loved you yesterday

love you still

always have

always will

EPILOGUE

~ May 10, 2016 ~ 11:48PM ~ Eiffel Tower, Paris

Ding. The yellow doors of the elevator quietly slid open and the throng of people inside the car piled out onto the plaza at the base of the Eiffel Tower. They had been the very last group of tourists who had enjoyed the view from the top floor at roughly 900 ft. above the ground. It had been a clear day and night so far, thereby making the sea of lights that had been stretching beneath their feet seem endless beyond the horizon.

In the crowds that were still gathering in groups to discuss from where they should watch the light show that would be shown very soon, a young couple stood out.

The blonde woman and the brown-haired man were strolling through the open space, talking vividly about the memorable view from the top of the tower at night and walking with determination. Upon reaching a crossing, they slowed down and waited impatiently for the red light to turn green so they could get to the other side of the street.

The traffic on this late Tuesday night was just as crazy as on any other day, taxis taking people home from a night out on the town, cars honking at others in an attempt to get through the solid lines of vehicles even quicker, tourists from all over the world roaming the streets to take in the sights of Paris at night time.

When the street light was taking forever to change to green, the restless woman let go of the man's hand and slipped her arm underneath his jacket and sweatshirt in order to place her hand on the warm small of his back. She leaned into his side. "Caleb, do you think we're gonna make it on time?"

"Han, don't worry. We have plenty of time." He checked his wrist watch. "It's only 11:54."

"I just don't want us to miss it," she explained apologetically. "I want everything just like it was the first time we were here."

"The light show will be on for ten minutes, there is no way we could miss it." Caleb laughed at her impetuousness.

At long last, the green light came on and Caleb put his arm around her shoulder before stepping onto the street. "You know if we really wanted to reenact everything the way it was then, we shouldn't have climbed the Eiffel Tower today," he pointed out to her as they crossed the street and proceeded to walk through the small park-like area below the Palais de Chaillot.

"Yeah, I know but it was about time! You owed me! I'd thought that we would climb it on our very last day of our exchange trip because you had said that you would do that for me if I wanted to." Hanna was on a roll.

"You actually remember that?" Caleb scoffed and chuckled about her ability to block out things that happened twenty-two hours ago at the airport when on the other hand she could recount conversations from more than five years ago. "And hey, it wasn't just my fault that we never got out of that hotel room back then. If I remember correctly, you didn't make any efforts to get dressed and ready to leave yourself," he said lightheartedly.

"Yeah, well,I say that it was all your fault. If you hadn't started seducing me with your sweet French talk there that night-"

"-which you had asked me for, excuse me!" Caleb interrupted her with mock consternation. "Not my fault either."

"-I'm sure we would have made it in time." Hanna finished her sentence before she started to laugh out loud about the absurdity of their little banter at that moment.

They had reached the path that was leading towards the stairs, right by the fountain. Caleb stopped walking and positioned himself in front of her, keeping his one arm around her shoulder. He raised his other arm, too, and pulled her closer with the help of his hand that wove itself into her hair.

"Well, I can't say that I missed out on anything that night," he said lovingly before he kissed her once, twice.

Hanna caught on to another change in situation, too. She had put on her favorite heels, per his request, and a white dress with a small floral pattern, also complying with his wish to wear a long flowing gown from her own new summer collection for their first night back in Paris. "We certainly didn't reenact everything in detail today, like for instance, we've dressed up real nicely today. Where are we going afterwards? Can't be Sèb's backyard and a tent, can it?" Hanna asked with a grin and pointed at his dark yet elegant appearance in a form-fitting pair of black denims and a matching sports coat.

Eventually, she gently nudged him forward so they could continue their walk for the remainder of the distance. They still needed to climb the stairs and find a spot by the stone railing so they could watch the Eiffel Tower's light show from there, just like they had once before.

"Hey, I just happen to like that dress on you. You look so stunning in it. I really think it's one of your best pieces of work," Caleb told her, albeit ignoring the question. They had arrived at the railing and Caleb wrapped his arms around Hanna from behind, cradling the barely-there bump in the middle of her body with his hands. His head found a comfortable spot to rest on her shoulder.

At 11:00pm sharp, the famous tower turned into a vertical shape of blinking lights again. Hanna and Caleb stood engulfed and watched religiously, trying to block out the loud 'ooohs' and 'aaahs' that were coming from the people around them who were apparently seeing it for the first time.

Their reaction took Hanna back in time as it reminded her of how she had felt the moment Caleb had surprised her with this view during a nightly sightseeing tour and how he had told her for the very first of many, many countless times that he loved her. He had been the first boy who ever told her those three little words that always made her heart feel so full – and to this day, five and a half years later – the only one. Though, in the meantime, he had matured into a less rebellious, more domestic man who still wore his heart on his sleeve, but who also still always knew the right things to say in order to make her feel better.

