We Lucky Few

The open book

I bent the laptop monitor further up and turned it more towards the left.

"Yesss, that's perfect! Thanks," Ben said through the speakers. He adjusted his army-style baseball cap  for the hundredth time, as if it was a compulsion. "You better not screw this up, mate." He threw me a look that promised terror and destruction, even from the screen.

I took a deep breath and let my gaze wander around what had once been my bedroom, but now resembled more a fairy forest. Building the gazebo had taken me a week of hammering, sawing, and watching YouTube guides, as well as a shitload of help from the way-more-manual Max. Being sneaky about it had been the hardest part. I don't even remember anymore what excuses I had given Callie as to why we could not stay in my appartment. But then it finally stood there, in all its self-made magnificence, light firwood peeking through the lilies and wildflowers I had woven through and around every beam, its roof reaching to the ceiling of my bedroom. The fairy lights shed a soft glow on the flowers and the wood. My bed had had to make room for the gazebo, and I had slept on the floor for the last week and a half, but as I looked up at my work, I thought it had all been worth it. Not even the fact that I had to take it all apart to get it out of the room again could dampen my mood. Callie would love it. 

"Hey man," Max said and gripped my shoulder. "You okay? Everything ready?"

I looked towards the Bluetooth speakers, and handed Max my phone. "Yes, I believe everything is ready. She should be here any moment."

Max grinned and put a light pressure on my shoulder, then retreated behind the gazebo to Lily. Not a moment later, the door to the bedroom opened and Callie walked in, her brows furrowed in confusion and her eyes on the note that had asked her to come over. 

"James? What is-" She looked up from the note, and the first emotion I detected was surprise. Then awe as she took in the illuminated gazebo, and me, holding out a ring on my knees. Max started the music, a song I had specifically chosen for this occasion.

Callie's cheeks coloured under a sliver of embarrassment when her eyes grazed over Max and Lily, then they filled with tears as they came to rest on the laptop screen, and her brother. Then the emotions flitted over her face as if I was thumbing through a flipbook, faster and faster. Disbelief, doubt, confusion, then hope. She cocked her head as the music poured out of the speaker. Her eyes watered once again as she stared at me, and listened to the lyrics that conveyed exactly what I thought of her. When the last notes faded out, the room fell eerily silent. Tears kept sliding over Callie's cheeks as she stared at me, and I saw the glimmer of humour in her eyes before she said anything.

"You know you will have to take this apart again to get it out of the door?"

"Believe me, I know," I groaned. "See what I am prepared to do for you? I hate manual labor, you know how badly I suck at it."

She smiled brilliantly, and took a step towards me, a soft tenderness in her eyes. "You did all this just for me?"

I swallowed at the dubious wonder in her tone. After so much time, she still questioned whether anyone could really love her, whether anyone could truly see how amazing a person she was, never realizing how blatantly obvious it was to anyone whom she let close enough to get to know her.

"I did," I whispered. "I love you, wildcat."

Her smile shook, as more tears trailed down her face and splashed against her black tank top. Suddenly, she frowned and looked down at herself.

"If I had known what you were up to, I'd have dressed better."

I laughed. Leave it to Callie to worry about her clothes while I wanted to propose. But in fact, she couldn't have dressed any better. The frayed jeans, the sneakers, the wild hair, the tank top reading "Megadeth" in broad, white letters... It all screamed Calliope, and I loved it.

So, with another laugh, I caught one of her hands in mine and pulled her towards me. I kept her hand in mine and looked up at her. There was another explosion of pink on her cheeks as she peered down and bit her lower lip.

"Calliope Smith... Will you marry me?" My voice was hoarse, but my eyes bored into hers with intensity, trying to convey to her exactly how I felt, trying to open up to her like she always did for me.

Another tear slid down her face, and after a torturously long second, she nodded. At the same time, her lips lifted into a radiant smile.

"Really?" I breathed.

I needed to hear it.

Say it, wildcat. Please, say it.

Callie nodded through a noise that was half sob and half laugh. "Yes."

I sprang up and lifted her off the ground in a whirl of elation. The laughter that escaped me felt freeing and wild. When I sat her back on the ground, I took her face in my hands and looked into her eyes. The light hazel colour darkened as she stared back, and I felt the atmosphere around us shift. Belatedly, I realized that my breathing had sped up. I suddenly wished for our friends, and Ben especially, to be gone. A low gasp escaped Callie's lips and a moment later, she had crashed them to my own. I heard the cheers, and the half-hearted protests from the laptop, as if through wool. My heart jumped into my throat and I couldn't have prevented the growl coming out of my throat even if I'd wanted. She would be mine. And there was an almost primal, animalistic urge to claim her right then and there.

She drew back, alas, gasping for air, but I saw the same fierce hunger reflected in her eyes. Someone cleared their throat behind my back, and I stepped back slightly, and with considerable effort, never looking away from her brilliant, beautiful eyes.

I loved how I could read her like an open book, the way her eyes and her face never tried to hide from me, unashamed and unafraid. Instead, they met me with freely given trust, and that meant more to me than I could ever have explained.

*We should remind ourselves more often that we're exceptional.*