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Chapter 27: Perplexed:
Draco thought, 'The sneaky little thing read the note, and didn't like what she read.' She must have thought it contained a marriage proposal! She must have assumed that he was going to have had her read it right before they got to the cathedral, when actually, he was going to 'pop' the question in person. That note was merely a back-up plan. On the off chance that she had agreed to marry him, he was still going to give it to her, as a wedding present.
On the greater chance that she wouldn't agree to marriage, the suggestion on the last note was the next best solution.
Now she thought that was all there was, she was upset, and he was frankly perplexed. Why were women so difficult to understand? Especially Hermione Granger.
She waited for an answer as to why he no longer wanted to marry her and she wasn't upset or anxious. More than anything, she would say that the whole thing baffled her. He did admit earlier to planning a wedding at the cathedral. Wasn't this note part of that plan? Weren't the other three notes preludes leading up to this final note, which should have said, "Will you marry me?" Why didn't it say, "Will you marry me?" Did he secretly have another note waiting for her that said that? Was it buried in the sand somewhere? Was he going to ask her in person?
Really, she was slightly put out. What was Draco's problem? Why didn't he want to marry her? He apparently thought she was good enough to sleep with, since he continued to mention that little tidbit, but not to marry. Perhaps his admission that he had a wedding planned earlier was another one of his elaborate lies.
Draco almost asked Hermione what she meant by her question, but he already knew. Was this why she had an air of sadness swirling around her today? He was no longer perplexed, but ambiguous, because he didn't know what to make of that, and also, he no longer knew what he felt.
"You wouldn't want to marry me after one weekend, would you?" he asked cautiously. "You threw a temper tantrum on the way to the church when you guessed my plan, so in actuality, it's you who doesn't want to marry me. I already made it clear that I wanted to marry you."
Her brows knitted together as she pondered that. How could she explain to him her sudden realization earlier that she had changed her mind, and had discovered that marriage, to him, would be a pretty good thing, when he was right…she did throw a fit before. "Well…" she started.
"No, my Granger," he said, suddenly with ire, "you can't toy with my emotions this way."
He walked around her with a grin on his face, enjoying her discomfort immensely, because it meant that she had changed her mind about marriage, which gave him the upper hand. He liked having the upper hand with Granger, and he was certain it wouldn't occur often in their relationship, so he needed to bask in its glory while he could.
He stood behind her and ran his finger down her back. He leaned toward her, his chin on her shoulder, and she turned her head slightly to look at his face. "Seriously, Hermione, I admit I was going to pop the question and spring a surprise wedding on you earlier today, but you made it perfectly clear that you thought that was an abhorrent plan. In fact, you acted as if it disgusted you and," he stopped to run his finger down her spin again, "made your skin crawl."
"Nooo," she drawled out, and turned to face him. Now she walked around him, in a rather elaborate, choreographed, move, touching his suit jacket with the tips of her fingers as she went. When she reached his back, she put both hands on his shoulders, stood on her tiptoes, and with her chin on his shoulder she said, "That would mean that I found the whole idea repulsive, and I wasn't repulsed in the least. I was shocked."
He turned suddenly. He poked her on the chest, rather hard, and said, "Shocked?"
"Yes, shocked and surprised," she answered.
He poked her again and repeated, "Surprised?"
"Stop poking me," she said with a slight grin, batting his finger away. She poked him with each of the following words, "Surprised," poke, "Shocked," poke, "Stunned," poke, "Astonished and amazed," poke – poke, "But not repulsed," very hard poke!
He placed his hands on her shoulders and put his nose next to hers; At this point, she amused him tremendously. He asked, "Did you read that note?" He had a cocky grin on his face, and she knew if she lied this time, he would know it.
Still, she lied. "No, I didn't, and I'm shocked, surprised, and frankly repulsed, that you would think that I did," she said with an indignant air, which was not justified.
He couldn't wipe the grin off his face if he tried. The fact that she was not only upset that the note didn't contain a marriage proposal, but that she lied about reading it, warmed his heart to the very core. It also meant that she wanted to marry him.
Well, wasn't love grand? Love was almost as good as a lying Hermione Granger.
Draco shrugged and said, "You know, if you want marriage, the last note just might be a marriage proposal, so why jump to conclusions and assume that it isn't? You haven't read it yet, so you don't know what it says."
