A Very Paily Wedding
Paige paced back and forth on her apartment floor as she rehearsed her speech over and over again in her head, fumbling with the small velvet box in her hands. Tonight was Emily and Paige's fourth anniversary, November 11th 2015, and hopefully the night Paige would finally propose to Emily.
Since they graduated and moved to California, they spent every moment they could together in their small apartment, making the most of what they had. Both girls were full time students at Stanford, Emily decided to major in psychology while Paige made team captain of the Cardinals swim team. Although money was tight at times, they were never happier than they were at this point in time, and tonight Paige hoped to make sure they would always be this happy.
She stopped for a second, taking out her phone she checked the time to make sure everything was going according to plan, the clock read 7:32 Emily was only a couple minutes late. Paige could feel her heart flutter, every pore on her body tingled and began sweating from anxiety, she had never been this nervous in her entire life. Suddenly she heard the sound of keys fumbling around on the outside of her front door; Emily was finally home from work.
Quickly Paige shoved the small box back into her pant pocket, making sure Emily wouldn't see it and ruin the surprise.
"Babe, I'm home! Sorry I 'm a few minutes late, traffic was even more of a nightmare than usual." Emily shuffled into the doorway with bags in each arm, closing the door behind her as she kicked it with her heels.
Noticing her girlfriends struggle, Paige took the bags from her hands and set them to the side, kissing Em on the cheek as she welcomed her home.
"Well the reservation is for 8 o'clock, if you hurry up and get dressed I think we can still make it."
Emily ran to their bedroom and began getting undressed, on her way she created a trail of clothes; Paige looked on amused by the show her girlfriend was giving her. It took Em only about a minute to change into a beautiful little black dress and matching stilettoes and only about another two minutes for her to fix her hair and make-up.
Paige turned around just in time to see her girlfriend hopping on one stiletto and attempting to put the other on, she laughed and shook her head at how impressive it was.
"You know something?" she said, wrapping her long arms around Emily's waist.
"Hm?" Em replied, draping her arms over her girlfriend's shoulders, smiling.
"You never cease to amaze me, Miss Fields." She said leaning in for a kiss, Emily quickly put her finger over her lips before she could get any closer.
"Unless you plan on matching lip glosses, I suggest we wait until after dinner to smudge my make up." Emily's left eyebrow raises slightly; she opens her mouth and bites the bottom lip seductively… She knew exactly what to do to drive Paige insane, and that was it.
"Well, let's get going, shall we?" Paige opens the door for Emily and the two exit their apartment building.
The girls enter the car and they head off to a nice restaurant in downtown, getting there just in time for their reservation. Paige and Emily laughed and ate their way through a beautiful three-course meal, savoring every bite before they paid the check and proceeded to leave. As they exited the restaurant Emily linked her arm in Paige's, the two shared a light kiss making sure not get any make up in any unwanted places.
"So, where are we off to now Miss McCullers?" Emily said, after all the years of knowing Paige, nothing was ever that easy.
Paige smiled that special smile she has, the one where she just knows she has a special secret and soon enough, you'll find out exactly why that smile is so big. They start walking to the car, the lights of the city guiding their every step until they reached the parking garage where the car sat.
"Alright, next stop… Shall we?" Paige said, driving off to their next destination, The Beach.
It only took a few minutes of driving n Emily started to get the general idea of which way the girls were heading. They had never been to the beach at night before; Emily was excited to find out what Paige had planned for them as they drove up to the beach. There was a single fire pit glowing in the distance, as Emily got out of the car she noticed Paige opening the trunk, this was what she was planning.
"What do you have there?" Em said, trying to see over the trunk of the car when suddenly Paige slammed it shut.
There Paige stood, smiling, in one hand she had a picnic basket and in the other she held a plaid blanket draped over her forearm.
"Paige, we JUST ate, baby." Emily said, laughing.
"Just humor me, alright?" Paige replied, smiling as they started heading towards the fire pit.
The night was perfect, not a cloud in the sky blocked the moon and it was the perfect temperature, just a gentle breeze every once in a while. As they approached the fire, Paige spread the plaid blanket across the sand, setting the picnic basket right in the middle so she could set up. Reaching inside the basket she pulled out a bottle of wine and two glasses, setting them aside so Emily could begin pouring as she set everything else up. Lastly, she got out a French baguette, some cheese and assorted meats, putting everything on a nice tray so they could enjoy it without worrying about sand getting into the food.
Emily poured the wine in each of their glasses, setting the bottle aside in the sand, making sure no sand would be getting into it.
"Happy Anniversary, baby" Paige said, kissing her girlfriend softly on the lips.
"Happy Anniversary, sweetheart" Emily replied, kissing her back.
"You know… This kind of reminds me of our Prom night, do you remember?" Paige said, smiling as she sipped her glass of wine.
"Remember? How could I forget… That's where you asked me to move in with you." Emily smiled back, taking her hand and putting it on Paige's, "I've never been so happy, Paige."
Paige smiled at Emily, looking into her eyes she knew that this was the moment to do it, it was now or never. She took a deep breath in and reached into her pocket, holding the small jewelry box in her hand she could feel her heart start racing. Standing up, she got down on one knee, presented it in front of Emily, and opened the top, revealing a beautiful blue diamond ring.
"From the moment I first met you, I knew that you were going to change my life forever. I thought I would spend the rest of my life trapped in the closet, slowly suffocating myself as I drowned in my own self-hatred. Then you came along. Emily, you pulled me out of that closet and showed me everything was going to be okay, you helped me love myself and more importantly, you showed me that it was okay for me to love someone. I wouldn't be where I am today without you, and I never want to know what it would be like without you. I guess what I'm trying to say is, Emily Fields, will you swim laps with me for the rest of our lives?"
At this point Emily was in tears, her hand was covering her mouth but even that wasn't enough to hide the smile she had. She nodded her head and finally she found the words she was looking for…
"Oh my god yes, of course! Of course I'll marry you!" Emily said, tears of happiness rolled down her cheeks as she stood up to meet Paige.
"Yes?" Paige said, smiling so big that she started crying as well, she took the ring out of the holder and slid it onto Emily's ring finger.
"I love you so much. So, so, so much, Em." Paige said, the two were hugging each other so tightly they could barely breathe, neither of them wanted to let go.
Emily leaned back; Paige put both of her hands on her cheeks, wiping away the happy tears that were left. Em smiled and looked into Paige's sparkling brown eyes, she leaned in closer and closer, looking from Paige's eyes to her lips and back again until finally their lips met. They kissed for what seemed like an eternity, Paige explored Emily's mouth with her tongue as she did thousands of times before. The taste of mint lingered as Emily slowly pulled away, kissing Paige one more time, leaning her forehead against hers.
"I never thought it could be possible to love someone as much as I love you right now." Paige looked into Emily's eyes, the light from the fire almost gave them a honey color, in fact, everything about Emily looked more and more stunning by the second to her.
"Sometimes I still can't believe you're with me." Paige said, smiling at her new fiancée.
"Well, you'd better get used to it, Mrs. McCullers. You're stuck with me for life." Emily replied, smiling as she lied down next to Paige.
"I wouldn't want it any other way." She leaned over and kissed the brunette on the cheek, and in that moment, everything was perfect
"So… Who's going to be your maid of honor?" Paige asked.
Suddenly Emily sat up, her eyes widened in a panic, and all she could think was… 'Oh god.'
To Be Continued….