Chapter 2 – Thrice Engaged

Kim had had hours to think about Adam's two previous engagements. She and Roman had been stuck in their police car all day on a stakeout and she had nothing to do but think about Adam's previous relationships. Kim had heard the rumors that people thought she and Adam were jumping into marriage too fast. After all, they had only been dating a year and when they first started seeing each other, Adam had just broken off his engagement with Wendy. Kim had managed to ignore the rumors and had tried to remain positive about the idea of spending her life with the man she loved. That was, of course, until she heard Atwater mention that Adam had been engaged not once, but twice. The news had come as a complete shock to Kim who had only known about Wendy.

Kim had spent the morning wondering what Adam's explanation could be about why he hadn't told her about his first engagement. Even after he explained it to her in text message, another part of the whole equation that aggravated her, she still felt lied to and misled.

Adam had asked Kim to join him for dinner that night. She knew he probably want to smooth things over. She agreed. They were halfway through their meal of takeout Chinese food from a restaurant down the block, though, and Adam hadn't mentioned his engagements at all.

"Why do you want to get married?" Kim blurted out after suffering through an almost silent dinner.

With his mouthful, Adam nearly choked on his lo mein. "What?"

"Why do you want to get married?" She repeated. "Is it just for the parties and the attention?"

"Of course not. I love you, Kim. You know that."

"I know, but this isn't what being engaged and getting married is supposed to be about, Adam."

"So you're mad because Kevin is throwing me a bachelor party?" He asked.
"I don't care about the bachelor party, Adam! I don't even care if you get drunk and go to a strip club! I'm mad because you were engaged twice before and didn't tell me."

"I explained that to you…"

"Yeah, in a text message! Not to mention the fact that when I mentioned pushing our wedding date back a year, you didn't even bat an eyelash!"

"You're the one who suggested pushing the wedding back!" He countered.

"You weren't supposed to agree!"

"So what was that? A test?" He questioned.

"No. Yes. I don't know!" She threw her hands up in the air in frustration.

"I want to marry you, Kim," he stated matter of factly.

"Do you want to marry me or do you want to spend your life with me because they are two different things. Getting married isn't just about the wedding and the parties and our friends and family showering us with gifts. Getting married should be about what happens after all of that. Can we survive the trials and tribulations of sharing a life together?"

"Of course we can."

Kim shook her head. "I don't know if I believe that."

Kim looked down at her left hand. She stared at the sparkling engagement ring that had been on her finger for weeks. From the minute Adam had put it on her finger, it felt like it belonged there, but staring at it in that moment, it felt wrong.

"Kim…" Adam began.

"I think we need to slow down," she said quietly.

"Look, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Nicole earlier. It was nothing. It barely even…"

"I think we both need to think about if this is what we really want," she interrupted.

"What does that mean?"

Kim looked down at her ring. She debated taking it off and handing it back to him, but she didn't want to take it off. She never wanted to take it off.

"I need time," she finally said after contemplating her options. "We both do."

"Look, we can push the wedding back if that's what you really want or…or...we can get married tomorrow at city hall. I don't care. I just want us to be together. Please…"

"I'm not saying it's over," Kim interrupted. "I just need a little time to think. Ok?"

Adam nodded. "Ok."

Kim stood up.

"I'll…call you," she said.

"I love you," he replied.

Kim nodded, knowing it was true. But that didn't mean she was ready to have the serious talk they needed. Walking away, Kim knew she was in for a long, lonely night.

Hours later, Adam rolled over in bed for what felt like the hundredth time. He couldn't sleep. After telling Kevin what happened, Kevin offered to take Adam out for drinks, but Adam declined. He didn't want to drown his sorrows in alcohol. He just wanted Kim beside him.

Adam flicked on the light next to his bed. He sat up and started reviewing what went wrong with Kim in his head. He knew he didn't have the best track record when it came to engagements, but he knew things with Kim were different. He just had to get her to see it that way. Adam scrambled out of bed. His clock read 2:24, but he didn't care what time it was. He didn't want another minute to go by without Kim knowing how he felt.

Adam made his way over to his bureau. After throwing on Jeans and a clean T-shirt, he began rummaging through the top drawer. It didn't take him long to find what he was looking for. After getting his hands on the two small boxes, Adam threw on a pair of shoes, grabbed his keys and wallet and made his way to the car.

With no traffic, it took Adam only ten minutes to get to Kim's apartment. Even though they had moved in together a few weeks before, Kim had chosen to keep her apartment until her lease was up. It just made it easier to keep some of her things at her own place until they figured out what they were going to do with everything.

Bounding up the steps to her apartment, Adam stopped outside her door. He took a deep breath, calming himself down. He knocked and waited. Nothing happened. Adam knocked a second time. He knew she was probably sleeping, but he also knew she was a light sleeper. A few seconds later, he heard rustling on the other side of the door.

"Go home, Adam," Kim said through the door. She had obviously seen him through the peep hole.

"Not until you hear me out."

"I told you, I need time. We need time."

"No. We don't."

"Adam, please."

"Just let me in. I want to show you something. Please."

There was a few seconds pause before Kim opened the door. Adam quickly went inside, hoping that if he was fast enough, she wouldn't change her mind. He took in her appearance. She was wearing one of his T-shirts and a pair of fuzzy pajama pants. Her cheeks were splotched with shades of red. It was obvious she had been crying. He hated knowing that he had been the one to make her cry.

"What did you want to show me?" She asked.

"This."

Adam reached into his pocket and pulled out one of the small boxes. It was black velvet. He opened it up. Inside was a small, diamond ring.