The couple had been living together in New York for the past almost four years, sharing a nice apartment in the West Village, living a full life with Caleb working in a software engineering company and Hanna having her own fashion label. Things had been rocky for a while after Hanna had not made enough time to spend it with Caleb for their planned Christmas vacation in Colorado because her new job had been keeping her on her toes. But after some time apart, they had managed to work it out; they had realized that they couldn't live without one another.

"Do you remember the first time we watched the lighting of the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center?" Hanna turned around to face him when the last sparkle of the light show had faded. "It still gets me… every year… It always marks the beginning of a very magical time."

Caleb watched her face as the giddy grin spread all across her features. He didn't need Christmas Trees and fairy lights; every time Hanna smiled at him like that was a magical moment, one that he wanted to treasure forever.

She took her purse into her hand and fumbled with the clasp before retrieving her phone. "Let me take our picture, I want to hang it into the baby's room. I'm still kind of sad that we didn't take one the first time we were here."

"Um, before you do that…" He cleared his throat nervously. "There's something I want to say… about that… last time."

Hanna looked at him before she put the phone back into her purse, wondering what he was trying to get at. She remembered everything from their first night, even almost literally everything that they had said to each other. It had been one of the best days of her life. It had made her believe in love again when just about every married couple around them had been struggling and ended up not making it after all.

"Remember when you asked me about my tattoo?" Hanna was pulled from her thoughts. "Yeah, what about it? Wait, which one are we talking about?"

"The one on my arm. I'm going to have it altered or removed entirely as soon as our vacation is over." Caleb let go of her hand and pretended having to wipe some invisible lint off of his jacket.

She furrowed her brows as she hooked her now free hand in the shoulder strap of her purse. A dragged out "Ooookay?" left her lips as she waited for further explanations from him.

"I don't want you to be my girlfriend anymore."

She did a double-take, thinking she must have missed a whole bunch of sentences from him, containing vital information. Then, she noticed that he had obviously stopped dead in his tracks a few seconds ago and that she was now walking all by herself a couple of feet away from him. She stopped and turned around to look at his face.

His mischievously grinning face, as she realized within a split second. The creases on her forehead deepened in anticipation.

"Han, I can't expect you to remember what you told me some five and a half years ago when we spent our first night together in Paris. But in all these years, I've never forgotten it. You said that I wouldn't need to have that tattoo removed because the H. and the R. could be interpreted as being your initials if we ever got married, and… I brushed it off saying that-"

"… you didn't know if you ever wanted to get married at all. Yeah, I remember. What kind of girl brings up the subject of marriage after her first time having sex with her boyfriend of one month? I still cringe whenever I think back to that stupid remark," she said in mild retort, fearing she wasn't in the position to get sentimental when that was actually the feeling she had been harboring in the deepest corner of her heart.

"Really?" He smiled warmly at her. "I didn't cringe then. I still don't." He took a few steps to cross the distance between them. "I think that it was one of life's incredible ways of telling you when things start falling into place. Only I didn't know at 17 what I know now."

With a hint of curiosity, she was looking at him as he stepped in front of her again. "Then why did you just say-" A small kiss cut her off.

"That I don't want you to be my girlfriend anymore?" He grinned shamelessly. "You just had a heart attack, didn't you? Admit it!"

"Caleb Rivers, if you don't tell me immediately what this is all about, I'm gonna... I'm gonna... fuck, I can't threaten you if you're looking at me like that."

"Like what?" He probed her with a teasing voice.

"Like you always do when you pity me and are about to tell me that you love me. Spill it!"

"Ok. Do you remember how I told you that the tattoo on my arm was my girlfriend tattoo because you're the only person I ever told and showed it to?"

"Not really, no," she shrugged.

"Well, now you do. But I-"

"Wait. So not even Sèb or Toby know it?"

"I don't think so. You see, we barely ever hop into the shower together. But you're missing the point here."

"Sorry. Continue!"

He shot her a glaring look, trying hard to get back into the right mood. "I want a change... Because I feel that you are not just my girlfriend anymore. You're so much more. I want the new tattoo to be a commemoration of the woman who truly gave me everything I ever needed in my life, not just wings to pursue my dreams… but… hope... and love… and now, above all, a family to come home to every single day." The well-thought-out sentences had come out slowly while his eyes had fixated on her face. Now, his gaze traveled from there all the way down to her baby bump.

Immediately, Hanna held her breath. This wasn't what she had expected at all. She still didn't understand why he suddenly wanted to remove the tattoo when he was saying all those beautiful things to her. She had gotten so used to it being there on his arm, hidden from plain sight, with a deeper meaning in its fateful letters, which she had been keeping hidden in her thoughts for the longest time.

Caleb looked at her intently, secretly enjoying the gaping expression that seemed etched to her face. "I know exactly what you're thinking right now... H and R... And I know that in all these years that we've been together I kept saying that I didn't want to get married because I didn't believe in a piece of paper to emphasize the love that I'm feeling for you."

"Neither did I," she huffed breathlessly as she found her words again. "And you know that, too."

