One True Loves(35)

Sam laughed. “Should we stop somewhere?” he asked.

“Please,” I said. “Somewhere with french fries.”

Soon enough, I was eating a hamburger with the wrapper still half on as Sam and I walked down the street in black-tie attire. Sam was holding the rest of the bag in one hand—I’d already eaten the carton of french fries—and drinking a chocolate milk shake with the other.

“How are your feet feeling?” Sam asked me.

“OK,” I answered. “Why?”

“What if we walked around for a bit before getting on the T?” he asked. “You look gorgeous and the weather is nice and . . . I don’t know. I want to prolong the moment.”

I smiled. I figured I had a few minutes of walking before my heels started to rub up against the broad bones of my feet.

“I’m in,” I said, and then I took another bite of my burger. When I swallowed, it occurred to me that there was a flaw in his argument. “How are you going to try to say that this is a beautiful moment between us when I’m eating a Whopper?”

Sam laughed. “I think I just love you that much,” he said. “That even standing next to you as you cram Burger King into your mouth is special to me.” He took a sip of his milk shake after he said it. I watched as his cheeks sucked in to pull the ice cream up the straw while he stood on the sidewalk looking dapper in his dark suit. I knew exactly what he meant. I felt exactly what he felt.

“You look cute trying to inhale that milk shake,” I told him.

“See?” he said. “That’s how I know you’re in love with me. You’ve also gone crazy.”

We continued to walk along the sidewalk as I took another bite of my burger.

“I really mean it,” Sam said. “I’m madly in love with you. I hope that you know how much.”

I smiled at him. “I suspect I do,” I said teasingly.

“I don’t know if this is exactly the right time but . . . I want to make sure you know that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I don’t know if I’ve properly conveyed it but I am committed to this, to us. I’m in, you know? For life. I want you forever. My only concern is that I don’t want to pressure you.”

“I don’t feel pressure,” I said. I was still processing what he was saying, still beginning to understand how monumental this moment we were having truly was.

“Are you sure?” he said. “Because I have to be honest. I’m ready to cash in. I’d commit to you for the rest of our lives without a single doubt in my mind. I have never been happier than I have been during this year with you. And—the way I see it—you’re it for me. You’re everything.”

I looked at him, listening to him. I didn’t respond because I was wrapped up in how wonderful it felt to be me just then, how nice it felt to be loved the way he loved me.

Sam shifted his gaze and drank from his milk shake. And then he looked at me and said, “I guess what I’m saying is I’m ready. So now I’ll just wait until you’re ready, if you’re ever ready. If you ever want to.”

“If I ever want to . . .” I wanted to make sure I understood exactly what he was saying.

“Marry me,” he said, taking another sip of his milk shake.

“Wait, are you . . .” I wanted to ask him if he was proposing but something about the word seemed so formal, so daring.

“I’m not proposing,” Sam said. “But what I’m saying is that I’m not ‘not proposing’ because I don’t want to. I want to. I just want to wait until you’re ready for me to propose.”

“I don’t think I understood half of that sentence,” I said, smiling at him.

“It wasn’t the best one I’ve ever said,” he said, laughing.

“Can you just say what you’re saying clearly and succinctly?” I asked.

Sam smiled and nodded. “Emma Blair, if you ever decide that you want to marry me, please tell me. Because I would like to marry you.”

I dropped the hamburger onto the street. I didn’t mean to; it just fell out of my hand, as if my brain had said to my fingers, “Stop whatever you’re doing, and pay attention to what’s happening.” And then I took both of my free hands and wrapped them around Sam’s face and kissed him with everything I felt in my heart.

When I pulled away, I didn’t let him speak. I said, “Let’s do it.”

“What?” Sam said.

“I want to marry you.”

“Wait,” Sam said. “Are you sure?” I could tell that he couldn’t believe what he was hearing and it made me love him even more.

“I’m absolutely positive,” I said. “I want to marry you. Of course I do. I love you. So much.”

“Oh, wow,” Sam said, smiling so wide his eyes crinkled. “Are we . . . are we getting engaged?”

I laughed, blissful. “I think we are,” I said.

Sam took stock of the moment. “No, no, no,” he said, shaking his head. “This won’t do. It has to be better than this. We can’t get engaged while I’m holding a milk shake.”

He dropped his milk shake in the trash can. I picked my hamburger off the ground and threw it away.

“OK,” Sam said. “We’re gonna do this right.”