It was a warm spring evening in San Diego and we were sitting at the very edge of the shore, where sand met landscaping. Emily was using her powers to grow daisies in fast bunches so that she could pluck them and weave them into thick chains. She was already wearing a crown of them and was trying to talk me into wearing a second one.
"You have to at least be dating a guy to get him to wear flowers," I pointed out, laughing, but her face took on a serious look. It startled me enough that I stopped fighting her, and she dropped the flowers onto my head.
"Does that mean we're dating?" I asked.
She snickered. "We might as well be, you know. I know you aren't seeing anybody else."
"Yeah, well, I'm busy being invisible, you know how it is." I turned away from her and looked out at the tide coming in. "We pretty much have been dating, yeah. Might as well be past dating and into... you know. Whatever's after that. I've had it bad for you for a while."
There was something bothering her, though, I could tell. "What's wrong?"
It took her a long time to respond. "I broke rule number one."
"Rule one?"
"Don't fall in love with your fuckbuddy."
I laughed and she punched me in the arm.
"My mom is going to lose her mind if I tell her about you."
"Why?"
"Well, college..." she hunted for the word. "Not dropout."
"Washout?"
"Something like that. And a draft dodger. And a Catholic."
"Well, I'm not really a practicing Catholic, so it would only come up if we were having a church wedding. I don't think my mom would forgive me if I had a church wedding that wasn't Catholic."
"Oh god, I never want to have a big wedding. Can you imagine, as big as my family is, and as big as yours is, and all our friends...?"
"Yeah, we'd be better off having the exact opposite of a Catholic wedding."
"What's the opposite of a Catholic wedding?"
"Um. Eloping?"
"Oh, that would drive my mom mad."
"We could go to Las Vegas, get married by Elvis. That would be the opposite of a serious marriage."
"Are... are you proposing?"
"No, no, I wouldn't want to do that to you. I mean... if I did, would you say yes?"
"I don't know. If I did, I wouldn't want an expensive diamond."
"No? I mean, my family has a ring that gets passed down..."
"Oh, that would be different."
"Okay, good. Er. I actually have... my brother just wrote me and asked me to send it back so he could give it to the girl he's dating. So if you wanted..."
"Are you asking me just to spite him?"
"No! Just, I asked my parents to send me the ring a couple of months ago. Because I was thinking about it. I've been kind of holding on to it." I pulled the box out of my pocket. I hadn't planned on this tonight, I'd just been carrying it by habit.
Emily just stared at me. I swallowed hard and held the box out to her.
"Will you marry me?"
She smiled.
"I wasn't sure how you'd feel about me asking. I'm not trying to enslave you in the patriarchy or anything."
"Dan, stop trying to sound like my women's studies teacher."
"I just meant- I love you. I want to be with you. That's all."
"That sounds great," Emily answered with a smile. "I think if I'm going to be enslaved by the patriarchy, I'd like it to be with you."
"So... that's a yes, then?"
"Yes," she laughed, and I slipped the ring onto her finger.