He shrugged vaguely, "Well, turns out, it's not just a piece of paper to me anymore. Or a ring. It's a promise... to always try your best and make the relationship work. And I know that you and I always kept our promises, no matter what. Even after our break-up last year, we found our way back to each other. We didn't even last two weeks apart." He scoffed at the painful memory before he cracked the smallest smile and moved his head closer to hers.

"It was the longest two weeks and the saddest New Year's Eve of my life," Hanna whispered when his face was right there in front of her, his lips brushing tenderly against the skin beneath her temple's hairline. She was shivering slightly now that the night had cooled down considerably. Caleb felt bad because he wanted her to stop trembling, but he couldn't give her his jacket. Not just yet.

"I was miserable, too," he admitted again. "And that's how I knew... that I had made the biggest mistake of my life... And that's how I knew that you and I apart could never work. And after we'd made up, we made this miracle happen." He gently laid a protective hand on her belly. "And I can't imagine ever not wanting to see our little girl grow up to look like the perfect blend of us. That's just not gonna happen. That's the next promise you're getting from me. And so... I came to the conclusion that I want us to be a real family... where we all carry the same last name... and where my child and the woman I love more than anything in the world are taken care of in case anything ever happened. God, that sounded more clinical than it did when I practiced this in the bathroom of our plane this morning." He looked down in shame for a moment before he brought his hand up along with his eyes.

Hanna didn't say anything in return. Words had left her.

With the image of her long hair blowing in the nightly breeze and the questioning look on her face right in front of him, Caleb closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Then he went down on one knee, opening his eyes to see hers widen in shock. Her lips parted as she held her breath before placing her hand over her mouth in order to hide her surprise. She placed her other hand on her chest, checking to feel if her heart was still beating its regular drum.

"Hanna, we have been together for more than five years now. That's more than 2,000 days, believe me I did the math. And I know we're still young, but I love you. I love you more than I could have ever believed possible. Everything I need in my life is right in front of me. I wouldn't be half the person I am today if it wasn't for you." Tears pooled in her eyes as Caleb pulled a box out of the inner pocket of his jacket and opened it to reveal what looked like a silvery ring with a solitaire diamond. After a beat that allowed her to take in the sight of the single, princess cut gem, he spoke in confidence, "Hanna? Will you marry me?"

Hanna gasped in shock. "Caleb?"

Her reaction prompted his lips to form the warmest smile possible. It was the pure expression of joy that yet another one of his surprises hadn't failed to turn her into a tongue-tied sobbing mess. And he loved her for it, knowing that it was only a matter of seconds until she would collapse into his arms. The unveiled way in which she was able to show her emotions in public never failed to amaze him.

Her teary eyes looked at him expressively as she lifted her hand off of her mouth in order to answer his question.

"Yes!" The word had come out as a hiss just as a broad smile was starting to creep upon her lips, and a fresh wave of happy tears was welling up in her eyes.

Caleb couldn't help it and chimed in. The situation was making him just as emotional and he was never one to hold back his tears when he felt overwhelmed by his feelings. He got up again with shaky limbs and plucked the engagement ring from its velvet embedding before mindlessly tossing the box onto the ground.

Hanna held out her trembling hand as he carefully slipped the ring onto her fourth finger. When the ring had found its perfect fit, Caleb instantly wrapped his arms behind her back, pulling her inevitably closer for a lingering kiss that was followed by another one.

"I said it then and I'll say it again. You are a mysterious man, Caleb Rivers. You never cease to amaze me with your secret missions and schemes."

Holding her arms tightly locked behind his neck, she brought their lips together again. "I love you so much! But this ring... I mean... the diamond... wow. It's way too much," she voiced her excitement as Caleb looked on with a continued expression of mischief in his eyes. "But I love it. It's perfect."

After a long moment of holding her in his arms, he pulled back and took off his jacket. "Here, take this. You should warm up," he said while slipping it over her shoulders.

With his arm still wrapped around her, he steered her away from the railing, away through the scattered groups of tourists that were still out and about at this late hour. "Where are we going? What are you up to now, Caleb?"

"We... are going to celebrate," he said while guiding them both downwards on the stone steps that were leading them back through the Trocadéro Gardens. They walked past the fountain and across the street, all the way to the bridge over the Seine where he stopped and looked out for his next destination.

"But... where? Is it a restaurant? It's after midnight. Are there restaurants open until after midnight on a regular weekday in Paris? Or are we going to a nice little bar? I don't think I'm dressed appropriately for a bar," she mused, thereby ending on of her usual rants. Hanna shot him a sideways glance while trying to make out what he was up to.

Caleb smiled but kept mum. Instead, he finally wove his fingers into hers, reveling in the unfamiliar feel of the new precious object that was now gracing her left hand. "Don't worry, we'll find a special place to celebrate. And you look pretty, absolutely appropriate for where we are going."

