My Dear Beatrice [Completed]

The Ball

I had went to this stupid ball in this stupid dress just to see him. He’s not even here yet, why do I have to stand on this granite staircase?

I will admit; this dress isn’t as awful as I thought it was an hour earlier. It’s pretty long and thin, with a four foot train. Supposedly he bought it for me. He has okay taste. He even payed for me to get my long brown hair curled and pulled into little dragonfly clips.

 “Bea! My love! Up here!” Lemony Snicket, the man I have been seeing for about a year now, calls from the top of the staircase. He looks so handsome in a black top hat and a black tuxedo with a white rose in his lapel. He matches me. He paid for everything so we could look more like a pair.

 “Lem,” I reply, watching him slid down the banister. He takes me into his arms and kisses me. My eyes get wide but eventually I melt, kissing him back. “It’s so good to see you.”

 “Oh my dear, you have no idea how much I’ve missed you. I was out in Paltryville trying to write about the rocks out there. Turns out rocks aren’t the best thing to write about.”

 I laugh out loud. Lem’s so funny. I’m not used to laughing; being twenty-two and still with my parents is harsh. They’re forcing me to marry a guy I don’t love. But I plan on running away with Lemony, so we can be together. “It’s fine, it’s fine. Did you-?” I gesture toward my dress. I feel like Cinderella. And I’ve finally found my Prince Charming.

 “Of course I did,” He bends down and clips up my train, making the skirt of the dress fuller. Lemony chuckles and lifts me off of my feet, like he’s been doing literally and metaphorically for the last year. He spins me and finally puts me back on the floor. I cry out in laughter, but then he brings me to his chest and starts to make me dance.

Everyone else that happens to be at this ball disappears. It’s just him and his eyes, his hair, his tall build. I can’t stop looking at him. He’s driving me crazy, but I love him.

He wraps his arm around my waist and flings me into the air. I have to catch my breath before we can continue. My dress flies up as we move in perfect sync. But haven’t we always been doing that? Haven’t we always been moving together, always and forever?

 “My dear,” Lemony whispers as I come closer. He kisses my forehead and I blush.

 “W-what?” I reply, wanting to rip his jacket off and just have him dance like that. That’s what I want. I want him.

 “I love you,” he spins me again and again, but I grip his hand harder with it time, not wanting to fall. Not wanting to let go.

 Lemony has kissed me before, he has had me alone before, but I can’t fathom the thoughts I have into sentences. I can’t collect them in a basket and watch them sort themselves out. If only I could. When the words that I need finally fall out of my lips, they’re a jumble of stutters. “I love you too.”

 After nearly three hours of dancing to violins and flutes, Lemony snickers as he pulls me onto the balcony of the golden ballroom.

“Beatrice,” He whispers. I’ve always adored the way he whispers my name. “I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you be my wife?”

 I cover my mouth, gasping. My green and blue dress shimmers as I step back and Lemony gets on one knee. I bite my lip as his cheeks pull up the corners of his mouth.

 The ring winks at me in the maroon velvet box. I can only nod, my chest exploding in love. I’ve never felt this way before. It’s a mixture of hope and shock, despair and amazement. “Yes. Yes, of course, yes.”

 Lemony moves his leg down to match the other one as he places the ring on my left hand. I bite my lip in fear that I might scream. I take his oval shaped face in my hands, and place a gentle kiss on his lips. But because Lemony is Lemony, he drives his lips into mine even harder. We can barely breath when I finally pull away for air.

 “Don’t let me go,” he says into my ear.

 “I won’t.”