She didn't know how to respond, therefore she didn't.
Nevertheless, he kept talking enough for the both of them. He held up her arm, kissed the inside of her wrist, which almost made her legs turn to jelly, and skimmed his nose up to the crook of her arm, before placing a kiss on the sensitive juncture there. He said, "You are always so truthful, so I believe you when you say that you didn't read the note, and as you know, since truthful is now my middle name, I'm being truthful when I say that the marriage proposal that no longer repulses you is written on that last note." He kissed her shoulder, stood behind her again, wrapped his arms around her and said, "All you have to do is read it, and accept or decline. That is my birthday present to you, your freewill."
He wondered what she would make of that statement.
That statement perplexed her out of her mind.
That note didn't contain a marriage proposal, but Draco would rectify that as soon as he could, and wouldn't that catch her in her little lie?
That note didn't contain a marriage proposal! She knew that for a fact, but how could she call him on the lie without exposing her own lie?
She couldn't think on it, because he had her hand in his and was pulling her along the boardwalk once more. She had half a mind to demand to see that note, and call him out as the liar that he was, but that would mean she would have to admit to lying, too, and she wasn't in the mood for that. She really didn't want to ruin what remained of their date, and the best birthday of her life, so she would wait and read the note in the morning, and that way, she could call him a liar tomorrow instead of tonight.
He swung their joined hands between them and asked, "So, do you want to read the note. Do you want your last present?"
"I'm tired of the whole note thing. I'll read it tomorrow," she said.
"You do know that I leave early tomorrow morning, right?" he asked.
She looked over at him as they continued their walk and said, "You can leave it with me, under my door or something, and I'll give you my answer when I get back to work." She thought of this quickly, but she thought it made good sense. That way, he could re-write the note, and change it to a marriage proposal.
"I could put it under your pillow, and when you wake up in my bed tomorrow morning, you can read it then, before we make love for the fourth time," he said with a perfectly straight face.
"Ha- ha, no," she said with an equally straight face.
"Well damn, then here," he said. He pulled her to a stop and took the note out of his pocket. "Take it now, and read it whenever you want, tomorrow, tonight while you're lying in my arms, basking in the afterglow of the best sex of your life, or even wait until Tuesday morning, when you come into work." He took the note, skimmed the pointed edge down her neck, to her collarbone, to the swell of her right breast, and he stuck it inside her dress.
He patted her breast, which made her flinch, and said, "That should keep it safe for a while."
She looked down at her bosom, and then back to his face. What was his game? She was now not only baffled, but also completely bewildered. She already knew what it said, and if he gave it to her now, he wouldn't be able to change it to a wedding proposal. She continued to frown, until he touched her lips with his thumb, caressing it back and forth.
"Now why do you seem sad again?" he asked seriously.
She wanted to repeat her sentence from earlier. She wanted to say, "Why don't you want to marry me?" since she knew this note really said, "I bought the resort, and I put it in both of our names, so now we can date and work together, Happy Birthday."
"Hermione?" he questioned. He suddenly felt a bit of remorse for causing her more distress, but if his new plan was to work, she had to continue to think that the note hadn't changed, and that he was lying about it. It also was contingent on her sleeping with him tonight, so he would have a chance to change the bloody note to a marriage proposal. If he had his wand, he could change it now, but he didn't.
He knew one thing: she had better sleep with him and not screw up all his plans this time.
She tried to smile, but it came out half-hearted. She took his hand in hers again and resumed their walk. "I'm fine, and I'll read it tomorrow, okay? Then Tuesday, when I come back to work, I'll let you know what I think about it. That's the most I can promise you."
He frowned, but tried to hide it. "If you're planning to wait to read it tomorrow that means you don't plan to sleep with me tonight, right?" He pouted, and she shrugged, with another slight grin on her face. He finally said, "Let's go to our bench then, okay? We can talk all night, since we won't be having sex. We'll stay out until the sunrise, and then I'll pack up and leave. We can talk and get to know each other better, since you don't plan to sleep with me tonight."
She thought it was funny how he repeated the phrase about her not sleeping with him tonight, and she laughed at the way he resigned himself to that fact, with a slight pout set in his mouth. She said, "Okay, on to our bench."
