Promises.
Charlotte looks at her watch for the fifth time in the last 12 minutes. It's 5:12 pm. Cooper was supposed to be here at five pm to pick her up for the do over of his proposal. Charlotte tossed him the ring back since it was a crappy day for a proposal with Dell 's death. Cooper told Charlotte to be ready at five pm sharp. He was planning to take her out to an exclusive ocean view restaurant. He told her that he booked them a suite with an ocean view at a local resort. Charlotte's nervous it's 5:14 now. She hopes Cooper didn't go and change his mind again. The door bell rings.
Charlotte answers to find Cooper standing there with a bouquet of red roses.
"For you my fair lady." Cooper hands Charlotte the flowers and takes her hand. He kisses the top of her hand. "I'm sorry I'm late but our coach had trouble finding my place. He gestures outside to a white Rolls Royce car waiting in the driveway.
"Thank you." Charlotte says stunned. "Did you rent the Royce?"
"We have a driver. He'll drive us to the restaurant and then the hotel. Do you like it.?"
"I love it!" Charlotte's impressed.
"You look gorgeous." Cooper escorts her out the door. Charlotte's wearing a light blue dress. Her hair's in an upsweep, curls dangling in the front. Cooper told her to wear that dress and now she knew why. He handed her a corsage with small light blue flowers to wear on her wrist. Cooper's wearing a suit with a matching light blue tie.
"We match." Charlotte says as Cooper slips the corsage on her wrist.
"Yes we do." Cooper kisses her softly on the lip before he helps her into the car.
After they arrive at the restaurant and order their food, the waiter brings a small shoe box to the table wrapped in silver paper. "Congratulations" The waiter tells them both.
"What's that?" Charlotte asks.
"Open it." Cooper tells her.
Charlotte carefully rips the paper off the box and opens it. "A glass slipper." She stares at it surprised.
"I found you Charlotte. You're the woman of my dreams. I can't live without you." Cooper gets out of his seat and kneels down on one knee. He takes her hand in his. "Be my wife. I promise to love you forever."
"Me too." Charlotte leans down to reach him with tears in her eyes and kisses Cooper on the lips. After their lips separate, she says "I've dreamed of marrying you for a long time. I was beginning to think it would never happen. I'm so sorry I screwed things up with us…"
"Let's not talk about that tonight." Cooper interrupts her.
"Okay." She tells him "But I do want to talk about it soon. I was wrong to lie to you and I 'm going to tell you everything."
"Tomorrow, Charlotte. It's waited this long. It can wait another day. Tonight's our night to celebrate." Cooper goes back to his seat.. The waiter brings their food. "Now let's eat."
They wake up the next morning after spending an amazing night together. They savored their first night as an engaged couple.
"Good Morning Cinderella." Cooper kisses Charlotte awake.
"That makes you my Prince Charming." Charlotte smiles and returns the kiss.
Charlotte loves early morning love sessions and Cooper obliges his new bride to be.
After they both shower they meet outside on the patio overlooking the ocean.
They listen to the waves crashing and the sounds of quiet. It's still early. No humans can be heard just the waves and the birds.
"I want the fairytale with you Cooper. I do" Charlotte starts talking and Cooper sits down at the patio table near her. "I thought I had the fairytale with him but I was wrong."
"What happened?" Cooper asks gently
"We had a great marriage or so I thought until I confided something to him after we were married. After that he turned on me. He turned into a different person and I couldn't stay with him anymore so I left."
"What did you tell him?" Cooper asks grabbing hold of her hand.
"Well." Charlotte begins quietly. "I met my first boyfriend in high school. We decided to have sex for the first time on prom night. I got pregnant."
"Oh!" Cooper's a little surprised.
"Momma and Big Daddy were disappointed in me. They encouraged me to give the baby up for adoption so I did." Charlotte's looking down and her demeanor is suddenly sad. "It was a girl. I think about her once in a while. How old she would be now and what she might look like. I wonder if she's mad at me for giving her up or happy with her new parents. I told him, my ex, about it after we were married a year and he went crazy on me for never telling him before."
"Why didn't you tell him before you were married?" Cooper asks
"I was ashamed. My parents made me feel ashamed that I was careless and stupid enough to get pregnant on prom night. I lived in a small town. I felt like I was wearing a scarlet letter. I couldn't wait until after the baby was born. I went away to college and didn't tell anyone about it or talk about it again until I told him."
"He got pretty mad; huh?" Cooper squeezes her hand. He knows how it feels to be in her ex husband's shoes and have important things kept from him.
"He got real mad. He said he didn't know me anymore, that I wasn't the girl he thought he married. He started cheating on me out of spite to hurt me. He slept around with anyone he thought was hot enough. I finally left him."
"Thank you for telling me Charlotte. You can tell me anything. I will never turn on you or try to spite you." He looks into her eyes.
"I know." Charlotte answers. "I should have told you earlier. I know you're not him and you wouldn't have turned on me. It's just hard for me to talk about all of it. I don't like to go back to those times. I try to push it to the back of my mind."
"I'm sorry about the way I treated you after you told me you were married. I guess I felt like your ex. I was angry you kept it from me for so long and I felt like a replacement because of what my parents did. They didn't tell me about their first son until I was ten. I felt like the replacement all over again and I took it out on you. I'm so sorry."
"I know." Charlotte squeezes his hand and smiles. "I deserved it."
"No you didn't. You're a beautiful woman inside and out and you didn't deserve any of it. I love you." Cooper's getting teary eyed. "Let's make some promises to each other this morning." Cooper says.
"Okay." Charlotte answers softly.
"You promise to always be honest with me and I'll try to never hurt you again." Cooper gets down on his knee.
Charlotte looks down at him holding his hand. "I promise I'll never lie to you about something important again"
"And I promise to give you the fairytale. I'll treat you like Cinderella" Cooper grins at her.
Charlotte laughs. "Come here you." She pulls him up onto her lap and kisses him hard.