Track 36. Today Was a Fairytale
ARIZONA
Weeks later
Carter’s hand had been entwined in mine ever since I met him at the airport Wednesday morning.
I didn’t think it was possible for me to feel any more butterflies fluttering in my stomach, or that my heart could beat any faster since we were long past the ‘just friends’ stage, but the second his eyes met mine in the terminal, I felt as if I was falling in love with him all over again.
It took us two days to step outside my flat, to agree to spend time exploring something other than each other.
Although it’d rained during our steep and never-ending walk through the hilly region of Montmartre and we’d gotten soaked during an impromptu wine tour yesterday, today was all clear for a trip to the mainstream, touristy parts of Paris.
“You’re not being a very good host today, Ari,” he whispered into my ear. “You’ve been very quiet for some reason.”
“Sorry.” I stopped walking and pointed to a massive brick building in the distance. “Do you see that? That building with the bronze clock in its gilded frame?”
“Yes. What about it?”
“I actually have no idea what that is, but it’s very pretty, isn’t it?”
“How insightful.” He smiled. “Please tell me more.”
“Hold on, I will.” I pulled out my phone. “I’ll google it.”
Laughing, he rolled his eyes. “That’s okay. We need to get to the Eiffel Tower.”
“Now? You’ll be here all week,” I said. “We can come back to that later. It’s usually pretty crowded at this hour anyway. How about going to the Catacombs instead?”
“There’s a restaurant on the first floor. We have a reservation there in two hours, but I’d also like to see a view of the city from the top.”
I raised my eyebrow. He hadn’t mentioned anything about a dinner reservation until just now. He hadn’t even mentioned wanting to go inside of the tower until now.
As if he could tell I was on the verge of asking a slew of questions, he pressed a finger against my lips.
“I’ll explain when we get there.” He looked at his watch. “Should we head that way now?”
“I guess so…”
We pushed our way through the crowds in the plaza, making our way to the massive metallic structure that’d adorned almost every postcard I sent home.
After buying us tickets, Carter led me onto a lift. It rose slowly, but stopped at the second floor.
“We have to get on another one to get to the top,” he said, leading the way.
“So, you did research on this trip before you came?” I smiled as the doors on the next lift opened. “Did you really need me giving you my attempt at a tour?”
“I only researched the most important part.” He hit the top floor button.
“You hate heights, Carter.”
“I do, but I wanted to see a full view of the city at least once—just in case we don’t get a chance to come back.”
I moved closer to him as more people stepped on, and before the doors closed, two people who looked freakishly similar to Josh and Nicole got on.
I refused to believe it was actually them, though: Nicole was on a road trip to Louisiana this week, and Josh didn’t believe in taking flights that were longer than four hours.
I looked up at Carter. “Do you see that?”
“See what?”
“The doppelgangers of our friends,” I said as the lift began to move. “I’ll show you when we get off.”
When the doors opened, the doppelgangers went to the right and I motioned for Carter to follow me. I spotted them near a railing, but the person walking toward me stole all of my attention.
It can’t be…
I shook my head and looked over at the city, at the sea of twinkling lights, to make sure I was seeing things right. But when I turned around again, the person was still there. Clear as day.
“Mom?” I stepped closer. “Mom, is that you?”
“It is.” She hugged me. “Are you okay? You look scared.”
“Am I dead right now?”
“What?” She laughed. “What did you just say?”
“I’m starting to think I’ve died and am stuck in some alternate reality…You actually got on a plane to come here? You got past security without having a nervous break-down?”
“I did.” She pulled a small box of Xanax out of her purse and smiled. “This stuff works wonders.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” I said. “Why would you come all the way here without telling me first?” I noticed the doppelgangers of Josh and Nicole making their way over, noticed that they really were Josh and Nicole. “Why are you all here, why are…What’s going on?”
“Ari?” The sound of Carter’s voice made me turn around. “Ari…” He took my right hand and got down on one knee.
My jaw dropped, and a sudden bout of butterflies fluttered against my stomach more furiously than ever before.
“I originally wanted to wait to do this when we both finished school, but—” He paused, smiling. “We both know I don’t have the best record when it comes to being patient.”
I let out a nervous laugh.
“I even wrote out exactly what I was going to say, how I was going to say it, and where exactly I wanted us to be when it happened,” he continued. “But since I left that paper at home and waiting is absolutely out of the question now, I’ll do my best to remember most of the words.”
Tears welled in my eyes as he caressed my hand.
“I don’t need to rehash the fact that I absolutely hated you when I first met you, or that I got genuinely happy each time I made you cry in fourth grade, but I will if you want me to.”
I shook my head, laughing softly as a few bystanders listened along.
“Fair enough.” He smiled. “Somewhere between us hating each other back then, you became my first real friend, my first and only best friend, and I didn’t realize it until last summer, but you’ve actually been my first everything.”
“You were my first kiss, my first date that I actually enjoyed, and the first woman I fell in love with—the first woman I actually made love to…” he said.
“And you’re still the only person I can talk to twenty times a day—whether it’s via letter, email, text, or phone call, and still feel like it’s not enough. ”
“Carter…”
“Let me finish,” he said, briefly standing up to kiss me before returning to the ground. “I’ve been in love with you for damn-near my entire life, and the only regret I have is that I didn’t realize it sooner.”
“You’ve been there for me through everything, and I promise that I will continue to be there for you—whether you’re arguing with me about the most minor things in life or not.
I’ll also be sure to send you my longer, much more eloquently written version of this proposal, but I really can’t go another day without having an answer to this. ”
My heart pounded as he reached into his pocket.
“And for the record, yes: Yes, I’m completely aware that you’ll want to lay out the next few years of our lives with a spreadsheet at some point next week,” he said, smirking—effortlessly reading my mind.
“And yes, I also know that you’ll need to ask me a million questions about this night for as long as you possibly can, but if you feel the way I do…
If you love me and can only think about ever being with me in your future, I need you to answer me first. I need to hear you say it.
” He held up a glittering, diamond ring.
“Arizona Turner, I want you to be more of a best friend to me than you already are, and I want to spend the rest of my life loving you. Will you marry me?”
I nodded, feeling hot tears streaming down my face. I felt the words “I do” on the edge of my tongue, but another comment came out instead.
“Dawson Meade III was my first kiss, Carter,” I said softly. “Rachel Ryan was yours.”
“No,” he replied, smiling. “We were each other’s. Trust me.”
“I would’ve never kissed you in fifth grade. You were still making fun of my braces.”
“We tested our first kiss on each other, Ari,” he said. “We just didn’t like each other enough to let that count.”
“Or it didn’t count, because it didn’t happen that way. It couldn’t have.”
“Seriously?” Josh interrupted, stepping closer to us. “All of that over the top shit he just said, flying all of your closest people here just to witness this moment—not to mention offering you that bright ass ring, and you want to question him on a goddamn memory?”
“Shut up, Josh,” we both said in unison.
“Anyway…” Carter caressed my hand and stared up at me. “Can we discuss this after you answer me? Can you tell me whether or not you’ll marry me?”
“It’s been a yes since we met,” I said, wiping away tears. “Yes, and you know you didn’t really have to ask me. I would’ve never said no to you. But if you keep messing up the facts in our memories, I’m going to wonder if you’ll eventually forget ‘us’ in the end.”
“I would never.” He stood up, slipping the ring onto my finger as he kissed me. “But even if I did, I’ll always have you here to remind me.”