A couple of weeks had gone by since their night out with Belle's friends. They had gone back inside the bar for a bit, finishing their drinks and watching another victim, and then excused themselves to head home. In the weeks since then, life had been normal for them, business as usual in the Gold household. Some might say their life was boring. Spending evenings in together, never seen without the other unless they were at work or popping out to get something from the grocery store. And Belle would have it no other way.
This was her life now. This was their life.
That was until she was tidying their bedroom one Saturday morning, whilst Rumald and Albert had gone fishing, and pulled out Rumald's bedside draw to put his book away. Sat in the middle of the draw, ready to slap her in the face, was the black velvet ring box. Slowly she reached into the draw and plucked out the ring box, perching herself onto the edge of his side of the bed. He had not brought it up again, but she knew he itched to put the ring on her finger. His thumb always rubbed over her ring finger, when they held hands or were relaxing on the couch together, or laid in bed together.
She carefully lifted the lid on the ring box and stroked her finger over the diamond, glistening in the poor light of their bedroom. Pinching the ring by its gold band, Belle removed it from the ring box and held it up into the light. The ring was elegant and eye catching with a delicate sized diamond. Belle placed the ring box beside her and slid the ring onto her finger, and held her hand out to admire how it looked on her hand. It fitted her finger perfectly, as though it was made for her. The ring was not lost or overpowered her hand, it was… flawless.
As she slid it back off her finger, Belle stopped with it just on the tip of her finger, trying to figure out why she had not said yes to him yet. Her heart ached for her to slide it back onto her finger, even if it was just to feel the cool metal band around her finger again. With a heavy sigh, Belle removed it from her finger and firmly pressed it back into the ring box. Reluctantly, she placed it back exactly where it had been in his draw and shut it. Belle placed his book on top of his bedside instead of placing it in his draw, where he usually kept it. Her eyes could not leave his draw, knowing it was in there, as she stood up from the bed and collected the basket of dirty clothes. She tore her eyes away from the draw to sweep the room, as she crossed to the door to leave, but paused in the doorway to look at his bedside one last time.
Her thoughts were solely on the black velvet ring box, as she descended the stairs to the entrance hall with the basket of dirty washing sat on her hip. She could feel the ghost of the ring on her ring finger. When she stepped off the last step, it was then Belle noticed she had been rubbing her thumb, where she felt the ghost ring on her finger. She frowned down at her finger as she went through the kitchen to the patio doors, exiting through the open doorway to cross to the garage.
Entering the garage, Belle ambled over to the washer and dryer on the opposite wall, and tossed the contents of the basket onto the counter beside them. She dropped the basket onto the floor in front of the dryer and opened the lid on it to gather Albert's clothes out of it, letting them fall into the basket below. No matter how much she tried to think of something, other than the ring box upstairs, her thoughts constantly went back to it. As she flicked the lid up on the washer, she cursed herself for not saying 'yes' when he asked her.
After sorting through the washing and setting the machines off, Belle exited the garage closing the door behind her. Her pace was slow as she went back into the house and headed back up the stairs to deliver Albert's folded clothes to his bedroom. She left his clothes on his desk and left his room to pause in the hallway, her eyes trailing down the hallway to their bedroom door. The longer she stood there, the more her heart and head urged her to run down the hallway and into their bedroom, so she could shove his ring onto her finger. It did not matter to her, if that ring had once been Rumald's engagement ring to Milah or not, as she suspected, it was what he had gone to get back from Milah. Belle wanted the promise that came with the ring. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with him.
A smile pulled tightly at her lips, as she went down the stairs with the empty basket, developing a scheme as she entered the kitchen. Abandoning the basket to the breakfast table, Belle headed over to the planner on the fridge, checking to see if Rumald was playing poker that night. She tapped her finger happily on the empty square for that day. Now all she had to do was figure out what she was going to do with Albert, but she was afraid that would have to wait until they came home from fishing.
The afternoon went by slowly. To try to take her mind off things, Belle sat in the living room with some music playing quietly out of the sound system, whilst she laid back on the couch reading a book. Her ears pricked at the laughter she heard outside. Stuffing her page marker into the book, Belle left her book on the couch and clambered off the couch to jog through into the kitchen. She peered out the kitchen window, watching Albert and Rumald traipsed up the driveway to the garage, arms full with fishing gear. Biting her lower lip, Belle pushed herself away from the window ledge and hurried back into the living room, dropping her full weight onto the couch.
She was posed with her book in front of her, faking she was reading it, when she heard them coming into the house. Her chest felt tight as she breathed, waiting expectantly for Albert or Rumald to come out of the kitchen into the entrance hall. A relief washed over her, when Albert came out of the kitchen, his hand reached out to the banister of the stairs as he went to run upstairs.
