Hello! It is Wednesday and I am back with a new chapter. I was slightly hesitant to upload another Eli related chapter in a row but it is actually his birthday today so I just had to! It does tackle something a bit different. I always knew that this year I wanted to write about his romantic relationship with his girlfriend, Lucy, and this idea happened pretty naturally. I heard the song "Champagne Problems" by Taylor Swift and it inspired this particular event in Eli and Lucy's lives. I hope you enjoy :)
Eli (Past): 34
Lucy: (Past): 22
Disclaimer: I own the story and the OCs mentioned!
As the lavender haired male arose from his seat and leaned across him, planting a kiss to the top of the head of the orange haired woman across from him, something dropped down into her glass of champagne. Plink.
Her cheeks were the colour of the flowers that the man in her life often bestowed upon her as she felt his lips upon her head but something falling down and the sound garnered her attention. Lynne giggled as James slowly pulled away from her. Her hand sliding to rest on his chest, he was met with a pink hued blush and an oceanic gaze.
"What was that, Jim Dear?" her voice was soft and delicately accompanied by the gentle chatter of other people in the Morgan Household living room. Lynne's hand lingering on the chest of James through his crisp white shirt, her stare didn't leave him either.
The curve of James' lip was growing more prominent now that it couldn't be concealed with the closeness of her hair. Though he tried to make his own eyes as wide and innocent as hers, that seemed impossible and soon enough he was chuckling.
It became very clear to me and anyone else who decided to look over at the two of them when they both looked down, Lynne catching on to the fact that the noise and slight spill had been due to her glass of bubbly.
Before she had a chance to hold her hand over her own chest rather than her other life partner's or those slender fingers of hers could break one of the bubbles inside with a simple touch, James invited himself to sit on the same seat as Lynne. Many other people in the room glanced over to see what was going on.
"You remember this ring, don't you?" he questioned, nudging his hip against hers so she could make more room for him on the armchair before his arm lovingly wrapped around her waist, feeling far more interested in the face of his loved one rather than what he had actually done.
A crease on the corner of Lynne's noise spoke her answer before she accompanied it with words. I watched and listened as much as anybody else, observing fingers finally brushing over the chest of the orange haired woman.
"Of course I do, Jim Dear." Words fluttered out from the lips of Lynne as well as this sweet nickname for James a second time. Her hand brushing over her own chest with love, she added, her cheeks becoming the hue of a bolder coloured rose that would often be left waiting for her. "It's the ring I gave you when we made it official."
A nod came from James. Still far more hypnotised by the other love of his life and their closeness compared to the ring that he had indeed dropped down into her glass, he too added.
"It's the ring you gave me when you became Lynne Morgan-Williams." He told her. The words came swirling off his tongue and anybody could tell that that day meant equally as much to him all those years as it did on that special day. His lips containing these words managed to resist pressing to the end of Lynne's nose and James continued with a loving look. "After all these years, I think it's time you wear it for a little bit, don't you?"
And with that, before any word or even a gesture of agreement could wash over Lynne's expression, James' own fingers dipped into the champagne glass of hers and he slid that ring to one of her fingers. He proceeded to press a tender kiss right on top of where the ring laid, Lynne's hands immediately cupping on either side of his face.
Instead of focusing wholeheartedly on this though it was quite a captivating scene to see, I heard the musings of a couple of the other people in the room who were also watching.
Almost ten years ago can you believe, Jayden whispered, his own hand filled with a glass of champagne as he celebrated his father and Lynne's celebratory get together? Where has the time gone, mused Sammy, one arm of his wrapped around his own partner in life and his own ring clad hand clutching a long stemmed glass?
I didn't hear actual words come from Katie but I seemed to absorb them all the same as she gazed onwards, knowing she was wholeheartedly glad that her Uncle James was so unconditionally by many.
The words that I went on to hear most of all were said so very clearly and without hesitation that they couldn't help but garner my attention.
Capturing the whole scene as crisply as the champagne in Lynne's glass, Eli in one of the armchairs opposite the couple commented, his hand occupied with curls of his own hair rather than a glass of something or other.
"It makes you a little bit sick, doesn't it?" he pondered aloud, showing that his words were not just meant for he and he alone from the way that his head twitched slightly towards where he knew a fair few other people were gathering. "How in love they are." He elaborated.
Mixed reactions were had to say the least! The indeed in love couple actually chuckled a little bit and didn't seem offended in the slightest. In fact, they soon enough went to pressing kisses to each other's lips and their noses nuzzling against each other which of course had been the gestured which encouraged Eli's opinion.
Katie still managed to stifle her words but she couldn't hide a response, amusedly smirking to herself and her fingers playing with tendrils of her own hair. And like it could usually be, Sammy hovering with Justin clasped to his chest close to her had a vastly different reaction.
The Alolan male's expression hardened almost as much as some of the crystal cut glasses that James' other son's in the room were clasping.
"I think it's sweet." His words came defensively and Justin's own head twitched behind him, his chest inwardly contorting with the same amusement that Katie had previously had on her face from the way that his boyfriend was defending the couple more than he was. "It's lovely."
More humming noises of agreement came from dotted around the room though of course they weren't as vehement as the words that Sammy had uttered. Jordan was one of the most vocal in his opinion of how great it was. Lucy lingering behind the arm chair of Eli nodded in agreement. Jaxon and Jayden let out incomprehensible noises which definitely could be read as encouragement towards their father!
