Adrian looked over his water glass at Natalie. Tonight they were seated in a beautiful French restaurant overlooking the San Francisco Bay. The sun was putting on quite the show as it seemingly sunk into the ocean beyond the windows in front of their table.
He carefully set the water glass down and picked Natalie's hand up from the table. She smiled and put down her champagne. It was their two-month anniversary. Or possibly their six-and-a-half-year anniversary. They met on January 25th, 2005. Today was July 25th, 2011. He thought about when he'd voiced the numbers to Natalie earlier. She just gave him a smile and said, "Whatever the number is, Adrian, it will never be long enough!" His heart took flight as it often did these days. He was never more sure of what he felt, how Natalie felt, and that this was the right moment for what he was about to do.
Adrian got lost in a daydream as they watched the setting sun. Thinking back over the last two months, that seemed like they had maybe happened to someone else. Their first kiss in Natalie's attic. Their first official date the following day. He'd taken her to a movie and a burger joint, explaining that he wanted their first date to remind them of being teenagers because that's how she made him feel. They'd walked forever on the boardwalk that night. Holding hands, kissing, talking about things they'd never discussed before. What they hoped for for the future. What they wanted their life to be from then on. Simply bathing in those first hours of new love.
On their one-week anniversary, they went on a picnic in Golden Gate Park and spent more time kissing than eating until they were both so worked up that they needed to gather their things hurriedly, and Adrian hadn't felt the need to straighten or organize. All he'd been able to think about was privacy. Of course, they were extremely close to home, so getting that privacy didn't take long.
When they burst through the door of his apartment, they barely stopped to put things down where they belonged. Picnic basket, keys, shoes, socks, then bit by bit–clothes had hit the floor. Adrian, as shy as a human as had ever been, was surprisingly eager to undress Natalie and himself. He'd been a Monk in name and practice for so long that he was caught between desperation and fear, but desperation finally won out. He pulled Natalie to his bed, and they made love with the same tender fervor that marked all the other firsts of that week. The touches, the quiet vows of love, the gentle, then rougher kisses. Feeling her skin on his was such a shock and a delight that he nearly lost it at once but managed to get himself under control to please her and himself. Afterward, as they lay entangled, Natalie giggled, "Why, Mr. Monk, who knew you had such a fiercely sexy side to you?" Despite what had just passed between them, Adrian had blushed.
As the sun finally set outside the windows, Adrian turned back to Natalie.
"Natalie?"
"Hmmm?" She, too, had been enthralled by the ferocious summer sunset. She turned back to him with a dreamy expression, and he wondered if she'd been thinking about the last two months just as he'd been. Her green eyes were sparkling like emeralds. Her hair was up in an elegant twist. She looked so sophisticated and beautiful.
"Natalie, I have something I need to say."
"Okay,"
He fidgeted slightly but relaxed when she touched his hand again.
"These last two months have been more than I ever dreamed I'd ever have again. I'm so happy all the time. But I want you to know that's all because of you. So, I was wondering if you would like to keep making me happy for the rest of our lives and be my wife? Natalie, will you marry me?" He produced a black velvet box from behind the champagne cooler and got down on one knee as he opened it. Natalie's hands flew to her mouth, and her eyes instantly swam with tears.
"Yes! Yes, I would be thrilled to marry you, Adrian!"
The gratified smile that spread across Adrian's lips was matched only by the relief and joy in his heart. He slipped the square-cut solitaire onto Natalie's left ring finger–a perfect fit. The ring featured a beautiful center stone and two baguettes on each side in a platinum setting.
"Oh, Adrian! It's stunning!"
"I'm glad you like it."
"I adore it. I love you." She stood and pulled him up and into her arms. They sealed their engagement with a searing kiss and a round of applause from the rest of the restaurant's diners and staff. Bashfully they looked down at their joined hands rather than around at their audience.
Natalie murmured against his lips, "I can't decide if I want to eat, go home and make love, or call our friends."
Adrian laughed. "We can do all three. The sky's the limit tonight."
Natalie couldn't believe her immense luck. Finally, she and Adrian had the resolution to their years-long sorrows, she was marrying her best friend, and her life was full of the love and happiness it had been missing for far too long. She looked out the window to see the Moon and the stars coming out, and she knew Mitch and Trudy were looking down at them and smiling. Knowing they'd found what they deserved at last.