The Meeting

The Reactions

I woke the next morning to the sunlight creeping in through the gaps in the blinds. The sun caught the new ring on my finger and made it sparkle even more than it already did. Leah's right arm was around my waist, her body against my back and her left arm under my neck. I gently turned round to face her, just as her eyes began to flutter open.

"You didn't run away then." She said, voice croaky and a smile appearing on her face.
"Never." I responded, kissing her on my first day waking up engaged.

We headed back to the airport, being careful to ensure no one spotted the ring before we had told our families. This was the part of fame that I hated, the part that meant you had to think about things like this, rather than just being in the moment but when I began to think like this, I always thought of the parts I liked.

We boarded the plane and began to reminisce about our trip away, cuddling into Leah as we cruised above the clouds was the most amazing feeling. We both fell asleep until the seatbelt signs appeared for landing. I sat up, placing my seatbelt around my waist and smiling at Leah. As I turned to look out the window, I noticed a sight that took me by surprise. There were two yellow cranes in the distance, those two yellow cranes being the H&W cranes in Belfast.

"Le, are we going to Belfast?" I asked, slightly confused.
"Yeah. Thought you'd want to tell your Dad in person? I didn't want you to feel like everything like this is always celebrated with my family first just because we live in the same country as them now." She replied, placing her hand on my thigh.
"Wow. You really did think of everything didn't you?" I whispered.
"I hope so." She said, smiling at me.

When we arrived to my Dad's, Leah took my hand in hers as we walked down the drive, checking I was okay before we went inside. Dad was in the living room, he was building a model car and had his music blasting through the speakers but the second he saw us he turned the music down and ran towards me.

"Alex! You're here! And you Leah! What're you doing here?" He grinned at us both.
"Hi Dad." I said, hugging him with both my hands around his back.
"Is everything okay?" He asked, now realising that we normally tell him when we're coming back.
"Yeah Dad, just something happened on holiday." I said, slowly pulling away and showing him the ring on my finger.

Dad lifted me into the air, something he hadn't done since I was a kid. He spun me around and around whilst squealing like a kid himself. He then proceeded to pick Leah up and spin her around like a little kid too. Leah was enjoying it just as much as I had, their relationship just kept getting sweeter to watch and I knew she would make a perfect addition to the family.

"Thank you for agreeing." Leah said.
"Huh? You knew?" I questioned Dad.
"He knew I was going to do it, I asked him before the Olympics but I refused to tell him when because I knew he wouldn't be able to hold it in." She laughed.

That meant that when I was too afraid to tell Leah I wanted to marry her in fear of pushing her away, she was thinking it too. My heart warmed at the thought of this and I could do nothing but wrap my arms around her waist. We spent the next few hours with dad, telling him about our holiday and showing him pictures of our adventures. As we said our goodbyes Dad walked us to the door, we passed the picture of mum that still hung proudly in the hall.

"Our little girl is getting married my darling." My dad brushed his finger over my mums face in the picture causing both Leah and I to well up.
"She knows Dad, I know she knows." I hugged him once more before we got into the taxi and headed for the airport.

Our flight home meant we landed at 9pm, Leah's car was parked at the airport which meant we could drive straight to her mums to pick up Milo before we headed home. When we arrived at Amanda's, I wanted to give Leah the stage to tell her mum like she had given me the stage to tell my Dad. I placed my hands into the pockets of my joggers to ensure Amanda wouldn't see the ring before Leah had told her but I didn't have long to wait as Leah simply blurted it out through excitement.

Amanda didn't have time to process what had been said before her eyes began to water. She pulled both of us into a hug and kissed our cheeks, one after the other. She squeezed us so tight that I thought we might actually burst. Jacob threw the three of us onto the sofa and jumped on us, in typical Jacob form. If you looked closely enough though, you could see a tear or two in his eye but we all knew he would deny this if we called him out on it.

By the time we had left Amanda's, it was too late to go anywhere else. When we got home we called everyone we wanted to tell personally on FaceTime. Lydia laughed at me for thinking Leah was leaving me, Ellie cried as usual, Gavin was more emotional than I expected. Leah's Grandma cried and thanked me for everything I had done for Leah, her Dad told us he'd come to see us soon. She posted the picture of us we had taken that night into her football group chat and called her cousins to tell them.

Once everyone had been told, we decided to post on our socials. We both wrote our own posts and counted down to hit the post button so they would be posted at the exact same time.

leahwilliamsonn:

My biggest supporter, my best friend, my light through the darkness, my happiness, my safe place, my soul mate and now my fiancé.

Doing life with you is the only life I want.

Forever my Alex.

AlexRyanMusic:

Through the smiles, the laughs, the tears, the miscommunications. From the worst times to the best, the lowest of the lows and the highest of the highs. It has always been you.

Thank you for being the glue that holds my heart together.

Forever my Leah.

Almost as soon as it was posted, our phones blew up. There were comments from those closest to us, comments from people we had only met a handful of times and millions of comments from fans. We read through them together, cuddled up on the sofa with Milo sleeping on my chest. Leah still repeatedly brushing her thumb over the ring that she had placed on my finger, almost as if she was protecting it from ever leaving.