After a smirk curled up James' lip as he stopped kissing Lynne enough to hear this from two of his son's, he was then left smirking even more and having a similar blush of a rose on his face after Misty decided to pipe up as well.
She made her point that it was lovely and she was glad he had finally learned there was a time and a place for everything. Jessie with her own champagne in her glass didn't agree nor did she disagree but either way, it was her and James' son who said words next before he could be filled with amusement at what Misty could go on to say.
"Very romantic." Justin commented with an easy-going smile, a crater appearing on his cheek as he managed to break away from the dedicated hold of Sammy enough to raise his glass towards both his father and Lynne. He didn't utter congratulatory words of any sort but this gesture was his offering to them. And it was accepted.
Somehow all the more of a warm glow escaping from Lynne, she had a smile towards Justin before she turned towards his father, a kiss being placed to his cheek. Eli finally had another opportunity to clarify his words, understanding that his opinion was not shared with a great many of the other faces in the living room.
"I never said it wasn't lovely." He defended, his low and honeyed tone coming out a far cry in comparison to Sammy sticking up for the couple. His hands resting on his own knees, he shrugged and smiled, a touch of his usual mischief streaking across Eli's expression. "There are a great many sweet things that can make you sick."
A lot of laughter erupted upon hearing these words. Jordan hooted the loudest and then his clumsy self, decided he wanted to join the in love couple in the arm chair while Lucy's hands slid to the shoulders of her boyfriend, lightly rubbing them from behind. Because she was so close to Eli, she could feel the way he moved and altered himself beneath her fingers at the words that could be heard next.
Jayden leaving the jovial company of Jaxon, he joined his own life partner by her side and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, his hand pointing down and linking with hers as she reached for him. After pressing a brief kiss to her powdered cheek, a meadow orbed gaze focused at the curls on the back of Eli's head.
"Have you never been so in love with someone that you would be as sickening as that?" Jayden questioned and in spite of the fact that his back was turned to the dual haired male, Eli knew these words for him and him alone.
Lucy's hands moving in response as well at the same time that Eli turned in his seat to face Jayden, two lines decorated in between his eyebrows before a fish hook could pull just one of them up. From watching on the window sill and watching all of what the evening had to offer, I saw someone get in there with their own words before Eli even had a chance to ponder his response – let alone offer it.
Justin feeling the caging clasp of both of Sammy's arms since he had rid himself of his own glass, his almost translucent fingers brushed up and down the tattoos pulling him close. It was his turn to ask. And Eli's usual focused stare locked right on to him as soon as just one single syllable escaped from his lips.
"Have you ever proposed to someone?" Justin wondered, his expression oddly level and carefree despite the fact that a tugging of curiosity in the back of his throat could very well have been felt from within him.
Lucy's hands took a turn to slide away from Eli, effortlessly skimming off the satin material of his blazer. Hands hung by her sides. The deep violet haired male remained turned to the deep purple haired one, his hand resting closer to his thigh than his knee that time.
All attention on him and a great many expressions being recognised by him, the corner of his mouth tugged up like it was being pulled on by an invisible string. Eli grinned, very purposefully squinting just one of his eyes as he leaned forward and took the alcohol glass from his cousin lounging on the back of the arm chair opposite him, deciding that he had had enough based on his flushed expression as he hugged both James and Lynne.
A pause. A pause where Eli's eyes squinted all the more and both of them that time as his lips pursed just before he actually had a response.
"Oh, wouldn't you like to know?" he directed his reply for just Justin though it was probably meant for Jayden as well. Taking a sip of his cousin's drinking glass; he was evidently done with the conversation. This was the only answer that he was giving.
Groans erupted from a good amount of people listening! Managing to keep my own chuckles to myself for the time being, I listened as some of the group repeated Eli's words. Wouldn't they like to know? Yes they very much would!
Justin didn't say anything and his cheek instead resting up against the bare arm of Sammy as he continued holding him close. And for a rare occasion, Eli looked away rather than holding an intense stare with the younger male. Probably for the best based on how close his boyfriend was!
And probably for the best because this was meant to happen. Lucy's touch still lingering by her sides as she hovered behind the armchair of her own boyfriend, she didn't say anything either. Eli didn't say anything to her. His shoulders didn't twitch towards her nor did any other part of his being.
The Unovan male occupied his lips with sipping on the drink belonging to the glass in his hand. Everybody else in the room wanted to know. Only he was the person who knew the truth and the whole truth. And I believe that I caught a glimpse of it when I managed to steady my mind enough and listen wholeheartedly.
I looked with my eyes. I listened with my ears. And with my chest, I understood.
The humming sound of a distant musician singing into a microphone. The comforting buzz of chatter all around. Fairy lights – dimly lit fairy lights – making up every corner of the room. Love was in the air. And it was written on the faces of many of the couples within the restaurant on that night. But it was most certainly decorated on and shining from within a particular pair.
Drinks had been shared. Hushed conversation had been uttered. Food had been enjoyed. A few hours into their dinner date and they were still there! And they were still as engaged with one and other as they had been from the moment that they had left their car earlier on in the evening and spoken aloud their names for their reservations.
