The Meeting

Growth

"So the rules are you have to try find something with beginning with the letter, okay?"
"Okay Aoifs, I get it now." Leah chuckled.
"Aoife you first, your letter is... B." Theo shouted.
"Boots!! My football boots!" Aoife said.

Aoife ran off to find her football boots, returning just before the timer ran out. We all cheered and clapped for her, Finn jumping up and down excitedly with no real idea how the game worked.

"Theo it's you now. Your letter is... P!" Aoife shouted.

Theo ran off to find something beginning with the letter P as we all sat awaiting his return, Aoife and I secretly knowing what he would return with but Leah none the wiser.

"Planets! From the day we went to the planetarium." Theo grinned.

Again, we cheered and clapped for him. Leah's laugh was echoing around the living room as she wrapped her arm around me lovingly.

"You pick one, Finn." I said, he picked up a card and waddled over to me.
"Mummy." He said as he waved the card in my face.
"Your letter is... T!"

We all knew that Finn wouldn't know what to do, but he had two very proud and protective siblings that were happy to help him. They grabbed a hand each before disappearing to the playroom and returning with the teddy that Leah had bought for his first day at physio.

"Teddy." Aoife said slowly to him as they returned.
"Teddy." He said, holding it up for Leah and I to see.
"Good man!" I smiled.
"You are so clever!" Leah beamed at him.
"Your turn, Mummy." Theo smiled at Leah as she picked up a card.
"Your letter is... L!" Aoife said before whispering in Leah's ear.

Leah ran off, the kids following her eagerly, returning with the third letter I had written to Leah, one that she still kept proudly in her bedside drawer.

"Letter." Leah smiled at me, blushing slightly.
"Letter." I smiled back.
"Your turn!" Leah chuckled.
"Your letter is... R!" The kids said in unison.

I ran off, followed by the kids as we rushed into the room that Leah had no idea had been transformed into a memory. We had spent the entire day putting up our favourite pictures, the kids drawings, and plane tickets from mine and Leah's journeys to see one another in the earliest days. The guitar I used to sing the song I wrote about Leah was proudly sitting in the corner with the handwritten lyrics of her song beside it, Aoife's first Arsenal shirt, Finn's footprints from just after his birth, and Theo's first ever Space Camp hoodie hanging on the door. Of course, none of this would've been possible if Amanda hadn't managed to distract Leah with a shopping trip in the afternoon.

"Quick! Times nearly up!" We heard Leah shout from downstairs.
"Okay, now." I whispered, placing myself onto one knee in preparation for Leah's arrival.
"Mummy, she's found something but you'll have to come up here to see." Theo shouted across the banister.

I listened as Leah shuffled along the floor, then up each step, her footsteps getting closer and making my heartbeat out of my chest. The kids stood in the hallway outside the door, pointing Leah towards the room I was in, their little chuckles throwing her off any scent she may have had. As Leah turned to walk into the room, her face changed from confused to biggest smile I have witnessed. Her eyes began to fill with tears as she glanced around the memory filled room and then found my eyes.

"Ring." I smiled.
"Ring." Was all she could say.
"Le, of all the things I've done in life, building all of this with you is the one I wish I could do over and over again. You asked if it was a silly idea, but I don't think it is. I think the most perfect way to remember that day is to do it all over again, with our babies there this time. Marry me, again?"
"Alex." Leah whispered through her tears.
"I think you're meant to say yes, not her name." Aoife chirped in the background, making us laugh.
"Yes. Yes. Yes. A million, billion -"
"Trillion!" Theo shouted.
"Trillion. Times, yes."