"Are we taking a cab? I think the cabstand was that way," Hanna said while pointing in the opposite direction, in an attempt to help out with information that her still clouded brain had yet managed to extract from her memory.

"Nope," was all the answer she got in return.

Hanna meanwhile knew better than to pressure him for further details. Despite the lack of information that he had provided her with, she instinctively knew that wherever they were headed, Caleb would have put a whole lot of thought into it and it was bound to be good.

After a short beckon in the direction of the other side of the Seine, which Hanna hadn't become aware of due to the fact that she was checking out her surroundings, Caleb strode across the bridge with determination. She tried to think of any memories from their first stay in Paris that he could be trying to reenact, but all she remembered were two days of absolute leisure time in a hotel bed that their friend Sèb had set them up with.

Sèb?

Sèb!

Suddenly, a thought crossed her mind. Did Sèb have another helping hand in this new scheming on Caleb's side? She was becoming even more convinced of it and couldn't be any more excited.

After they had reached the other side of the river, Caleb nudged her to the left so that they could stroll along the waterfront with a great view to the Eiffel Tower on the one side and the illuminated Palais de Chaillot on the other.

Moments later, he stopped walking and stepped in front of her without letting go of her hand. "Ok, we're here."

Hanna looked around, taking in the scenery around her. To her right, there was an empty parking lot and to her left, one of Paris' sightseeing boats lay moored and in darkness. She was left standing absolutely clueless. "Where? What am I looking at?"

"How do you feel about a little sightseeing tour on a river boat, future Mrs. Rivers?" He smirked at his purposeful pun.

"Uh... where? On that boat?" She pointed to her left at the darkened vehicle that swayed slightly back and forth on the water. "But this doesn't look like it operates at night. It's all dark and empty." She searched his face for clues as to how illegal his projected sightseeing tour was going to be. But when she caught a glimpse of his smirk, she was starting to grow restless. "Caleb?" came her unnerved whiny voice.

At that, his expression changed and turned serious. "Uh… Listen! Hanna?" He said her name in order to get her full attention. Then, he slowly opened the button on the left sleeve of his perfectly white shirt before pulling it up, and by that revealing his naked wrist.

Hanna gaped at his arm as she took in the unfamiliar sight of his arm without the leather bracelet. Apart from a few times when he had taken it off for professional reasons because it didn't fit well underneath his business attire, she hadn't seen him without it for as long as she could remember; the bracelet had been like a part of him.

Caleb shoved his other hand into the pocket of his black denims and pulled out a new bracelet which appeared to be a black thin leather ribbon with a plain silver clasp. "Would you please put this on my wrist?" He handed her the bracelet and then held out his left arm to her. Hanna took the ribbon and twined it around his wrist before she closed its clasp.

Caleb pushed it a bit further up on his arm until it was a tight fit. Then he turned it around for her to see the inner side of it, immediately prompting Hanna to lift her surprised gaze from his wrist and back up to his face.

The angel wings and the letters were no longer gracing his lower arm.

Instead, Hanna's name was now inked on his skin in simple letters, encompassed by a black heart-shaped frame. Next to it, there were two smaller hearts, one of them being partly covered by a tiny band-aid. All three of them had been designed in a particular way, making it look like they were charms dangling from the real leather bracelet that was wound around his arm there.

"What's with the band-aid?" Hanna eyed his wrist suspiciously.

"Oh, it's just still a little bit sore. Don't worry." Caleb hurried to explain the situation with his new tattoo. "Yeah, I got rid of the letters… I figured, I didn't wanna walk around carrying the initials of our cleaning lady Harriet with me all the time."

Hanna laughed out loud at the thought of the sixty-year-old woman who had been cleaning their New York apartment once a week for the past three years, which had been Caleb's idea when both of their workloads had started to take a toll on the state of cleanliness in their place.

"I'm gonna add the name of our little princess to one of the smaller hearts, once she's born and once we've finally managed to agree on a name," he told her while looking at Hanna's belly before he carefully put his splayed palm on it again. "Now, it can't be some weird moniker. Personally, I'm leaning towards naming her 'Elle' because it's short and kinda sweet. And it works on many more levels for us." When there was no reaction coming from her side, he let his gaze travel back upwards and watched the expression of complete elation creep upon her features. "What? Can you feel her kick again, by any chance?"

"No," she said, but kept on smiling giddily at him anyway. "I'm just so happy. That tattoo is just the sweetest thing ever." She raised her arms and wrapped them around his neck as she collapsed into his embrace. "Never thought that you'd become the kind of man to carry around heart-shaped tattoos when you're still flaunting that audacity of a middle finger on your butt," Hanna laughed.

"Well, that's what I'm feeling. Why should I hold back? We'd had to hide our relationship long enough. I don't ever wanna hide it again," he explained insistently.

Upon hearing this, tears pooled in Hanna's eyes, and she awkwardly wiped them away with her bare hands, explaining, "God, this pregnancy is throwing me completely off. Why do I always have to cry at everything?"