"Well, this has been lovely." Eli commented, his voice a dull comparison to the words that he was actually speaking. Even so, the sparkle couldn't be dulled from within his eyes and it wasn't the lights from around the fancy restaurant reflecting in his haunting orbs. He tried to add but got interrupted. "Would-"
Buzz. For yet another moment that evening he had been interrupted mid-sentence by the same humming noise vibrating on the table. Instead of looking annoyed or offended, Lucy across from him felt her lips pursing into a smile and she tried to contain her teeth as she resisted fondly grinning.
She listened to the apology that came from Eli instead of expressing disdain.
"I told them that I wouldn't be available tonight so I don't know why they keep bothering me!" was his way of saying sorry. Lucy had a slanted neck as she listened and her own eyes too contained the glow of a million lights as she looked on at the man. All of this was missed by Eli as he used his thumbs to tap on his phone screen after he picked it up off the table. "How are these messages even getting through?"
The yellow haired young woman stopped playing with the hem of her lacy white dress underneath the table and she instead went against the etiquette of the restaurant. The wooden oak table beneath them both felt the touch of her elbow as her hand cupped her chin.
Her reply made Eli look up without even a second of hesitation.
"I am worried that someone such as yourself cannot even figure out how to turn on do not disturb." She teased him, her brow playfully knotting together and her head twitching just the once to show her humour.
Fixed eyes on her, Eli listened and then Eli had an answer for her in return. Trying to keep his smirk to himself, he looked back away once more as his gaze fell to the phone screen in his hand another time, his thumbs tapping again.
"It's my phone. It doesn't listen to me!" he insisted and after doing so, he entirely gave up whatever it was that he was trying to do and handed the phone over to the younger woman, seeing if she could have any more luck with it.
Without faltering and with no complications at all, she took hold of her boyfriend's phone and she turned it to the right mode. Whether it worked or not was another matter entirely! He needed to replace that thing of his a long time ago. But for someone in his field of work, he really wasn't bothered in the slightest by trading in his old device for a more modern one.
Eli had no qualms about Lucy keeping hold of his phone and even putting it down into her handbag that rested on the floor near the legs of the table. In fact, he wondered why they hadn't even done that to begin with. He had had far more of a serious knot in his brow when he had kept being text by workers of his company asking questions than she had.
But he didn't need to worry anymore. At last, that little dilemma was resolved. He just had to focus on the person in front of him. And so, he did.
His bottom sunk further against the seat in the restaurant and instead of thinking how damn peculiar it was that he felt so at ease being in that kind of setting, he simply looked on at her. Eli's own neck threatening to slope as his inquisitive yet sunken orbs prepared to lock in a focused manner onto her; Lucy's voice intentionally broke his thoughts as well as his gaze.
It was intentional on her part. Though her heart beating inside her chest fluttered and skipped a beat, there was some inclination to put a stop to his continual stare before it hung around any longer.
"This has been lovely." She finally agreed to the words that he had tried to put forth, her hands falling away from her face and the table, her dress instead feeling a girlish touch instead. Lucy then felt the crinkle of her nose and her front two teeth appearing as she added. "And you look lovely. Have I told you that before?"
Eli was always intrigued by the flustered state of his girlfriend. How peculiar it was to him that he could cause someone so level headed and defiant to turn into someone with a flickering gaze and rose coloured cheeks. He hated it. And he loved it more than anything.
A half smirk/half grin tugging at his lips, he answered straight away because words popped into his mind.
"You have." He replied to her. This caused Lucy to nod just once.
However, instead of feeing foolish like she had been told of in an English classroom for waffling during an essay, she let out an exhalation of breath and her hands couldn't help but be revealed all over.
She said more of her own words before her hands could decide where they wanted to roam to.
"It's nice to see you all dressed up. It's nice to see you so smart." She began and straight away, more light encapsulated the orbs of Eli and he couldn't help but stare. Lucy on the other hand felt her words were a bit lame so she tried to get her point across once more. "You look handsome."
If words couldn't sum up the feelings that she was getting when she looked across the table at her boyfriend then she hoped that her gestures could. One hand of hers reached out and lightly stroked where a five o'clock shadow was beginning to reside on his cheek. The other hand moved towards him and smoothed down the material of his blazer before gently tweaking at his bow tie.
Eli observed Lucy to be the one who often became a squirming puddle at the charm of him. But in that moment, it was him to feel warmth spreading to his brown cheeks and his eyes couldn't help but dart, trying to wriggle out of her touch playfully though it was his secret desire to move into it more.
"Are you saying that I'm usually a mess?" he questioned, his voice coming out unfaltering and direct in comparison to his shoulders wriggling as he tried to silently convince his girlfriend to stop fawning over him.
Lucy did stop fawning over him enough to tilt her head towards him all over and give him another look. But both her hands that time returned to his face and she decided to answer him as bluntly as he could often speak to her.
He could handle a taste of his own medicine, couldn't he?
"You usually wear the same outfit day in day out." She pointed out after he spoke words that she couldn't actually decipher were serious or not. She wasn't bothered by the single eye squint that she received from him in return and the way he made a very clear point of trying to wriggle from her! But Lucy held Eli's face continually in her hands. "It's very special to see you like this."
