3. Oliver
Three
Oliver
Dinner consists of sitting by the ocean side and watching gymnasts perform as we’re served dinner. I can truthfully say I’ve never experienced anything like it before. The restaurant’s lights shift from blue to red to a yellow glow throughout the performance.
Ace carves into his stake while I enjoy my shrimp and noodles as the people move with precision and a kind of flexibility I thought was an exaggeration.
We’re halfway through our meal when it comes to an end and the lights shift to a dim, warm yellow and remain that way.
“What did you think?”
Slurping up a noodle, I try to chew quickly and swallow. “It was really cool.”
Honestly since pulling into the resort, my mind has been focused on our time together instead of everything else that’s been eating away at me. It’s a nice change.
“I’m glad you liked it.”
Narrowing my eyes I say in the most serious voice I can manage, “It pales in comparison to the nudist pool though.”
Ace nearly chokes on the wine he’s sipping.
My shoulders shake from laughing and I have to bite my bottom lip as he recovers.
“You’re so right,” he finally says.
“Let’s spend as much time there if we can,” I say jokingly as I twirl the noodles with my fork.
“Of course. Let’s skip everything else. We can even sleep there if you’d like,” he says back to me.
“I’m already undressing as you speak.”
Ace cracks and we both chuckle.
“My mom would love you,” he says unexpectedly. He clears his throat and adds, “Would have loved you…”
The words are both heartwarming and heart wrenching. I don’t know what to say but I stare at him for a moment.
“Sorry, that was random.”
“Don’t be sorry,” I’m quickly to reply. “It means a lot to hear that. What was your favorite thing to do with your mom?”
Ace doesn’t talk about his mom often. It took forever for him to even tell me her name. I had been tempted to snoop online, but it wouldn’t have been the same.
He shared the last photo they had together one night after we walked on the beach at night. We laid across the sand in the dark, dead of night. He’s always so paranoid about paparazzi after they badgered me at the ball.
The photo was of his mom and dad in the back and he and Hannah in the front, all posing for a regular family photo at the beach. They were all so young. They looked so normal.
Judging from the photo, I would never have thought they were some of the wealthiest people in Bayfront.
Ace had told me his mom’s name that night, Chloe.
Ace starts to answer, snapping me back to the present. “She loved to sit at the table and watch me draw. Or play with some intricate model. I’d lose my patience and she’d coax me on to keep trying.”
He shuffles broccoli around his plate.
“She kept my dad in check. He’d get so angry about things we viewed as silly.. View as silly. And she’d tell him what really mattered, being healthy and having a family and other things. He listened. For a while, he didn’t get swept up in the spotlight.”
I smile at him.
Ace clears his throat and if it wasn’t so dark, I’d think maybe he’s teary eyed. “Sometimes I’m worried she’d be ashamed that I let his rules get to me.”
The statement shocks me and audibly gasp.
“Ace! She’d be proud of you, you know that, right?”
Silence hangs in the air and I look to my left and right to see if I was too loud.
Quieter, I say, “She would be proud of you.”
Leaping from my seat I step over to him and kneel beside him. It’s funny, this seems like something Ace would do, consoling me at my side without any care to what others think, or say.
I grab the hand in his lap, and rub my thumb across the back of his veiny hand. Looking up into his slate eyes I give him a warm smile, hoping it can transmit all my earnest feelings.
“You stand up to your dad! You stuck up for me, for Hannah, you live your life how you want to, don’t you?”
For the first time since I’ve met him, I see uncertainty in his eyes.
“I.. yes.” At first I don’t believe him. Until he keeps speaking. “I have you, and friends. I don’t feel alone, or trapped in something I didn’t want.”
His mouth quirks up into a smile. “Something you can relate to?”
Now I’m smiling. “Yeah, something like that.”
“A proposal!” Someone shouts.
“Where?” I ask eagerly.
I’ve always wanted to see one. I look around and realize that others are looking at us. The dimmed lights lift slightly and a spotlight is cast on us.
“They’re so cute!”
I look to Ace with panic.
“Is that Ace and Oliver?!”
No way, I think to myself.
“Let’s give them a show,” Ace says, and my attention is back on him.
“Should I pretend to say no?” He asks with a menacing grin.
“No!” I laugh. “You better freaking say yes,” I say with a laugh hoping no one can hear us.
My knees shake underneath me against the tiled floor. I did not expect to be down here this long.
I clear my throat and start with the intention to say the most outlandish, silliest thing. “Ace, you hired me to be your house pet. To lay in your lap, and get pets on my head and rub my belly.”
He’s trying so hard not to crack up so much that he has to cover his mouth for a moment.
I can feel the entire room trying to listen to what I’m saying. “When I took the job, I was desperate. I didn’t think I’d meet my new best friend, please don’t tell Chance I said that…”
Ace slightly shakes his head. Suddenly, we’re the only two in the room.
“You not only gave me a safe place to live and grow, but I can’t imagine my life without you. More than safety, I have love and a real family and I’m so lucky…”
The last worst came out more difficult than I thought, unable to meet Ace’s gaze for a moment. A few stray tears tumble down my cheek without permission. I resist wiping it away and decide to get this over with. “Will you marry me?”
Ace’s gray eyes are misty too when I finally look into his eyes.
“Yes,” he whispers.
My body reacts automatically and I launch myself into him.
“He said yes!” Someone else yells behind us and then the entire restaurant is cheering for us.
It takes another ten minutes for the congratulations and photos and handshakes and hugs to stop.
We finish our meal, Ace charges it to our room and we walk back hand in hand to our room. At least that’s where I assume we’re going, until we end up at the little marketplace.
He leads me in and I follow, a sense of giddiness and caution swirling in my stomach.
We stop in front of the jewelry section and he tells me to turn around. I obey and listen to him shuffle through things.
“Okay,” he says and I turn around.
“Can you pick from these?”
I look over the rings- rings!
My jaw drops.
“I mean… if you want one. I know these are just cheap little rings but…”
I cut his rambling short and pick the silver one with a swirl on it.
I try it on and it’s a little big.
“What size is your finger?” His brows furrows in worry.
“I don’t know.”
He searches for a smaller size and gives it to me. “Here’s an eight.”
I try it on and it’s almost perfect, if not a little small.
“Okay, your turn,” I order.
He listens and I search for a couple options, one that’s all black with a little sun etched into it, and a silver one with a brown wooden stripe through the middle all around.
“Okay.”
He turns and looks between the two options.
“You didn’t want matching ones?” He asks with a wink.
I stick out my tongue. “Let’s not be that gay couple, okay?”
“So no matching tuxes for the wedding?”
My stomach flips at the question, at the mention of a wedding.
“This one,” he says, grabbing the black one.
We pay for the rings and walk hand in hand with our rings on, like an actual engaged couple.
Maybe we’re taking this joke a little too far, I think, biting the inside of my cheek.