It was more of a hypothetical question, and Caleb didn't have an answer to it anyway, so he just shrugged and held her.

"I can't believe that we're getting married. Us of all people!" She pulled back from him and saw his shy smile.

"Yeah, well... times change." Caleb cupped her cheek and leaned in for a kiss.

"So... Elle, huh?" Hanna smiled knowingly after they broke apart.

The smirk on Caleb's face was back and he lovingly replied, "Yeah."

"This doesn't have anything to do with the list of baby names that we both agreed to write and hide until our daughter is born, does it?" She asked while trying to hide her own smile.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said in mock defense. "I just happen to love that name. And I heard that it has something to do with fashion and with models."

Hanna scoffed at his futile attempt to cover up the fact that he had probably watched her make the list while pretending to be asleep right next to her during their flight to Paris. She hugged him tightly again, smiling inwardly at the fact that they had just made another vital decision, and without fighting, to top it off. After a long moment, they pulled back, but kept standing in each other's arms.

Hanna let her hands play with the hair at his neck, just like she always did when she was nervous about something. "Alright, now that that's settled, when are you gonna tell me about what role Sèb plays in this little scheme of yours? Did he buy this ring for you?" Hanna asked while pointing at her sparkly new piece of jewelry.

He looked at her with surprise. "No!" He exclaimed in an attempt to clarify the situation. "I did. Why would I let Sèb buy your we-, I mean engagement ring?"

"Yeah, well... I heard you talking to him on the phone when I came back with our coffees this morning. I'm sure that you two are up to something again. I mean, this whole idea had to have been going on in your mind for a while because you buying me a ring like that... You didn't buy it at the airport, did you?" She suddenly asked with a slightly appalled expression on her face.

He laughed at her attempt to get behind his scheming, however, keeping to himself that he had indeed been on to something at the airport after he had sent her off to go and get coffee for the both of them.

Hanna was convinced that she had seen a hint of guilt on his face. "I can't shake the feeling that there's more to this than you're letting on," Hanna said, probing his ability to keep secrets.

Again, a slightly fake laugh slipped from his lips.

"Caleb?"

The confidence with which he had withstood her curiosity up until this moment, faltered. There was no point in stalling anymore. His heartrate doubled as he gathered his thoughts in order to pick his words. But just as he was about to start telling her everything, Hanna jumped in and bought him a little more time.

"You're not gonna tell me, are you?" Hanna felt prompted to ask upon seeing him stay silent. In the course of time, she had learned that any pushing on her side would not lead to anything. So she shrugged it off and changed the subject, "Ok, if you're not willing to let me in on that, can we talk wedding dates? I was thinking maybe next year in spring. How about getting married in May? That would be a good time, not too warm yet, but warm enough so that I could wear a sleeveless dress," she started rambling.

"How about now?" Caleb asked after he had finally mustered enough courage.

"What about now?" Hanna inquired innocently; she had already gotten lost in making wedding plans for the year to come, so she didn't become aware of the loving look that was spreading on Caleb's face.

"It is May," he said as if any further explanation seemed unnecessary.

Hanna furrowed her brows, still not catching on.

Eventually, Caleb removed his arms from her waist and gently nudged her forward in order to reach up with his hand and wipe away a few loose strands of her hair that the wind had been blowing into her face. "Ok, different approach. Han? The third heart with the bandage... I still haven't told you what that's all about."

"Yeah, I just figured that you'd spare that one for some kind of date... Elle's birthdate or maybe our wedding date?" She mused.

At that, Caleb ripped the small patch off of his wrist in a vigorous move. Hanna gasped at the image which was thereby revealed. The third heart had already been filled with a series of numbers.

"One one zero five?" She broke out into a broad smile. "That's the date of our first time in Paris," she stated elatedly. "Aw, that's sweet that it means this much to you."

"Yeah...um... Hanna?" Caleb said, buying time to allow for some seriousness to return. "About the numbers... A while back, Sèb and I got into a discussion about a business proposal he had sent me, and it had a date on it, which we both interpreted differently. That was my cue." He paused shortly, allowing her some time to come to the right conclusions on her own, but then, he noticed that Hanna was looking even more confused than before. "Did you know that one one zero five means something different in Europe than it does for us in the US?"

"Uh-"

"I was serious when I asked you, what about now?" Caleb didn't give her a chance to elaborate if she was on the right track. "Hanna, let's get married today! Right here. Right now"

As soon as the words had left his mouth, he was met by the astonished look on her face. "Caleb!" was all she managed to say.

"What date is it today?"

"Uh… May 10?" She suggested vaguely.

"No, it's after midnight already… which means, it's May 11. One one zero five in Paris, Hanna!"

Finally, her brain had been brought up to speed. "One one zero five? Paris? You want us to get married today?" She kept staring at him, mouth agape. "But… I don't have a proper dress!"

"You look so beautiful in the one that you're wearing right now. Remember? I specifically asked you to wear this dress."

"But now…? Where…? And who's gonna...?" She shot her suspicious questions at him.