And with that, she decided to not be like her boyfriend and leave her expression ambiguous. It felt very natural to feel her lipstick decorated lips curving upwards the more that her touch lingered on his jaw so she didn't bother to conceal this. Following suit, the corners of her eyes smiled at this.
Nothing usually went unnoticed under the watchful eye of Eli and even the love glimmering from his girlfriend didn't on that day. At last he stopped trying to avoid her affection and her touch to make a point or with any other intention. His body slowing down as well as his gaze, he couldn't help but look back at her and when he did, he felt his own urge to smile.
Eli went with this urge. And not only did he smile back at Lucy and his hands finally make their way to her wrists to clasp her while she began tracing each sensation and curve of the structure of his face, but words came flowing out of him as well.
"Well it's a very special occasion." He told her without missing a beat. He put a quick but faultless end to her curious expression, his gaze flickering purposefully from the warmth of her eyes to the devil red painting across her lips. "You look especially wonderful too, my dear."
And with that, he made some moves to pull just one of her hands away from his face. This time, however, it was so he could have the opportunity to clasp her hand in his own one while looking in her eyes as he then went on to press a small, brief kiss to the top of her hand.
It caused him to show off a shy smirk, above where his facial hair was already longing to come through to threaten to show off the same shade of his girlfriend's lipstick. And it caused her heart to miss a beat.
In this one single moment where she felt her heart taking a leap of faith, she couldn't help but ponder how different he was from the day that they first met. Was it her? Had he become this way because of her? If that was the case then she wanted it to be because it was natural progression rather than anything else.
She would always feel deeply fondly for the man living alone in a tiny, cramped apartment with hardly any light and looked so vulnerable with his veil of a black hoodie. He was still that person. He could be a different one, though, and he was most certainly that. She had noticed this from the moment that he donned his black and white tuxedo for their date on that day.
Sometimes being the partner of Eli meant looking after and loving many different sides to the one man. But she wouldn't trade it for anything. She was elated wondering where their lives would take them both together and apart. She didn't know that Eli already had an idea where he wanted it to go.
Lucy's lips the same exact shade of red as her nails parted and she was going to have her turn to reply to Eli's compliments when their waiter stopped by and served them champagne, insisting that it was on the house.
His cheeks had been almost as red as Lucy's lips and nails so she almost got the impression that something was going on. Still, she brushed past it when Eli had a good excuse for it and went on to say words that captured her mind away from the tugging of inclination, though she tried her best not to be too easily swept onto other things.
"Dom Pérignon." Eli commented and it was his words speaking to her rather than the waiter that he actually engaged in some small talk with that whisked her away from any pondering for good. She couldn't help herself. She prepared to listen as a stem was reached for and the champagne danced within the glass. "Coincidentally, everyone back in the apartments said this drink here was exquisite."
Such a far cry from the person that she had first met, Lucy couldn't help but observe. And such a far cry from the person that he could very much still be when she sensed the weight of the world falling down against his shoulders.
A twitch took over the right eye of Lucy but her mascara still managed to remain intact. Her hands back towards herself once more rather than resting on the features of her boyfriend or even her own ones, she repeated.
"Coincidentally." This word couldn't refrain from being repeated and it rung out before any curious niggling at the back of her mind disappeared for good. She couldn't do anything to stop the smile that graced her lips as she leaned forward across the table. "And you listened to advice from other people?"
Silence. Not an offended silence. Just one that happened to take place. And one from Eli that also was accompanied by many of the other couples in the restaurant having a natural pause in their own conversations as well.
At last a gesture came from him. Typically, it was another head twitch accompanied by an eye squint. He knew everything that his girlfriend was getting at from the words that she didn't say more than the ones that she did say! Even so, he managed to conceal his twitching of his lips that wanted to join his other movements.
"Just have a sip, my love." He told her and then the champagne in the glass stopped dancing quite so much as it prepared to be savoured by Eli as he took his own first sip, encouraging Lucy to do the same.
And far more so than anything else he could've done to cause this, the yellow haired young woman didn't bother to resist his words. His new-found debonair intrigued her far more than the bubbles streaming up her own tall stemmed glass. And because of this, she followed suit and had her own appreciative mouthful, and it caused her to think even more thoughts.
How bizarre it was to her that not only had he been encouraging and supportive (this was a given) when she had the opportunity to move into a block of apartments filled with other budding writers and journalists but had appeared to shine in the new-beginning as well.
For a while it had been them. Just them. The empty halls of their previous apartment building. Nobody else had wanted to live there. It was far too near many junk food stands that sent many smells shooting into each and every window and was dominated by the sky scrapers of a whole other world in that multi-layered city in Unova.
Lucy knew that he was a lone wolf. She hadn't tried to change that for a single second. Maybe that's why it had happened. He saw her getting close to the new people in their building. He couldn't help but give it a try as well. Maybe he wanted a different life than before. Maybe it was tired of it just being him. Maybe he wanted more.
She couldn't be prepared for the fact that he wanted more with her. In her mind, they were stuck as just two awkward teenagers in love, besotted with staying where they were because they didn't have the natural ease to move onto adult commitments.
She didn't think that was sad. If she was honest, she found everything that she had always been looking for in Eli. She just didn't realise the hidden layers of him that were there amongst the other millions of them. She didn't realise there was a man who wanted what everybody else had.
