Wakefulness came easy for Annie the next morning. Then again, 12 hours of sleep would be restful for anyone, she thought as she blinked against the bright sunshine falling across Auggie's bed.
Bright sunshine meant mid-morning, at least. Once her eyes were fully open, she noted with a frown that she was alone. Auggie must have gone to work, she thought. It was only Wednesday, and she couldn't expect him to give up his work to snuggle in bed with her. She did miss him, though.
After he'd slid the ring on her finger last night, she'd wanted nothing more than to climb into his lap and kiss him senseless, but he'd made her eat the dinner he made. She was grateful for it, as airplane food was never her cup of tea, and the shots she'd tossed back at Hank's prior made her a bit unsteady on her feet.
After the dinner, which he cleaned up after – including washing dishes – Annie had had enough and drew him into bed with her before jet lag and exhaustion – physical and mental – pulled her under for good.
They'd made out for a long time before Auggie had pulled away and retrieved a t-shirt for her to sleep in and pants for him. Annie blushed now at how she'd pouted that they weren't going to celebrate their engagement in a more carnal manner, but she'd known that sleep was coming on fast, and they had the rest of their lives to prove their love to one another.
The rest of her life, Annie thought now, stretching out and rolling over to Auggie's side of the bed. His scent still clung to the pillows – a heady mix of Old Spice and soap. She placed her left hand on the pillow, admiring the sparkling diamond on her ring finger.
When, she thought. When did he purchase it? It fit perfectly on her finger, so he must have researched her ring size, and more than likely had it made. When did he know he wanted to marry her? They'd known each other only a month. Almost exactly a month, she thought. And for the past week of that month, they'd been apart.
A niggle of fear and doubt wormed into her brain. A sinister thought that maybe this wasn't love, but lust, and they were moving way too fast. I mean, she thought, we've only had a few real dates, and only had sex once – well, more than once, but only one night together like that.
Annie groaned as the thoughts piled on top of one another, and her head started to pound. She took a deep breath to still her anxiety and extricated herself from the bed. Bathroom, coffee, then find Auggie, she decided. She needed to know that last night was real, and laying around thinking about possibilities did no good.
Auggie looked at his watched for about the 12th time that morning. It was nearly 11am, and he still hadn't heard from Annie. He had to drag himself away from her that morning, though he yearned to stay wrapped in her arms when the alarm went off. But he knew she needed to sleep, and he decided to head down to his shop before Carl called and woke her.
It'd only been a few hours, but he missed her already, which made him laugh at himself. He'd gone without her for a whole week and survived, surely he could last one morning.
15 minutes later, as Carl finished with a customer, he called across the store to him. "Hey, Carl, I'm gonna head up to the apartment. Can you watch the place for a few minutes?"
"No need, Aug. Annie's coming in."
"Huh?"
Carl pointed to the front door, where Annie was holding it open for the leaving customer. Once the threshold was clear, Annie walked in.
She glanced around the interior and waved to Carl who stood behind the register. The young man returned her wave and pointed across the store. Annie had maybe half a second to register Auggie's approach, and then she was in his embrace.
"Hey, sweetheart, you sleep okay?" Auggie asked as he held her against him, unheeding of Carl's smile and surreptitious exit to the break room.
Annie's worries about wearing the same clothes two days in a row, or not having a toothbrush to properly brush her teeth, or the fact that she hadn't eaten since last night slid away as she let herself be held by Auggie. His simple tee was soft, and his muscular arms, chest and shoulders were strong. Perfect, she thought. There's no way this is only lust. I'm truly in love with this man.
"Annie?" Auggie asked, pulling back a little to peer down into her face. "Are you okay?"
The smile she gave him, coupled with the devotion in her eyes nearly brought him to his knees. "I am now."
Had they not been in full view of the pedestrian traffic and essentially blocking the store's entrance, Auggie would have wrapped her around his body, bent her over his arm and give her the good morning kiss he so wanted to give her when he woke that morning.
Instead, he settled for a short, but passionate, kiss on her smiling lips before stepping back. He took her hand and led her back to his desk at the back of the store. As he did, he couldn't help but notice she still wore the ring he gave her.
"I take it this means you haven't changed your mind?" he asked, running his thumb over the gold and diamond.
Annie shook her head as she settled into a chair beside him. "I had to come down her to make sure it wasn't a dream. I mean, how – when did you buy it, Auggie? We only met a month ago, remember?"
Auggie chuckled. "I got it a few days ago, Annie. I couldn't stop thinking about you, and after applying for my passport, I started thinking about where I wanted to take you. And then –" he took a deep breath and dropped his eyes to her left hand that he still held. His fingers ran down the back of her hand and traced the knuckles. "I'd made such a list, that I realized it would take all of our lives to visit all of the places. Right then, right there, I decided that, if you'd have me, I wanted to be in your life forever. So I snuck into your place – you gave me a key to check your mail, remember – and borrowed one of your rings. Before I lost my nerve, I went down to the jewelers and got this."
Auggie paused in his explanation to look up at her face. Her eyes were brimming with tears, and he reached up to capture one as it dropped onto her cheek. "I fully expected that we would date and be together for months before the time was right to propose, but if you remember, you asked me. I was just the one with the ring."
Laughter bubbled up in Annie, escaping through her lips as a few more tears fell. "And I was just teasing you, you know. I wasn't sure you felt the same way, or – I don't know, Auggie. All I know, right here, right now, that I never want to be apart from you."
"I love you, Annie. I know it hasn't been long that we've known each other, but why waste time?" he asked. "Tell you what, let's just take it one step at a time, okay?"
Annie nodded, though she thought, if he kept looking at her like that and offered to whisk her away to Vegas for a drive-thru wedding, she'd say yes in a heartbeat.
"Okay, then. The first offer was for us to go steady, but unless you've got another guy stashed away somewhere, I'd say we were doing that already, right?"
"No other guy for me. How about you?"
"I'm not seeing any other guys, either, so we're even," Auggie said with a smile. "Just kidding. Of course, I'm not seeing anyone else. So the next offer was for you to move in, so why don't we just do that?"
A wide smile broke Annie's face. "Really? You'd want me to move into your apartment? Are you sure?"
"I proposed to you last night, Annie. Moving you in isn't going to be a problem."
"Hmm," Annie said, leaning back in her chair. "And what if I want to bring all of my stuff?"
Auggie could hear the teasing note in her voice, "Like what?"
"Well, if you've been in my bedroom, I'm sure you would have seen –"
Auggie rolled his eyes, but acquiesced. "Yes, you can bring your life-size standup of Christopher Reeve as Superman. Anything else?"
Annie laughed, "Well, that's just the one I have in my bedroom. You haven't seen what I've got in storage."
A/N I'd written out a few different ways to extend this, but once I started with the fluffy sweetness, I got carried away. These two are so much fun to write for. But what do you think? Is a month enough time to dedicate their lives to each other?
Please review.