SILVER LINED DOUBT. [JESS MARIANO]

FORTY.

(dear god. forty chapters. here we are. who would have thought? not me! just pretend the months that it took for me to update this was the 5 years marley and jess spent apart! i'm sure many of you feel like it's been that long!)

(if ur interested, i've got a bit of an explanation as to where i've been in the end author's note for this chapter! i'm just psyched i finally fucking updated. literally cannot believe it. and i finally got it posted. this should have been up last week but i ran into some major trouble. but we're up! yay!)

(this one was..... difficult to write to say the least. a lot going on. lots of things to cover and recap. somehow, the drama at the end was the easiest part to write. you'll see what i mean when u get there <3)

(anyway! we're back baby!!! i am so excited to finally give you this. BUT AS ALWAYS IT IS WILDLY UNEDITED! PLEASE DON'T KILL ME! thank you so much for sticking it out and dealing with my shit. i love you all tons. let's fuckin go!!!! -mags)

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WHEN MARLEY ACOSTA left her life in Philadelphia five years ago, she didn't know what to expect. She didn't expect to love London as much as she did, she didn't expect to find a group of friends that she loved as much as she had back home, and she certainly didn't expect to get into a relationship with a man who seemed to adore her as much as Jess Mariano once had.

But, she found all those things in her new little world. They came in wonderful, unexpected waves, and while it was a rather slow process, it happened.

However, out of all the possibilities that floated around in her head when she left for London, she was pretty sure that getting proposed to was the least fathomable.

It was right up there with running into Elton John on the street, and while Marley was still waiting for that to occur, she frankly expected that to happen before she'd get proposed to. But, here she was, sitting at a restaurant with her boyfriend, staring at him in shock as he slid a ring box in front of her.

Marley prayed she didn't look as absolutely terrified as she felt, but her brain currently wasn't functioning well enough to correct it if she did. Her processing abilities were shown quite clearly as she blurted a very classy, "What the fuck is that?" as she stared at the box before her.

James chuckled lightly and took the box once more with shaking hands. "I'm afraid it's exactly what it looks like, love," he said, opening it to show her what was inside. "I know it might seem a little out of the blue, but I wanted to catch you by surprise. I've just been..."

There was a loud ringing in Marley's ears that completely won over everything James was saying. Completely and utterly tuned out, she watched as he continued to speak, scratching at his neck in a way that Marley usually found endearing, but right now made her sick to her stomach. She couldn't focus on anything else other than the ringing in her ears and the ring in the box.