Needless to say, conversation and the inner glow and warmth picked up even more so after even more drinks were shared. Showing off some of their usual antics, most of their words and their secretive knowing glances and their giggles were down to watching the sights of everybody else around them.
Some people were just like them. Some people were on first dates. Quite an elaborate place for such an occasion! Some people had been on dates with each other for even longer than the two of them had been alive and still made that sort of time for each other.
Whatever they looked like and whoever they were, Lucy and Eli observed them and for one reason or another, left them with a murmuring motion to set free and a curve of the lip to share. Perhaps they saw themselves in each and every one of them. From the quiet old man who came alive once man when his wife returned from the restroom to the fumbling teenagers not having a clue what to order.
Eli definitely saw himself in each and every one and them. And he knew that he didn't want to share the crazy thing known as life and go through each and every one of those stages without Lucy by his side.
"Do you think that I could possibly have your jacket?" Lucy suddenly asked Eli, breaking away from any thoughts that he was having as he looked at a great deal many people around the room rather than the girl opposite him who was then looking just at him. She then added before her hands could brush over some of the bare skin of her arms in her dress. "It's getting a little chilly."
Lost in thought was Eli. It often could take a great deal of effort to pry his unblinking gaze away from something when he set his attention to it but thankfully for her, Lucy was one of the people who could garner his attention practically immediately.
Though it still took him a couple of moments to catch up to what was actually going on and this was clear based on his expression with a wondering gaze and parting lips, he then understood what was required of him. His mouth closing together once more, he smiled at his girlfriend and prepared to make her wish his command without needing to say these words.
His bottom elevated off the chair. He began to reach to tug his own jacket off. But then he remembered. A very real hitch commanded his throat although he tried his best to remain composed. How was he going to play this one?
Lucy watched, a brow drawn together and tilted demeanour taking over her appearance as she saw Eli's bottom fall back to the seat once more. In the process of leaning forward closer to the table and resting both folded arms there, his touch brushed against his front blazer pocket and silently acknowledged the tiny black velvet box which he knew was still there.
"Why don't you have another glass?" he suggested. Immediately he wasn't clueless to the continual same expression that lingered on Lucy's face and he knew that he would have to do better than that in convincing her. He tried to stretch out and relax his fingers while his arms hugged close to him. "Another glass and you'll be warmed from the inside out in no time."
Eli flashed a smile. He had to flash a smile because the last thing he wanted was for her to think he was trying to get her to drink more than she should. Big mistake!
For once, the yellow haired woman couldn't for the life of her figure out why her boyfriend was being unusual but she definitely knew that he was being this. More so than usual. He was being weird in a weird way.
Unintentionally, her gestures mirrored her boyfriend and her own arms folded over her chest and rested on the table. However, hers was because she really was beginning to feel the cold and no amount of extra champagne could solve this, she believed. Lucy expressed this.
"What are you playing at, Elliot?" she questioned him. No amount of gestures could've encouraged him to be transparent with her. No amount of silent stares could've done this. But using one of his other names definitely could've. And it was undoubtedly successful from the way that he responded in turn.
Eli did try and continue his charming act for a little bit longer. But in the end the respect that he had for her deep in her heart won out and he knew he couldn't mislead her any longer. It was true that he wanted the moment to come at the perfect moment. He imagined a halting of conversation coming very naturally and the fairy lights flickering just for them and this would be the second he knew that he was ready to put forth his proposal for her.
But if there was anything that he had learned in his life with Lucy then it was to simply stop using the mind and use the heart instead and just go with the flow. Just seize the opportunities as they came. So Eli did.
"Okay…" he at last replied back to her and this didn't ease her own expression for a good couple of moments. A perfectly arched brow shooting up, Lucy tried to make sense of what was going on with the observations presented to her rather than that same old inward curiosity. But nothing. She got nothing. He would have to explain. "Lucy…"
He would have to hurry up with his explanation! From the second that he uttered her name rather than a pet name, possibilities of what on earth he was going to go on to say shot through the being of that same yellow haired woman and none of them put contentment in her heart.
Lucy had already been on the edge of her seat but she most definitely was when she heard her name being uttered by Eli in that way. Her gaze flickered just once and the wood of her chair felt shuffling moments.
Unusually, Eli's body was as still as his gaze was as words continued to form.
"You know how much I care for you, I would hope?" he began again. Maybe he sensed the inner apprehension building within his girlfriend like bubbles forming in water on a hot stove. Or maybe this was simply where he was going anyway and these words offered some level of comfort anyway. "And truthfully… I never thought I would want anyone to share every part of my day with, let alone meet you and want you around for every part of my day." A pause. A pause and then he elaborated. Clarified, even. "My life."
The candle on the table in front of them flickered as an exhalation of breath escaped from the nostrils of Lucy. Such apprehension. Such apprehension! And for what? These were wonderful words coming from Eli.
Still taken aback and not quite over the nerves of the possibility of him saying something dreadful, she couldn't quite find her own voice. Instead her hand instinctively reached out to him and touched nearer to his chin than she did to his chest.
A flickering gaze was the polar opposite to his unblinking one. Yet it still contained the same devotion.
"You… You are the love of my life I never imagined I could have." He continued. A wavering grin brushed across his lips but the twitching motion was because he was trying so very hard to conceal it. Not yet. Not yet. He had to get through with what he wanted to say. And then he would be able to get on to what he wanted to do. "Every moment with you is the most special occasion."
