Summary: Zac, Evie, and the rest of the gang have recently graduated college. Now, a few weeks out from there, Zac plans a surprise date for Evie, making sure that only those who need to be in on it are because she's in for a real shock.
So I've been going through this phase recently where I'm obsessed with Zevie and I wrote a ton of little things about them so this is the first and the first part of this. Technically the next part is a prequel but I am very purposely doing this one first.
Words: 1446
Zac Blakely and his girlfriend Evie McLaren weren't what you'd call 'normal'. Growing a tail every time you touched water and becoming a mermaid or a merman kind of qualified as abnormal in both of their books. This was why Zac's surprise for Evie later wouldn't be totally qualified as normal either.
Zac had his plan and the only two people who knew the entirety of the plan were his best friend, Cam, and Evie's best friend, Carly. They had both helped with Zac's plan to make sure it played out how it was meant to play out.
"Guess who," Zac said, sneaking up behind Evie at the small shop she ran in Ocean Cafe. He placed his hands over her eyes so she couldn't just turn around to see who it was.
"If it's not my boyfriend, you're dead."
Zac removed his hands from Evie's eyes. "Lucky me then," he laughed.
"So what's up?"
"Well, starting now, you're off for the rest of the day."
"Am I?" Evie asked, turning around to face Zac, placing her hands on the counter behind her.
"Yup, I already talked to Carly and she's going to cover for you until closing."
Evie looked over at Carly and motioned for her to come over. "What's up?" Carly asked.
"Zac said you're covering for me at the shop for the rest of the night, is that true?"
"Yeah, he's got a surprise for you."
"Are you coming?" Zac asked when Evie turned to look back at him.
"Of course." Evie picked up a few things of hers and put them in her bag. She slung her bag over her shoulder and turned to Zac. "Where are we going?"
"Your house."
"My house?"
"Yup." Zac took Evie's hand and they started out of the cafe and towards Evie's house. When they got there, Zac waited in the living room as Evie took her bag to her room.
"So where are we going?" Evie asked as she entered the living room.
"Out on the reef if that's okay with you so we can go for that swim, just the two of us."
"Sounds great."
To get in the water, Zac and Evie just went out back where Evie's yard turned into the canal. They looked around to see if there were any peeping eyes. Since no one was in sight, they dove off the dock and headed out of the canal to open ocean.
As they swam around, Zac and Evie were able to communicate through their facial expressions and hand motions alone which was handy since talking wasn't possible underwater. Having been dating for over 5 and a half years and swimming together with tails together for all but just under a year of that time meant that they were pretty good at getting points across to the other.
They were able to communicate when they wanted to move on to a different area or when they needed to go up for air. The latter didn't happen all that often but it did happen.
"Do you want to head over to Mako, the moon pool specifically?" Zac asked. Evie had needed to go to the surface for air and he had gone along with her and surfaced beside her.
"Is this part of the surprise?" Evie asked, raising her brow.
Zac didn't say anything, but Evie could tell by the look on his face alone that going to the moon pool was a part of his master plan, whatever that was.
"Let's go," she smiled at him and they ducked back under the surface. They speed off to the moon pool but when they got closer to the entrance, Zac hung back to let Evie enter on her own to see what he'd done.
Evie gasped when she surfaced in the moon pool. She took a minute to look around and see how Zac had transformed the cavern. She hardly noticed when he surface beside her, she was too entranced by the work he'd put into decorating the moon pool. Small battery powered lanterns hung over the moon pool and the rock ledge around the water. A blanket and a few pillows had been been laid on the rock ledge along with a picnic basket and a couple unlit candles.
"It's amazing, Zac," Evie spoke, awestruck. "You did all this for me?"
"Of course. You're worth it." Evie gave Zac a big smile.
Off to the side there was an area that Zac had purposely left clear of stuff so they could get out of the water and dry off. Zac first pulled himself out then offered his hand to Evie before drying off. They used their powers to dry their tails off once they were both out of the water. After a few minutes, they were able to stand.
Evie immediately walked over to where the blanket was set up, Zac however felt his legs and patted the pockets of his shorts as he stood. Evie though nothing of it because this was something Zac would do every once in awhile after a long swim. After seeing that he had his land legs back, Zac went over by Evie and pulled a lighter out of the picnic basket so he could light the candles.
Evie smiled and sat down across from where Zac had sat. He took two plates and then some seafood and fruit out of the basket, the containers they were in were still cool to the touch. "How'd I do for dinner?"
"It's perfect," Evie replied, picking a grape out.
For the next while, the two sat talking, eating, laughing, and occasionally feeding each other small pieces of food. After they'd had their fill, they set pillows up against the wall to just talk and spend more time alone together. The two recent college grads talked about how it felt to be out of school and not have to worry about getting to classes or the homework they had to do anymore.
"I'm starting to feel a little stiff," Zac said, standing up.
"You know, now that you say that, I'm beginning to feel stiff too," Evie said. Zac offered her his hand to help her up. They both took a minute to stretch, and before Evie got the chance to sit back down, Zac took her hands in his. She gave him a questioning look and that was when he spoke.
"Evie," Zac started, he looked up from their hands to her soft green eyes. She smiled at him and he couldn't help but smile too. "There comes a time in every relationship where you have to decide if that relationship is something you want to continue with or if it's time to move on. I think we made that decision about 5 or so years ago, even if we didn't know it back then. I love you for who you are, not what you are. So I'd like to make it official." Zac took both Evie's hands in just one of his, got down on one knee, and pulled a small velvet box out of his pocket. He flipped it open and looked back up to meet Evie's eyes again. A few tears were glistened in her eyes and a single tear was rolling down her cheek, the corners of her mouth were forming a small smile. "Evie McLaren, will you make me the happiest merman in the world and do me the honor of marrying me?"
Evie blinked a few times and a few more tears rolled down the sides of her face. Her smile was broad, showing off her gorgeous dimples. "Yes," was all Evie could manage, she was too overwhelmed by joy. Zac took the ring out of its small box, let go of Evie's right hand and held just her left hand in his. He looked up so their eyes met once again before placing the ring on her ring finger. He didn't let go of her hand right away so he could place a kiss on it.
He stood, never breaking their eye contact. As soon as he stood upright, Evie's arms were around his shoulders. His automatic response was to wrap his arms around her waist and bring her closer to him. He placed a firm kiss on the side of her forehead.
"I love you so much, Zac. And I can't wait to start our lives together."
"Me neither." Zac wrapped his arms more tightly around Evie's petite frame. They'd tell those who didn't know what was going on that night about their engagement later, but until then, they were going to enjoy the bliss of being newly engaged.
A/N: As always, let me know what you thought in a review or PM and also feel free to give me ideas, I've got a decent sized collection of my own but they won't last forever.
I'd also like the thank everyone who has reviewed thus far, it really means alot to me knowing that it's not just my family and friends who like the stuff that I write and there's no way to express how much it means to me, but thank-you. And thank-you in advance to everyone who continues to review this and anything else of mine you check out. Part 2 (the prequal) is coming soon, probably in the next couple hours or so.
-CrazyHayniac
