assumed was to check whether she was wearing the ring or not.
And so to prevent that from happening, Anneliese did something she never thought she would do. Something that she was sure that her etiquette teacher would faint if he ever witnessed it.
She threw herself into his arms and wrapped her hands around his neck, knocking him over in the process.
"Welcome back," She said, hiding her blush at the compromising position she had just put them in. "I've missed you so much."
Slightly surprised at her unusual behavior, Julian awkwardly replied, "I… I've missed you too, Anneliese."
When they finally got up from their sprawled position on the floor, Julian noticed something strange about Anneliese. She was wearing dark gloves.
As if noticing his gaze, she laughed awkwardly and elaborated. "It's cold in here, isn't it?"
Considering that they were inside a room with all the windows closed in the middle of July, no, it wasn't cold at all. Quite the contrary. Julian thought.
"Yes…" He answered hesitantly. "… it is." What's wrong with her? Is she ill? His mind raced with a thousand of possible explanations for the way she acted toward him. The worst scenario had already played out in his head, but he was too afraid to think about it.
He could see her sweating like crazy, but tried to hide it. And it was then that he realized it might have something to do with the proposal he left on her bed two weeks earlier. Had she accepted it? Or… His eyes trailed down to her hands, still covered in gloves, and an unsettling feeling began to form in his stomach.
-x-
The rest of the evening was nerve-wracking for both Anneliese and Julian. One tried to find out the answer without having to mention the proposal, and the other tried to prevent that from happening for as long as she could until she got her desired proposal. It was like a game of proposals.
"You know, Anneliese, you'd write a lot easier if you just took off your gloves," Julian commented casually as he watched her struggle with the quill, spilling ink all over the piece of parchment in the process.
"I told you, I'm cold." She answered, eyes not leaving the parchment as she tried to write with great difficulty.
"You want me to light the fireplace for you?" He suggested, feeling half annoyed and half suspicious.
Anneliese's eyes widened in horror and realization. Horror at the thought of having to suffer more heat from the fireplace, and realization that he was playing the game with her. He was just as stubborn, refusing to give up.
"No, thank you."
Julian sighed. He couldn't stand it anymore. He wanted to, no, he needed to know her answer. He was getting desperate. And desperate situations called for desperate solutions.
"Here, what do you think?" Anneliese handed Julian the parchment when she had finally managed to write it. With her left hand. Julian took the chance. He grabbed onto her glove as he received the paper, and pulled both the glove and the parchment from her hand.
What he saw broke his heart the most- The ring was not on her finger. He took her right hand, and before she could protest, pulled the other glove off her hand. Same result.
She had rejected his proposal.
In that moment, the world came to a stop. The birds outside the windows stopped chirping, the guards outside the room stopped talking, and the clock on the wall stopped ticking. Another moment passed, before Julian felt the world swirling madly before his eyes.
"Julian? Are you alright?" Anneliese asked, concern evident in her voice. It was only then that he was finally dragged out of his traumatized state.
He took a deep breath to regain his composure, put on a blank face and replied, trying to sound as calm as possible. "Nothing, nothing."
But he still couldn't stand it. The pain and disappointment was unbearable. He knew that if he continued to stand there, he would just break down in tears. So trying to appear as normal as he could, Julian strode past Anneliese, and went straight to the balcony.
Anneliese sighed. She hadn't meant for it to go this far. She thought he would surrender soon and ask her about the proposal, but no, he just had to play stubborn with her. Until the very end, he still didn't mention the box. Oh well, time to end the game.
She joined him on the balcony. Moments of silence passed. She was the first to break the silence between them.
"It's a beautiful night, don't you think?" She started, carefully observing his reaction. He slightly nodded. She sighed. "Such a romantic scenery… Too bad nothing romantic happened tonight. Oh well,"
She reached for her necklace, and held the pendant out to him. "Is this the answer you're seeking?"
Julian's eyes raised to meet the object. And he couldn't believe his eyes. Right there, dangling on a silver chain, was the same ring he had left on her bed two weeks ago. All of a sudden, he felt surprised. Then happy. Then relieved. Then a mixture of all those feelings. Questions swarmed his mind: She accepted it! But why didn't she say so sooner? Why did she have to make things so complicated? And what did he say in that letter that made her do this?
"Y-you…" He sputtered. "But I thought…"
Really, Julian? All evening, I've been trying to get you to talk about it to no avail, and now suddenly it comes to your mind? Anneliese thought, amused.
"Hey, you didn't mention that I had to wear it on my finger, remember?" She reminded him. "Your answer to my proposal will be indicated by whether or not you are wearing the ring when I come back." She repeated his words verbatim.
"See? There's no 'finger' in that letter. And this counts as 'wearing' too, you know." She hovered the chain in front of his face, as if trying to hypnotize him, then laughed.
Julian's face lit up with happiness as her words finally registered in his head. "That means…"
"Yes, Julian. It's a yes." She said happily as she wrapped her arms over his neck. "Yes, I will marry you. I will marry you, no matter what happens. I will marry you, even if tomorrow's my last day. If I had one more night to live, I'd want to spend it with you."
"Oh, Anneliese…" Julian said as he pulled her into an embrace. They just stood like that for what seemed like hours, until Julian finally remembered what he was going to ask her.
"But… Why did you do that? Why didn't you just wear it somewhere I can see it? Were you teasing me?" He asked her when they finally pulled away from each other.
Anneliese sighed. "I-I wanted you to be the first to mention it. I wanted you to propose to me… I mean, really propose to me, not just leave it on my bed. I wanted you to get down on one knee and ask me to be your wife… But I guess I was too selfish. I'm sorry if I hurt you, Julian. I was just too selfish to care." She said, trying to repress the tears that threatened to spill out.
It was then that it finally hit him.
"It's a beautiful night, don't you think? Such a romantic scenery… Too bad nothing romantic happened tonight."
Anneliese hadn't been selfish. It was him who had been a coward. He had known Anneliese for all his life, he should have known this was what she had always dreamed of. And yet, he let his cowardly side take over.
"Anneliese," He said firmly. "You are not selfish. It was my fault. It was my fault from the very beginning. But if it's not too late, I would like to ask you…" He unclipped the chain from her neck and took the ring.
The next thing he did surprised her the most. He knelt down in front of her, on a starry night, holding a diamond ring, and spoke the most beautiful words she had ever heard.
"Will you marry me?"
The End
P/S: I know this ending was a bit abrupt, but I'm saving all the romance and tension for The Hotel Room. Be sure to read it when it comes out! (Which, I assure you, it will very soon!) To Lyss, I hope this wasn't too disappointing. They are your OTP and I'm sure you and I wouldn't be too happy if I screwed them over.
Reviews are cherished and loved! Let me know what you think!