"You see the boat here?" He pointed over to his right. "We can get married on it. Sèb rented it for us."

Hanna looked down at her hand with regret. "But... you want me to take off this beautiful engagement ring already?"

He moved closer to her and took her left hand into his right one. "This is a platinum ring with a 1.5 carat diamond, Hanna. There is no way that I could afford to buy you another ring like this. I splurged on this one because I was hoping I'd only ever need one ring and that you'd say yes. This-" he touched the shiny diamond, "- is your wedding ring. I had it engraved and everything."

"But... now? Really?" She huffed breathlessly, trying to keep up with all the things that were happening to her just now.

He brought his other hand up to encompass hers. Then, their gazes locked with each other. "You know... when you realize that you've found your soulmate, your best friend, the only woman you ever imagined wanting to grow old and raise children with... why wait even one more day? I knew it then, five years and a half ago... I knew it back then, at seventeen, that you were the one and I know it now that that will never change. I'm still convinced that I can never love anybody as much as I love you. And I want a commitment for the sake of our baby. I want her to believe in marriage as a token of true love and I want her to know that her father married her mom because he did believe in it, too."

She was crying now, not even remotely trying to hold back any tears. "But… my mom... my friends... my bridesmaids... your best man?" She sniveled through the veil of tears.

Caleb let go of her and walked over to the edge of the quay before stepping onto the wooden ramp that bridged the distance between the quay and the boat. "Come on!"

Hanna hesitated for a moment, but eventually, she followed him onto the boat, holding her breath in suspense.

Caleb held out his hand for her, and she let him guide her as they passed a sliding door and strode through the darkness of the boat's seating area inside. When they reached the exit that led to the ship's stern, Caleb suddenly stopped.

"Ok, you know the rules of the game... Close your eyes!" Hanna did as she was told, even though her heart was about to burst out of her ribcage. "You ready?"

She nodded tentatively. "Just remember that I'm pregnant. Don't try and give me another heart attack!"

"Not my intention. But I know you're gonna cry, no matter what. So, here's my pocket square. I never use it anyway." He shoved the small piece of cloth into the dress' opening at her cleavage. Then, Caleb yanked at another sliding door, and they stepped outside. For a second, everything was quiet except for the sound of the water sloshing beneath the boat.

But then, there was a click and a low hum started filling the air.

"Alright, you can open your eyes now," Caleb told Hanna and let go of her arms. She slowly lifted her eyelids, ready to face… anything. From her vantage point, Hanna saw hundreds of twinkling lights next to her, above her, behind her. They had been attached to the superstructure, dangling from the boat's upper deck. Immediately, she felt relegated to that particular night in Sèb's backyard, where the fairy lights had provided some sort of private safe haven for them.

Hanna said the first thing that came to her mind, "Wait, there's no tent?"

"No, but I'm here. Hi Hanna!" came the chuckling voice of Sèb, who sat waiting for them on one of the collapsible chairs that had been arranged in two rows. Hanna hadn't seen his outline at first because he, too, was dressed in black from head to toe, wearing an elegant suit.

"Hey, Sèb! How are you? It's been a while…," Hanna said and walked over to him before embracing him in a tight hug. "How's Hélène and Zoë? Are they here, too?"

"Actually…," he quickly exchanged a look with Caleb and after he had been given a nod, answered, "there are a lot of people here who wanna join you for this special occasion."

At that, the door behind Hanna opened, and three giddy girls noisily funneled out. "No! No way!" Hanna yelled in surprise, "What are you doing here?"

One after another, Aria, Emily and Héléne darted at her, hugging her closely before moving past her and repeating the same procedure with Caleb. "We were invited to your wedding by this guy," Aria began to speak on behalf of Hanna's friends while still half-hugging the groom. "We're so happy for you!" she said after she had pulled back and stepped aside.

As Hanna watched them say hello to Séb, too, a new group of people had emerged from inside the boat behind her. The low harrumph of a man prompted her to turn around. "You too?" She crossed the distance between her and the newly arrived guests, and successively lunged into the arms of her best friend, Spencer, her husband Toby, Aria's boyfriend Jason, her her step-father, Pastor Ted, and lastly, her mother, "Mom... Ted... I'm so glad you're here!"

"Me, too, honey. Ted and I are finally going on our own honeymoon after tonight. It's been long overdue," Ashley Marin murmured into her daughter's hair while hugging her tightly. "Just like Caleb's proposal," she added and winked at her future son-in-law. "It's been a while since he's asked me for your hand in marriage."

Caleb rolled his eyes in order to mock her, but a smug smile betrayed his emotions for the woman who had played an important part during his adolescent years, offering him a home until his coming of age had allowed him to rent a place of his own.

Hanna pulled back from her mom with small tears pooling in the corners of her eyes and blindly started fumbling at her cleavage to find the pocket square she had tugged under her bra strap. Dabbing at her glistening eyes, Hanna took in the sight of all of her beautifully dressed friends and family members, and she couldn't help but turn around to shoot Caleb a questioning look, "How did you know I was gonna say yes?"

