Chapter 3

I lay down my towel next to Vaughn and Francie.

"Come on girl! Let's go play in the water!" Francie called, getting up. She held out her hand for me to grab.

I shook my head. "No, I'm gonna sit here and tan!"

"You're loss!" She adjusted the straps on her black bikini. "Come on Will!"

Will smiled and ran after Francie. He pulled her down in the water. They both resurfaced, laughing hysterically.

"You know that I won't go in alone right?" Vaughn whispered in my ear.

"Yeah," I nodded.

"So what do you say?"

"About what?"

"Let's just go walk by the water. It's so beautiful, I think we should take a closer look."

I sighed. "Oh alright. You persuaded me."

I got up, and put my hand in his. We walked down to where the water was just reaching the sand.

"Come on you guys!" Francie and Will called.

I shook my head sending loose pieces of hair flying in my face. "You're sure you won't pull me in?"

"I'm sure!" He said, kissing me.

"Are you sure? Cause I thin you would"

I couldn't finish my sentence because Vaughn had pulled me into the water. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I popped my head above the surface and splashed water at him.

"You said!"

"I lied!" He said, splashing me back.

"I thought you weren't coming in?" Francie called, wrestling Will down.

"I wasn't!" I laughed, splashing Vaughn again.

We played in the ocean for about an hour and then decided to head back to get ready to go out to dinner.

Vaughn was a gentleman and let me take my shower first. I made sure to rinse all the sand out of my hair. I had always hated sand.

It always got everywhere and you couldn't do anything about it. I took al my make-up to my room, and let Vaughn go next.

I blew dry my hair and pulled it up into a half ponytail, or an Alice as my mother used to call it.

I would always put my hair up like this to be like Alice from the book, Alice in Wonderland. My mother would read it to me almost every night until she went away.

I pulled on my black halter dress with a little white flower in the left side. I searched through my bag for my white bracelet with a little flower hanging down from it and a matching necklace.

I applied some dark gray eye shadow, white eye glitter, black mascara and dark gray eyeliner. Finally, I applied a thin coat of light pink lip-gloss.

Francie said it was a good color for me. I normally wouldn't have cared, but Francie knew her make up tips and I wanted to follow them.

I slipped on my black strappy high heels. You'd think I was stupid to be wearing them since I'm always complaining about how much of a pain they always are. I went out into the family room and sat down on the couch, waiting for Vaughn. Only seconds later, he emerged from the bathroom, his hair combed perfectly in place and his tuxedo neat with no wrinkles.

"I was hoping to fix it for you!" I complained.

"I'm ahead of you for once!" He smiled. "So are Francie and Will coming with us?"

"No. They saw a bar on the way up and decided to go there."

Vaughn looked almost relieved when I said that.

"What?" I asked.

"Oh nothing. I just kinda wanted to be alone tonight that's all."

"Ok. Let's get going then."

We walked down to the restaurant that was at the hotel. It was in the grand ballroom and there were some couples out on the dance floor, dancing slowly to the music. We took a seat and ordered a couple of salads.

"So, why do you look so tense?"

Vaughn almost fooled me with his smile, but I could tell it was fake and that something was wrong.

"I'm fine, it's just hot in here."

"Uh-huh."

We talked and laughed as we finished our salads and ordered our main courses, fresh crab cakes, lobster tails and shrimp.

We finished our dinner and ordered dessert, chocolate cheesecake.

When we finished our dessert, Vaughn got up. I started to get up, but he held his hand up.

"No. Don't get up."

He knelt down in front of me. "Sydney, I have been in love with you since the day I first met you. You have always been the other half to me. You are my guardian angel. You make me whole. And I can't live without you, Sydney."

He pulled out a small black, velvet box, and opened it, revealing a beautiful diamond ring.

"Sydney Bristow, will you marry me?"