"Adam, what are you doing? I already have a ring."

"It's not for you," he said.

Kim looked at him quizzically. "Ok. So why are you showing me somebody else's engagement ring?"

"This was Nicole's engagement ring."

"You are really not helping your case here," Kim said.

"Just hear me out. I should have told you about Nicole and I'm sorry. It was a long time ago. Like I told you, we were young and stupid and I didn't even know what love was then. The ring's not even a real diamond. Our relationship lasted a summer. That's it."

"And yet you still had a bachelor party," she pointed out.

"Somehow my buddies got wind of it and they threw me this stupid bachelor party that summer. Oliver organized it. We just went bar hopping. It was stupid. Like I said, by Halloween, it was over. Thankfully, we were both smart enough to realize that we weren't really in love with each other. It was just puppy love. I haven't even spoken to her since she gave me this ring back years ago."

"I just wish you had told me."

"I know. I should have. I'm sorry. I wasn't intentionally keeping her from you, Kim. She's just…I don't think about it. That's how unimportant the whole thing was. It was over before it started."

Adam closed up the ring box and put it back in his pocket. He pulled out the second box.

"Please don't tell me that that's…" Kim began.

Adam opened the box and showed her a large diamond ring that was shinier than anything Kim had seen before.

"This was Wendy's," he explained.

"Adam, I don't really need to hear about you and Wendy."

"Yes you do. Because you need to know why I did the things I did."

"I think I need to sit down for this one."

Kim made her way over to the couch and sat down. She was afraid she wasn't going to like what she was about to hear. Wendy had always been a sore subject for them. Kim had always felt a little responsible for Adam and Wendy breaking up. Not to mention that she didn't like to think about the short amount of time between Adam's breakup and Kim practically jumping his bones in her hallway. She liked to think that she had more respect for herself than that, but clearly not when it came to Adam.

Adam followed her over to the couch. He perched on the arm of a chair so he could face her.

"Wendy and I met at a mutual friend's party. We didn't even like each other at first. I thought she was stuck-up and she thought I was reckless."

"Both true statements," Kim said.

"Yeah, you could say that again. Anyway, after meeting each other a few more times, we started to hit it off. We started dating and things were good. I felt like I was working on the career I always wanted and I thought I had the woman I always wanted. After a few years together, people started asking us when we were going to get married. It became a weekly occurrence for her parents to drop hints about an engagement ring. I just go so fed up with all of the questions, I finally decided to pop the question."

"So you were pressured into it?"

"I'm not going to blame other people. I made my decision to ask her, but it never felt right. The worst part was, I knew if I didn't do the proposal right, she'd say no. She always liked things a certain way. So I made a reservation at the fanciest restaurant in the city. We both got all dressed up and after we had our dessert, I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me in front of the whole restaurant. I knew from the minute I proposed to her, it wasn't right. I wasn't in it for the right reasons, but it was too late to take it back," Adam explained.

"So you just stayed engaged to her?"

"I thought maybe I would learn to deal with. That it would get better," Adam continued. "But with her, being engaged was all about the parties and the attention. It drove me crazy. So I just kept pushing that wedding back until she finally realized that I didn't really want to marry her at all. And then when I met you, I knew I couldn't marry her. It might have taken me a long time to figure that out, but I finally did."

"So she got proposed to in the nicest restaurant in Chicago and I got the locker room," Kim said.

"I'm sorry. It's just…my proposal to Wendy was so over the top because I knew that's what she wanted. It wasn't me, Kim. That's not my style and you know that. I did it all the way she wanted. It was liked I was just checking things off some grand proposal list. But you…I thought about every way I could propose to you. Trust me, I considered all of the nice restaurants in Chicago and sunset at the park and getting down on one knee in front of your family, but then I realized that not only is that not my style, but it's not us. We're not fancy. We're just us and that's why I love you. I'm sorry if the proposal wasn't what you imagined or…"

"It's ok. It might not have been what I imagined, Adam, but it was perfect. And you're right, it was us. It was just…sudden. I felt like I was taken off guard. We never even talked about getting married.

"I know."

"I just…" she trailed off.

"Just what?"

"I just want to make sure this is right. I don't want to be one of those couples who get divorced after a year because we didn't take our marriage seriously enough to begin with. If I'm going to do this, Adam, if I'm going to walk down the aisle with someone, I want to make sure it's forever."
"It will be forever. I don't care about the bachelor party. I would walk down to city hall right now and marry you."

"I don't think city hall is open at 2 in the morning," she said with a smile.

"You know what I mean." Adam stood up and sat next to her on the couch. "I love you. I want to spend every day with you for the rest of my life. I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Nicole. I'm sorry you thought I was more interested in the fun parts of the wedding than the marriage. This thing that we have, it is right. I've never felt this right with anybody else."

"Me either."

"You know what I thought after I proposed to you and you said yes?"
"What?"

"I thought to myself, 'you finally got it right. You finally said the right words to the right girl.' You're it for me, Kim."

She smiled. "I love you."

"I love you too."

Adam leaned over and kissed her. He fell on top of her on the couch, their hands roaming and their mouths exploring each other's bodies. Kim arched her neck and back as Adam assaulted her neck with kisses. She opened her eyes just enough to see the ring on her finger. She smiled to herself and then let the man she loved make love to her.

Author's Note: For the record, I will be writing about Adam and Kim's impending break-up, but not quite yet. Thanks for all of the great reviews on my first chapter. I hope you enjoyed this one just as much!