He scoffed, "Oh please. Like you were gonna say no to getting married in Paris..." He slowly walked over to her and took her hand, "Han, do you seriously think I didn't know that deep down, this has been your dream ever since you were a little girl, dipping your cute, little nose into the world of fashion?"

She cracked a smile and put her arms around his neck, before whispering "Thank you" into his ear. Behind her, Spencer had quietly slipped inside again. She reappeared just seconds later, no longer empty-handed.

"Don't just thank me. Thank Séb for organizing this boat rental for us and thank Ted for finally giving in and getting on a plane with your mom in order to perform our wedding."

Before Hanna had a chance to express her gratitude and shed even more tears, Ted spoke up, "Ok, thank me later. I don't know about you, but I'm ready to get started." He looked into the elated faces of the bride and groom and started walking through the aisle of chairs, all the way to the end of the stern which served as a makeshift altar on that night.

Hanna and Caleb followed him, but suddenly, Hanna stopped dead in her tracks. She turned on her heel and walked back to Spencer who stood with her hands hidden behind her back, waiting for the rest of the crowd to take a seat on the collapsible chairs. "Spence, will you be my Maid of Honor?"

"I thought you'd never ask," Spencer smiled at her and brought her right hand forward, handing Hanna a bridal bouquet made of crisp white orchids and light purple roses, mixed with touches of leafy greenery. Then, she brought her left hand forward and presented her friend with a ring box.

Hanna opened the box and found Caleb's wedding ring inside, resembling the silvery one that he had slipped on her finger earlier, only larger in size and without any girly gemstones. It was pure and precious, just like his love for her.

She took the ring out and hurried after Caleb, who had arrived at their makeshift altar. Séb was standing right behind him, serving as his Best Man. As she took her position next to Caleb, Hanna slid his jacket off her shoulders and gave it back to him. He hesitated to accept it, so she quickly said, "No, no, no. Take it, I'll be fine. I'm way too excited to feel cold anyway."

Caleb reluctantly put his jacket back on while Hanna swiftly removed the ring from her finger and handed both wedding bands over to Ted.

For a moment, everything was quiet, except for the noise that the water kept making as it gently sloshed against the ship's sides.

Then, Pastor Ted raised his voice, "Shall we?" He saw the bride nod before he turned to the groom and got a nod from him, too.

"I'm glad that all of us could get together here tonight to witness the union of Caleb and Hanna in holy matrimony. If anyone can show just cause why these two may not be lawfully joined together, let them speak now or forever hold their peace," he said with his gaze sweeping across the two rows of wedding guests as he respectfully waited for three seconds. When everyone remained silent, he fixated on the two people standing in front of him and continued with his remarks.

"I've known you two for a long time, and in all these years, you've kept me and everyone else on their toes, thinking we'd all never make it to this day. But I think you needed to take your time to fully understand that true marriage is more than the joining of two persons. It's the union of two hearts. It lives on the love you give each other and never grows old, but thrives on the joy of each new day. Marriage is love. May you always be able to talk things over, to confide in each other, to laugh with each other, to enjoy life together, and to share moments of quiet and peace, when the day is done. May you be blessed with a lifetime of happiness and a home of warmth and understanding. Remember… the story of your life together is still yours to write. Everyone here has come to celebrate your love, eager to be part of this story that has yet to be told. Caleb, would you like to say something?"

Caleb nodded and cleared his throat before he began to speak, "Hanna, meeting you was the best thing that ever happened to me in my entire life. I feel like I'm the luckiest man alive... and only you know what it truly means when I say that. I'm so grateful to have met someone like you who brought me out of my misery and to this state of everlasting happiness. I love you so much and I promise I will do everything that I can to make you the happiest woman ever."

Ted let his eyes wander from Caleb's face over to Hanna's, furrowing his brows and signaling it was her time to speak now. "Hanna?"

Hanna stood quiet for a moment, breathing deeply in and out and taking her time to pick the right words in her head. Caleb had brought her to tears with all the things he had said to her that day. Now, she felt it was her turn to reciprocate.

"Caleb, I'm standing here as a result of another one of the many, many, many surprises you've had for me in all of our years together, so I'm kind of unprepared. But that doesn't mean that I've never thought about what I'd say to you if we both ever decided to get married after all." Hanna's voice came in sobs as the overwhelming effect of Caleb's idea to have an impromptu wedding finally got to her. She held on tight to his pocket square, but didn't move to wipe away any tears, knowing it would be futile for now. "l can't believe we're actually doing this... and that I get to exchange vows with you in Paris, of all places. This is where everything really started between us."