A word finally escaped from Lucy. Just one word escaped from her and it was said with the same quality of the air escaping from her that caused the candle to flicker. She breathed out his name, her heart tightening in her chest yet while also feeling freer than ever.
Still, she didn't catch on to what was going on and Eli knew this. So it was finally time for him to indeed act. He hoped that she would understand soon enough when he started to make his way away from his own seat. He gathered that she would have a bit of an inclination when his hand brushed through his own hair before he made room for himself on the floor below.
He could see for himself that the slightest possibility hadn't gathered in her mind even when his hand reached into his front pocket and pulled out the small square black velvet box.
Eli hated surprises. But in that moment he had never felt more alive at the idea that he was going to give Lucy the biggest surprise of her life.
"Lucy Bolton…" his words started again and while he was down on one knee on the floor of the restaurant and was fiddling with the catch on the box to open it, people surrounding them at their tables eating dinner and serving could see what was going to happen next. The question was popped before the ring could visibly be seen. "Will you marry me?"
Halted breaths and gasps from strangers. The fairy light glow of the restaurant bounced off the ring and then Lucy gasped herself when a streak of light bounced off the diamond and into her eye line.
Eli was correct. He had given Lucy the biggest surprise in her life. The sensation was second to that was the peculiar feeling that coursed through her body in the seconds and the moments that took place after she heard the infamous words tumbling out of the lips of her boyfriend.
Was that the feeling that people described? That couldn't be the case, no. She had heard people being so taken aback that they wept with emotion and were overcome by a desire so strong that they couldn't help but wrap their arms around their loved one and kiss them on the lips before they even uttered an answer.
Lucy was getting none of that. Anyone would think she was getting all of that from the way that her eyes were continually saucers and the smiles of strangers bounced off her fixed and wide eyed gaze. But they would be wrong.
Eli was right. He had given her the biggest surprise of her life. He had given her something she wasn't expecting. And she didn't know if she wanted it.
"We haven't discussed this before…" her words finally slid away from her and her rabbit in the headlights expression started to fade away. She grew more composed. A contorted line began to develop in between her perfectly plucked brows. Somehow, she managed to look right at Eli.
A look of surprise naturally threatened to take over Eli's expression as well. But he was able to dull it down and turn it into a bewildered grin, his lip curling upwards and his teeth showing as he wondered how on earth he was going to respond to Lucy's response.
Then, like his girlfriend, he just went with the first words that popped into his head.
"This is kind of us discussing it…?" he replied. An edge to his voice. An edge to his voice that made his voice higher than usual. She was joking, right? She had to be joking. Together, the two of them could be very pedantic but there was a time and a place for everything.
Lucy just had to be joking. But the very real and very chilling possibility that she wasn't started to creep up Eli's spine when her expression remained fixed. It didn't burst into jovial light. In actuality, it seemed to contort all the more and grow rather tense.
It took all of her strength to not sigh out another time. Her words sounded breathy because of this effort.
"Get up off the floor, let's talk about it now then…" she encouraged herself to say, her eyes going against each other many times and switching between flickering and becoming almost more steady than they had ever been. She tried to be firm but fair.
Eli just heard firm. Eli was inwardly praying that it was a joke. A sick one.
Wavering on his one knee but somehow able to stay down there, the ring in its box twitched in his hold. The diamond did not want to hide itself away and recoil but it probably would have to eventually.
"I'll get up off the floor once you've given me an answer." Eli's voice rang out another time and he had a humorous tone to his voice rather than a higher pitched one. Please be joking. Please be joking, this is what he was thinking while he was still on the floor.
No, Lucy apparently was not joking. And she showed this by her gaze not only falling away from her boyfriend for a good while but her gaze fluttering shut too. She had remained sitting the entire time. But because she appeared to slump down into her seat, Eli knew that he had to copy her. Eli knew that he had to ignore the uncomfortable coughs and shuffles from other people and seat himself once more.
"Okay, I guess I'm sitting then…" he filled the silence with words but unlike his girlfriend, he didn't look away from her. He had become an eagle and she was the sight that he was honing in on. The midnight coloured ring box was loud and proud for all to see. But I'm sure it was squirming rather than beaming in the light.
After Eli had said these initial words and he had seated himself once more – bizarrely for an apparent conversation following his proposal – he intended for more so come flowing out. But for the first time following his eruption of intentions towards his girlfriend, he was rendered silent. What more was there to say? Apparently she was the one with things to say, not him.
He waited to hear things from her, his eyes not leaving her as both the whites and his pupils were rounder than ever. Maybe he should've looked away. Why on earth would he want to remember that moment?
"You know how much I care for you, I would hope…?" After allowing her silence to do the talking for a good couple of minutes and her skin growing completely pale in comparison to her bold choices in make-up, Lucy decided it should be these words to begin the conversation.
Bad move. In Eli's mind, an absolutely bad move because it filled him with nothing but knowing when it came to why she had asked him to seat himself once more.
Twitching of eyelashes surrounding his hawk like eyes. He asked her. As the words escaped from him, he already knew he would regret these words for a great deal of time.
"Do you not want to get married…?" this possibility was suddenly very clear to Eli and his low voice sounded directly. There was no other way about it. What was he supposed to do, sound all choked up and feeble? No. Pupils dilating as he fixed on the flickering gaze of his girlfriend, he needed to know the answers that she clearly had. "Is this not what you want anymore?"