"Hey, Bae!" Belle called.
He stopped with his foot on the first step and looked at her in the living room. "Hey!" Albert greeted stepping off the stairs to come into the living room. "You should have seen the fish I caught. It was this big!" He emphasised the size by holding out his arms.
"Great!" She remarked shoving her marker back in her book and beckoned him to come to her, saying in a whisper. "Come here."
"What's up?" Albert asked flopping onto the couch beside her.
"What are you…" Belle was interrupted by Rumald shouting from the kitchen. "Tea?"
"Yes, please." She shouted back and turned her attention back to Albert, lowering her voice so only he could hear her. "What are you doing tonight?"
"Nothing. Dad was talking about going to the movies, if you were interested." He told her, scrunching his face up, confused by her unusual behaviour.
"Can you go round Emma's instead?" She asked leaning into him, her voice lowering further to prevent Rumald from hearing.
Albert frowned at her, her face mere inches from his, as he whispered back to her. "Why are we whispering?"
"There's something I need to tell your father and I'd rather we be alone." She said to him, her eyes watching the doorway.
"Are you pregnant!" His voice boomed straight down her ear, causing her to jolt away from him and press her fingers into her hurt ear.
"No!" Belle hissed at him, grabbing hold of his jacket, as she heard Rumald's muffled voice in the kitchen, requesting to know who's pregnant. "Nobody!"
"You're not pregnant?" Albert asked in a quieter voice.
"No, I'm not pregnant." She told him watching the doorway.
He pondered over her original question and said. "I could take Emma to the movies, I suppose."
"Can you stay round there tonight?" Belle requested looking him dead in the eye.
"You're starting to worry me." Albert stated to her, unzipping his jacket.
"It's nothing to worry about, Bae." She told him with her features softening to him and reached up to touch his face, as she added. "I'm going to give him his answer."
"Answer to what?" He squinted his eyes at her.
Belle smiled at him. "The answer."
"Answer…?" Albert muttered before a smile slowly pulled at the corner of his lips, but it stopped when his thoughts caught up with him. "I take it, it's a yes?"
She nodded her head excitedly at him and gasped when Albert threw himself at her, hugging her in a death grip. Her excitement she had managed to keep bottled all afternoon, threatened to spill over with Albert bouncing them up and down on the couch, which creaked under the strain of their combine weight. Starting to feel light headed, Belle clung onto his jacket to ground herself, smiling into his shoulder as he babbled into her ear how happy he was.
"Okay, did I miss something?" Rumald asked coming into the room, carrying two cups of tea. They sobered quickly hearing Rumald's voice and parted to look at him, as he placed the two cups down onto the coffee table.
"No, no." Belle said beaming a smile up at Rumald, as he stood waiting for an answer with his hands on his hips. "I was just telling him, one of the books he wanted will be in the library on Monday."
Rumald laughed dropping his hands from his hips. "I've never known him to get excited about a book. A game, yes. Not a book."
"Well… It's a book based on one of my games." Albert said in an unsure tone, looking to Belle for reassurance.
"Yeah, it's a background story to one of his Call of Duty games." She informed Rumald, squeezing Albert's knee.
"Anyway, thank you for ordering my book, Belle." Albert said standing up from the couch and pulled his phone out of his pocket. "I'm going to see if Emma wants to do something tonight."
As Albert was leaving the room, Rumald turned following Albert out of the room. "Hey, I thought we were going to the movies?"
"Sorry, dad, but I think I already arranged to do something with Emma." Albert said pausing in the entrance hall before running up the stairs to his room. Watching Rumald's shoulders fall, Belle felt guilt watching him turn around to shuffle over to the couch, sitting down beside her. He ran a hand through his hair, ruffling it up in the wake of his hand for it to fall back perfectly into place.
"Guess, hanging with dad is a no, no, these days." He told her in a sad tone, letting his hand fall down into his lap.
"Hey," Belle called shifting closer to him, taking his hand from his lap. "You know that isn't true."
Rumald shrugged his eyebrows at her comment and sat forward to collect their teas, asking. "So, what would you like to do tonight? Since it's probably going to be just the two of us."
She could not help the grin that spread over her lips, taking her tea from him when he offered the handle of her cup to her. "How about… We order some dinner from Fazoli's," He raised an eyebrow at her suggestion. "Get some bottles of wine from the basement," Rumald turned his face towards her and away from his tea, he held ready to take a sip. "And we make the most of being on our own tonight?"
"Bottles?" He repeated with a suggestive grin. "I might think you're trying to get me drunk, Miss French."
"One can only hope, Mr Gold." She told him watching him over the rim of her cup and blew over her hot tea. His chuckle made his eyes twinkle, as he relaxed back into the couch and perched his feet up onto the coffee table.