She cracked a small smile and saw him smile back at her with confidence. Ultimately, her voice became firmer. "You said to me you didn't expect me to remember everything about our first night together in Paris, but I do. Just like I'll always remember everything about when you proposed to me. You said something about your tattoo and about life's way of showing you that things are falling into place. And with you, that's my place. That's where I belong. We both know that it wasn't love at first sight, nor at second. It wasn't before I saw you naked in my shower while hiding you from my mom that I realized that I-"

Hanna stopped talking when, in that moment, a grunting noise had started to come from behind Caleb. Séb had burst out into an immature laugh. However, a simultaneous deathly stare from both Hanna and Caleb instantly shushed him.

She quickly exchanged a glance with her mother who was also looking at her with deep creases in her forehead. Hanna smiled at her apologetically before she closed her eyes for a second in order to gather her thoughts. Then she went on reciting all the things she had been meaning to say to Caleb for so long. "Anyway… Falling in love with you has been so easy because I have never met anyone like you. You're the most caring person I've ever known. You always put my well-being before your own."

Caleb looked at her with an unfaltering expression of admiration.

"I love you for all those little things that you always do to make me feel just that little bit extra special, like picking me up from work whenever it gets late... or bringing me coffee and a sandwich when I'm too stressed out to remind myself to eat or drink at all. I love you and I promise you won't ever have to feel alone anymore... because I will always be by your side, no matter what."

Ted smiled a reassuring smile at the bride and proceeded to ask the most important questions of the night, "Hanna, do you take Caleb to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish for as long as you both shall live?"

"I do," Hanna said, her voice barely above a whisper.

He turned to the groom, "Caleb, do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish for as long as you both shall live?

"I do," Caleb answered, just as shakily.

The minister opened up his fist and held it out for the couple. In his palm lay the two wedding bands. Hanna turned around and handed Spencer her bridal bouquet. Then, she took Caleb's ring and slowly slipped it on the fourth finger of his left hand, looking up and into his eyes when she was done.

Then, Caleb took the other ring and put it on Hanna's finger. They both kept holding each other's hands and turned around to look at Ted, waiting for the next and final part of the ceremony.

Ted, who had been watching the ring exchange with a smitten expression on his face, looked up at them and spoke up again. "Caleb... Hanna... I now pronounce you… husband and wife!"

The pair exhaled audibly and before long, their mouths met for a passionate kiss.

All of a sudden, a series of loud thumps filled the air, causing the married couple to break apart. The boat had started to sway and rock forcefully, leaving Hanna frightened and looking around, mouth agape…

~ November 21, 2010 ~ 2:20 PM ~ 30,000 feet above New Foundland ~

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. We are now crossing a zone of turbulence. Please return to your seats and keep your belts fastened. Thank you."

Hanna startled in her seat, confused and slightly taken aback. Why was she on a plane? Wasn't she supposed to be kissing her husband right now?

She pulled back her hand that she had wanted to put on the guy's arm sitting next to her when she realized that it wasn't Caleb, but Mr. Gilbert who had taken his seat between the two lovebirds in order to keep an eye on them. The teacher, though, had fallen asleep in the meantime. She looked around and spotted Caleb sitting across the aisle. Finally, everything came back to her.

The plane was headed home to Philadelphia, and soon enough, she would meet her mom at the gate, waiting to have a serious conversation with her daughter. There was no getting around that, Hanna was sure of it.

She let the past twenty-four hours replay in her mind and that prompted her to smile broadly. The plan that Sèb had come up with in order for Hanna and Caleb to share their final night in Paris together, had had two crucial consequences, three actually, if she was being honest to herself.

For one thing, Hanna had finally been able to spend the entire night with Caleb and had woken up in his arms the next morning.

For another thing, their joined morning had been cut short due to the fact that Mr. Gilbert had incessantly tried to reach her on the phone after he had received a call from the Girards, Hanna's host family. They had been meaning to inform Hanna that she had accidentally left behind one pair of shoes. And that was when their carefully constructed scheme had been disclosed.

However, Hanna felt no regret. And neither did Caleb. Throughout the past hours, he had kept on texting her, showing his support and that he was going to help her deal with her mom.

She leaned forward in her seat, trying to gain Caleb's attention without waking up her sleeping teacher next to her. Eventually, her boyfriend looked up from his book, and their gazes locked. Simultaneously, their mouths started forming giddy smiles.

Hanna wasn't sure what kind of punishment she was about to face, once she arrived at home. But there was one thing she was certain of: Caleb loved her, and right about now, that was all she needed to know.

Everything was going to be alright. Nothing… nobody could ever tear them apart.

Moments later, Mr. Gilbert stirred, and Hanna quickly settled back into her seat again, pretending to stare at her entwined hands ruefully. Her fingers gently swiped over the semi-transparent band-aid that was covering her left wrist.

Yeah, she would have to explain a lot to her mom in a few hours' time. But getting Caleb's initials as a tattoo without parental permission was quite likely the most badass thing she had ever done.

She didn't need any wings inked on her skin in order to commemorate the one person that truly believed in her.

But damn, that boy could make her fly.

THE END

Thank you for reading!

Review one final time?

Kat