They held hands and walked until they reached the bench where they shared their first kiss. They saw Mr. and Mrs. Johnson sitting on the same bench, holding hands, bathed in the moonlight, the crystal white sand reflecting the light as it bounced off the moon, into the clear blue water. Mr. Johnson raised his hand and said, "Hello, young couple in love."
Draco leaned forward and shook the man's hand. "Oh, Heather and Derek, how nice to see you," Mrs. Johnson said. "Are you out enjoying a midnight stroll?"
"Well, yes, it's the end of Heather's birthday, and we were wrapping up our celebration," Draco said, as he pulled Hermione around to the front of the bench to stand before the elderly couple. "We were actually heading to this bench. You see, it's the first place where we kissed."
"How sweet," Mrs. Johnson proclaimed. "We're proud to share this bench with you. We consider it 'our' bench, too."
"And how smart of you, Derek, you married near her birthday," Mr. Johnson said. "Good show, old man, that way, you'll never forget your anniversary, or her birthday." He winked at Draco and then said to Hermione, "You know, it was exactly forty-seven years ago today, that this lovely woman made me the happiest man alive, and married me, much to the chagrin of our family and friends."
"They didn't approve?" Hermione asked, grasping Draco's hand harder.
Mrs. Johnson explained, "No dear. You see, as silly as it seems, we had just met here that very week. I was on holiday with my family, and he was working at one of the hotels, and we fell in love quickly, and at the end of my holiday, we married in that old cathedral in the village."
Draco looked at Hermione, his mouth open wide in shock. She nodded at him, affirming that she was surprised, too.
Mr. Johnson finished the story. "Yes, we weren't childhood sweethearts like you two. We barely knew each other, but we fell in love. You see, I pretended to be a guest at the hotel, instead of an employee, so I lied to her, but when she found out, she didn't care, because it was too late. We were already head-over-heels in love."
Mrs. Johnson laughed and said, "I wondered if I could ever trust him, seeing that he lied. I mean, he made up a fake name and everything, but it was fate, and the lies hardly mattered, because I could tell that he loved me truly, and that wasn't a lie. We came to this bench, the night before my family was to leave, and he told me everything, and then he asked me to marry him."
"I had already planned the wedding at the cathedral," her husband continued to explain, "and I told her if she wanted me as much as I wanted her, then we could go there immediately and become man and wife. If she didn't, then I would still love her all my days and we could do the sensible thing and date for a while, and get to know each other better, but it wouldn't change a thing, because eventually, she would still be my wife."
"That's sweet," Hermione responded. Draco smiled at her.
"And we come here every year to celebrate our anniversary, and each year, after midnight, we come to our bench, and wait for the dawn to come. We talk and kiss, and now that we're older, we reminisce about our life together, our children and grandchildren, and sometimes we still talk about our future," Mrs. Johnson said.
Mr. Johnson added, "Perhaps you two will come back here each year, to celebrate your anniversary. That would be nice."
"Yes, it would," Hermione agreed.
Draco brought Hermione's hand to his mouth and kissed the top. He turned back to the older couple and said, "Well, since this is your bench, and your anniversary, we won't impede on your solitude any longer. It was such a pleasure to meet you both."
He nodded to them, and Hermione smiled as she said goodbye. They walked back toward the resort, both of them looking back at the bench, at the same time.
They didn't say another word to each other until they reached the steps of the grand resort. When they climbed the steps, Draco pulled Hermione to a stop. She turned to face him, with him two steps below her. He pulled her to him, kissed her, and said, "I love you."
"You do?" she asked.
"Yes, I do," he stated. "And I really hope we do come back here each year to celebrate something or other. If not an anniversary, then we could commemorate our first kiss, or our first date, your birthday, or at the very least, the first time we made love."
Hermione laughed at his tenacity and said, "You do?"
"Yes, I do. Do you?"
"Yes, I do."
"Wait, I meant, do you love me," he asked, slightly confused again. "What were you agreeing to, because if it was the sleeping together part, that would be fine, as well."
She laughed, looked up toward the heavens, back into his face, placed her hands on his shoulders and said, "I do."
A/N: I have two more chapters written, (There might be a love scene in the next chapter if Draco has his way), and I think after those two, there will be just four more, so I think six more chapters and that's all. Can you all believe this story is almost over? It feels like it just started. I'm excited about my new story, though.