Lucy's eyes had only just managed to bravely open once more but in that second and upon hearing these words, she had to shut the world out once more. She had to shut the sight of her boyfriend out for a couple of moments.
Her throbbing forehead felt the cooling touch of her fingers as they rubbed there but they didn't offer much comfort at all. Serves her right, she thought to herself. Why was she doing this? What was wrong with her? Why had she thought she wanted to be with Eli? Why had she known? But why did she know what her answer had to be as soon as he asked?
"Eli…" she whispered to buy herself time. She earned a shake of the head from the man with the same name, the ring box remaining open and his thumb slipping inside to run along the inner lining. Lucy wanted more than anything to repeat his name before she had to come up with an actual response. But she couldn't do that to him. "I'm… I'm vastly taken aback… I've had no time to prepare…"
It was Eli's turn to exhale. And he did this at the same time that his eyes stopped being so fixedly wide and instead a very clear arch took over his brow as he drew backwards. This was somehow more haunting to Lucy than if he had continued staring right into the depths of her soul.
With another whispery breath, he repeated the words that she offered to him. Twitch. His face drew towards her once more. And he couldn't help but erupt, a jagged edge to his usually calm and monotone voice.
"No time to prepare…?" these words repeated again. A scoff. Filled with hurt, a scoff came from his throat and he began to point out how utterly mistaken she was. "Three years together…? Living together…? Sharing our lives together…?" A pause. Lucy's gaze dropped to the table. Eli tried to pick this up with more words. "I see. Apparently you'll do that with just anyone."
A wooden table had never looked so bland. But in that moment all she wanted to do was focus all her attention on it and never look away. Anything was better than this conversation. The hurt in Eli's being that was being portrayed as other things. She hated that. He was never like that with her. But her silly feelings had led him to that place.
Blinking back hot tears of shame in her eyes, though she couldn't shake the feeling that that unconditional binding for them was a wrong decision, she had never meant to make him feel anything less than how her heart truly longed for him.
"Please don't be annoyed…" her words bubbled out of her. Still managing to keep her tears burning at the back of her eyes rather than for all to see, she shook her head and couldn't help but study the face of the man in front of her though she would go on to regret it. There was no getting through to him. But she had to try. "I… I love you so much, I do. How could I want anything but this? How could I want anyone but you? Of course I do. You're the most-" She went on to regret her choice of these words as much as looking straight at him. Never had she seen words from the heart brush anybody the wrong way before. Lucy tried not to beg as she was met with the scolded cheek and contorted jaw look of her boyfriend. "Please don't be annoyed…"
Snap. The thing that snapped was not Eli but it was the ring box as it finally snapped shut.
However, it probably would've hurt Lucy less if he had yelled at her in public. Anything would've probably been better than the way that his throat barely whispered but words erupted from his tongue so hot that she flinched as though lava had been spewed at her.
"First you can't read that I long to be your husband and now you can't read how I'm feeling." He whispered. He barely hissed. Lucy recoiled. Lucy recoiled but she was forced to listen when Eli added. "I'm not annoyed. I'm fucking hurt."
Strangers in the restaurant had tried not to stare. They had tried to go back to their conversations and their dinners and gazes with their own loved ones. But they looked over when they heard this. They were curious how the young couple was going to recover from that mishap in public and it hardly sounded good.
Gulp. Eli gulped as he inwardly begged himself to remain as sturdy as his father had once drummed into him to be. Lucy gulped as he tried to live with the guilt of what she had done. How could she? He deserved better than her. He deserved better than someone who wanted him more than anything but still couldn't say yes to a question that he obviously so wholeheartedly meant.
Trembling, the yellow haired woman stood up from her seat. Eli's eyes travelled up immediately and this turned her legs even more to jelly. She suspected her voice would come out barely a whisper as well but she forced herself to say words for him to hear. She needed him to hear fair ones after she had bashed him the wrong way so.
"Let me… Let me just so go the restroom and we can talk about how you feel all you want." Lucy tried to reason with him and after the slow pace of her beginning words, she rambled through the rest. They felt bitter on her tongue.
How she felt was probably the real elephant in the room they needed to dress. Why she was so screwed in the head that she thought no answer was better than a denial at all. What was wrong with her? She didn't know. She would rather hear everything from Eli than tackle that sort of thing at all.
Lucy tried to turn on her feet. She tried to do this but then it was Eli's turn to speak. It was his turn to erupt. And he did so with such a quality of a dormant volcano that it was somehow more chilling than if he had sent lava everywhere.
"Just give me an answer at least. Otherwise we might as well not bother to talk at all." Eli spoke. He tried to keep his voice as level and flat as he possibly could. But his tone hardened towards the end.
This caused Lucy to see him from behind watery eyes. This caused her to pause. This caused her to turn momentarily once again. Eli knew what this meant from the second that she reacted. She didn't even need to say a single thing. What she didn't say spoke volumes.
Yet she still pained him by giving him the time of day – even though it was what he asked of her.
"I don't know, Eli…" she told him. She tried to be honest. She tried to swallow the burning sensation in the back of her throat and she tried to hold her head up first.
