Just one night with you

Ruby Red Collar

I laughed back at him and shook my head. Carefully, I bent down to pick up the mess on the step before the door.

"Hey, it's my mess! I'll do that!" He said as he ran to my side to help me get back up.

He guided me to a chair and sat me down. He stood in front of me, towering over me. It was intimidating really, I mean he's taller than me when I'm standing up, so you could imagine how much taller than me he was now.

"Do you mind, you're blocking the sun!" I joked as I squirmed around in my chair. It's got t to be the most uncomfortable chair I own, but I didn't want to tell him because he'd just move me again.

"Oh, right. Sorry." He said as he knelt in front of me.

"German!" I laughed. "There's a chair right here!" I pulled the chair next to mine closer to me and patted it, just like he was a dog. I don't know what made me do that.

"Angie." He said calmly.

"Angie." He repeated.

"Angie..." He whispered again.

"German, quit it. Stop saying my name. It's kind of creepy."

He just smiled and lowered his head and propped one of his legs up, so he was knelt on one knee. I kept my eyes glued to him as he did so, afraid that if I turned away what I thought would happen, wouldn't actually happen.

"Angie, that one night with you changed my life. I thought I was over you, but in that one moment all those feelings came flooding back. Then you know what I realised? I realised they never actually left, I'd just buried them deep out of fear. Out of fear of hurting you. Out of fear of losing you. Out of fear of rejection. Angie, you're the only woman for me, I'm just sorry it took me so long to realise."

I kept my eyes glued to him, smiling like an idiot. I couldn't look away, nor did I want to.

"and I know we got it backwards. You know, starting a family and then actually being a family, but that doesn't matter to me. What matters to me is getting to spend the rest of my life with you. Waking up to you in my arms every morning, comforting you when you're sad, making you laugh when you're about to cry, loving you when you need it most. I want to be there for you. Because I love you."

By this point I was an emotional wreck, I did not expect this at all. I was glued to my chair unable to speak, only just remembering to breathe.

"So Angie, will you do me the honour of being my wife and spending the rest of your life with me?"

As the tears rushed down my face I tried to stand up but I couldn't. I wanted to get up and hug him, but I could move, not fast enough anyway. So instead I just held my arms out wide and pulled him towards me as I knelt forward in my chair. With my hands around his neck and his around my neck I whispered in his ear "of course I will. I love you."

And then he kissed me liked he'd never kissed me before. I'm pretty sure if my eyes were open I would've seen the sparks flying. I certainly felt butterflies. All wrapped up in his touch was where I wanted to stay forever and now I knew I could, I did t need anything more.

"Wait." I say as I pull away. My butterflies were quickly overshadowed with a sicky feeling in the pit of my stomach. "What about my mum, German?"

He just grabbed my hands, still kneeling in front of me, and said "we're a team, remember? We'll get through this."

I nodded in agreement as a massive smiled appeared on my face. "I've never been in a team before" I confessed.

As I said this German's phone went off, he had a text. When he looked at it he started to smile. I wanted to know who it was, but I didn't say anything as I didn't want to ruin the moment.

"Come with me" he said as he put his phone back in his pocket. He put one arm out for me and I carefully reached out and pulled all of my weight out of the chair.

"Where are we going?"

"Just back inside" he smiled.

He guided me over to the sofa and helped me sit down. He was about to sit down beside me when there was a knock at the door.

"I wonder who that could be" he said,winking at me like he already knew who.

I just frowned as he walked over to the door and opened it. Antonio appeared before German and they did some kind of 'signal.' I just ignored it.

"Antonio!" I said, "what are you doing here?"

"There's someone here who wants to meet you!" He smiled as a little puppy ran straight past him and over to the sofa where I was sat.

German sat down beside me.

"He's adorable, isn't he German!" I laughed, tickling the soft puppy behind it's ear.

"I know. I picked him. For you." He smiled.

I stopped tickling the dog and turned to face him. "Really? For me? I love you so much!" I said. I reached over and put my arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek.

"Thank you." I whispered.

"So do you like his collar?" He asked.

"Hum, yeah." I replied, looking at the collar. It was just plain red,I didn't see the big deal.

"Really look at it." He replied.

I looked at German with a quizzed look upon my face before turning my attention to the ruby red collar. I turned the collar a little bit and noticed a little gold jewellery box with a red ribbon around it.

"Is that for me?" I asked as I turned to German.

He nodded and smiled. "Open it" he prompted.

I carefully undid the ribbon, not wanting to spoil it, and carefully flipped open the box. Buried deep beneath all the tissue paper I spotted something. I rummaged around and pulled it out of the box. A ring. A beautiful ring.

Before I got a chance to take a proper look at the ring German snatched it off me, not nastily, just carefully.

"Pass me your hand." He whispered.

I did as I was told. I put my hand out, never taking my eyes off of German's. I noticed water around the bottom of his eyes, making me cry again.

When the ring was properly on my finger, I broke the eye contact and looked down at it. It was gold with four mini rosy pink flowers. Two either side of the big jewel right in the middle. It was beautiful.

"German, this is beautiful, it must have cost a fortune, you didn't have to!" I said, still admiring the ring on my finger.

"You deserve only the best, because I love you." He whispered.

I pulled his head towards me, carefully placing my hands on his cheeks, he did the same to me. Our foreheads were touching. I looked him in the eyes one last time before closing mine and whispering "I love you."

Then we kissed. It was a sweet, yet passionate kiss. But it didn't last long as we were disturbed by the dog pushing his way between us.

We both laughed and turned our attention towards the dog. We both sat tickling him. The dog was clearly enjoying all the attention.

"What do you want to call him?" Asked German, putting his forehead in mine again.