On the Record (Record #2)(16)
“Okay,” she agreed.
Liz walked over and stood next to Jamie, who was chatting enthusiastically with Meredith about the event. Liz heard Andrea’s name come up at least five times while she was waiting.
The room had cleared out already. Liz hadn’t realized it was going to be such a short event, but apparently the exhibition stayed open for a couple months. The grand opening was just the initial preview. Jamie said that she had never sold more than one piece opening night. And besides Andrea’s purchases, two other couples had each bought a painting from the collection. Jamie was stunned and excited that her work was finally gaining momentum, and she couldn’t stop bouncing from foot to foot like a little fairy.
Hayden reappeared a couple minutes later with James, holding on to a nice bottle of champagne and some glasses. He popped it open and handed out the glasses. Jamie giggled the entire time, glowing radiantly from the celebration and forgetting how badly champagne had treated her the night before.
“I would like to propose a toast,” James said, his hand shaking lightly as he held his flute out. Everyone followed his lead and raised their glasses into the air. “To my beautiful girlfriend . . . and her successful art exhibition. Just the start . . . to a long-lasting career for the . . . brilliant artist I have come to love.”
Liz smiled at the glowing couple. James had had trouble getting some of the words out; he was practically stammering. It was the most adorable thing she had ever seen. He was so proud of her that he could barely even speak. Jamie let out an aww at his speech.
“To Jamie!” the group chorused, and they all tipped their champagne glasses in a toast.
“Y’all are too sweet,” Jamie crooned.
James handed Hayden his glass of champagne and then sank to his knee right in the middle of the art exhibition. Jamie stared at him, shocked, and then looked around as if she couldn’t believe what was going on.
“Jamie,” James began softly, “I’ve loved you since the first day I met you. I have loved you every day since. And I want to love you every single day after that. Would you do me the honor of marrying me?” he asked, producing a black box from his pocket.
Jamie screamed at the top of her lungs and launched herself at him. Her glass toppled to the ground, discarded in her haste. It landed on the wood and shattered, but Jamie didn’t give it a second glance. Her arms were wrapped around James’s neck and he was struggling to stand as he laughed at her enthusiasm. Liz could see that through her excitement, Jamie’s body was shaking with tears.
“Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God,” Jamie said over and over again. “I can’t believe this. Yes! I want to marry you. Yes!”
He laughed and kissed her full on the mouth.
Without even knowing it, Liz had moved closer to Hayden. He was looking straight at her and Liz just smiled. “You knew,” she whispered.
He nodded. “Of course.”
Liz watched as James plucked the ring out of the box and slid it onto Jamie’s finger. Jamie jumped around in circles before thrusting her hand out to Meredith and then Liz in between squeals.
Liz couldn’t think of a couple that she thought should be married more than Jamie and James. They just worked. They weren’t rushing into things, and they weren’t doing it for the wrong reasons. Liz could tell that it was going to really last. And she was so happy to have witnessed their moment, even if she had this strange feeling creeping through her . . . as if she couldn’t imagine herself going through that anytime soon.
She shook that thought away. It was probably just residual jitters from Clay’s comments. Who really knew whether they wanted to marry someone after only two months anyway?
Chapter 5
ALL THE WRONG REASONS
Thank you all so much! Next week we will be discussing the new digital age, so please be sure to read chapters six and seven in the textbook and the three articles assigned on the syllabus,” Professor Mires yelled over the shuffling of students stuffing everything into their backpacks at the end of class. “Please remember to turn in your assignment here on my desk. I’ve graded last week’s papers and they are sitting in alphabetical order over here.” She placed a stack of papers, likely bleeding red ink, on the other side of the desk. School had started three weeks ago and this was already their third round of papers.
Liz closed her computer with a sigh. Professor Mires had recommended that she take her upper-level political journalism class in the spring after Liz had excelled in the news writing and editing prerequisites and then the special topics class she had taken over the summer. She had wanted to take the professor’s class anyway, so it was an easy yes, but she wasn’t quite prepared for how much extra time she would be spending.
Professor Mires had also engineered an extra three-hour course as a field credit to prepare for the political journalism colloquium that she and Liz were orchestrating at the university for the end of the semester. Plus Liz had research hours assisting the professor with the papers she was sending out for publication. Add aiding Massey with running the Washington division of the newspaper and Hayden’s insistence on pushing for her to be editor, and it was no surprise that Liz was a bit overwhelmed.
The only thing that really bothered her was her slacking on tennis practice, but school and her career came first.
Liz pulled her paper out of her backpack and placed everything else back inside. She walked down to the front of the classroom and waited as everyone rifled through the stack of papers to claim theirs. She smiled at Professor Mires and handed in her draft.