Snap. The ring box was held between his hand so hard that his fist clenched around it and the plastic beneath the velvet exterior popped.
Tears threatening to cascade from her eyes, Lucy gulped another time and hurried herself along before she had to witness her boyfriend properly snapping another time all because of her answer that she felt she had to have for him.
Unfortunately for the strangers in the room, they had to see him snap another time. Or maybe in some perverse way they enjoyed it. Drama certainly garnered attention. And they would have so much to tell their own friends when they left the restaurant that night.
"Well I guess it's a no then…" Eli's hardened voice mused to himself and then he plopped himself down, the ring box escaping from his clutch and the ring bouncing across the table like a dice on a games night.
He had been the one who had taken the biggest gamble. And he had lost. Never again, he thought to himself. Never again. Never again would he be such a fool in love. In fact, never again would he be a fool for that woman, he decided.
Eli could see the carriages and the lights in every part of the train streaking across his pupils and this ran through his mind and across his vision long after that night and when he had decided to take a night trip and sit there with his hurt.
In actual fact, it was the bustling noise of the train and then the silent sleepers as well as the streaking lights which was still on his mind as people in the present wondered why on earth he had zoned out so after them asking him what they perceived to be a simple question.
A shake of the arm from Sammy bought him back to reality. An amused but not unkind jovial eruption from Jordan made him remember which part of his life he was actually in. He was not there in the past. He had had moments in his life which were equally if not more tumultuous because he had failed to keep his heart closed as he had promised.
He was in the present. He had been asked a question. He had zoned out for all to see. But he put a stop to all of their wondering – baffled wondering from some and soft concern from others.
Bravely, a grin tugged at Eli's lips all over again and after thinking of himself the answer which he very much knew, though others longed to know as well, he kept it for himself a little bit longer.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" he repeated, this time his words slowing down and while he felt his girlfriend's touch falling back onto his shoulders all over again and clasping there. Eli repeated and his gaze didn't fall onto anyone in particular.
Though it did fall onto something in particular, it went unnoticed by everyone but one for the next little while. In the meantime, a great many people shared looks. Like the people in the restaurant that day when the proposal from Eli to Lucy had been rejected, faces in the Morgan Household living room couldn't help but be turned to each other.
Drama was still enticing. But pure happiness was far more important. And this was what one out as everyone decided to shrug and go back to the two lovebirds on their special day.
James and Lynne's own gazes fell away from one and other and while the conversation intended to be switched elsewhere, the lavender haired male held the champagne glass in his hand to get his intention across rather than drinking from it at all.
He made sure to look right over at Eli. And when the eye contact was shared, he nodded his head and lightly raised his glass to him in a subtle way. The lenses of his glasses made the shine of his eyes even more so.
"Well…" he began and I watched with my eyes as much as my heart when Eli of course wondered what on earth could possibly go on to be said. His own drink in his hand threatened to slide down as his Adam's apple bobbed on his throat. He would go on to know. "Anyone would be lucky to be Mr or Mrs Williams." James' natural instinct was to not make a fuss. And his equally natural adoration for Lynne made him gladly turn to her and press another kiss to her, this time to the side of her head. "As lucky as I am to have my angel."
Murmurs happened once more and nobody could stop themselves from uttering appreciation for the couple. How lucky they felt to be in the presence of unconditional love. That was rare. But it inspired them to be better at giving and receiving love themselves rather than being so in awe of it that they treated it with sceptical fear.
I'm sure that Eli was glad that it was only he who offered a smile and the tiniest of nods in response to James and his words towards him. And then after he did this, he couldn't help but allow his gaze to thoughtfully wander.
It didn't turn to look at the couples who, like James and Lynne, had fought and nurtured and ended up with their own happily ever after. It didn't turn to look at Justin in the arms of Sammy who looked back at him for just a moment before down at his feet once more. It didn't even turn behind him at Lucy who was still there, still lingering, still supportive and still present.
Still just as in love with each other as they had been on that evening in the restaurant. More, in fact.
Katie was the only one to catch onto Eli's gaze and follow it to the place on her chest where a turquoise and wooden ring resided on her neck and hung by a silver chain. A hitch took over her throat and it wasn't because Jayden showed his own appreciation for her by draping his own arms around her.
A silent nod was shown by Katie to herself. Yes, Eli had indeed once been so in love with someone that it could make other people utterly sick. But that was him for him to know. And for him to share when he felt ready.
What she didn't anticipate was the things that I had known! He had been sickeningly in love just twice. That was enough for him. That was plenty. That was everything. Both of the times had enriched him beyond belief. And he knew that both times were worth opening his heart for. No matter the hurt.
Because, in the end, he ached with how simply lucky he was to share parts of his life with them both. And all parts of himself.
The End.
There you go! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed :) I liked tackling past Eli here because it does indeed portray him as a touch more debonair and out there, closer to who he ends up in his settled future. But of course, because of this disappointment and others, he does fall back into his more reclusive ways following this event, all the way up to rekindling with Jordan. Eli and Lucy do make it work out together, in spite of how this chapter ends. They share a very long happy relationship. But does it last forever? We'll have to see! :P Re-visiting James and Lynne was a joy too, and it was fun to tackle a faster paced, more dialogue filled chapter. Thanks again for reading and I will be back next Wednesday with another chapter so see you then!
Amy signing out :)