He’s absolutely giddy and beaming. “Well, I have something to ask you, and then depending on your answer, I have something to give you.”
He sets the box on the bed and wraps me in his arms for a moment. When he lets me go I look at him with an eyebrow raised.
“Do I get whatever is in the box no matter what my answer is?”
Wills shakes his head and smiles at me. “No. It’s all part and parcel. Literally.” He chuckles at his own joke and I laugh at him.
“Okay then, ask away.” I look at him expectantly.
“There’s a formal dinner coming up at the end of the week. It’s for the Columbia alumni; a family dinner of sorts. I’d like you to come. As my date.”
The hope on his face is adorable.
“You’re out of your mind,” I start, waiting until his face starts to fall before I quickly add, “if you think I’d ever say no.”
He breathes out a sigh of relief and wraps me in another hug.
“Good, because I cannot wait to see you in this.” He bends down and picks the box up, lifting the lid for me.
Inside the box is a beautiful gown, carefully set in tissue paper. It’s dark blue along the top, fading gradually into an icy silver-blue at the bottom. It has the lightest shimmering effect that also fades as it reaches the bottom, like snow falling in little tiny crystals toward the silver.
If I spin in this dress, it’s going to look like moonlit waves rippling through the air. There’s even a matching sheer silvery wrap to go around my shoulders.
“I thought it would go with your eyes. You have such beautiful eyes,” he says, and his cheeks turn a little pink. “Do you like it?”
I shake my head a little and lean over the box to kiss him, which is tricky, since he’s so much taller than me. “You have no idea. I love it.”
Wills looks like he’s keeping a secret and he’s excited about it. “There’s more.”
“More?”
“In the box.”
I look inside again and sure enough, there’s another tiny package. I pull it out and open it with care.
“Oh my god,” I gasp, and raise my eyes to him. “These aren’t real … are they?”
There’s a beautiful silver necklace and earrings inside the box, each with a small star-shaped diamond.
Wills looks serious for a moment. “Anything I ever give to you is going to be real.”
I’m overwhelmed, and I set the jewels back in the big box before I somehow ruin them. No one has ever given me anything like that before.
“This is too much,” I say. “I can’t take them.”
“Nonsense.” Wills sets the box down on my desk and takes me in his arms, touching my cheek as he looks at me. “I told you that I have a lot of making up to do. This sort of thing, you’re just going to have to get used to. It comes with the territory.”
I still stare down at the box like it’s going to shatter at any moment in my hands.
“I don’t know how to accept this sort of thing. What am I supposed to do?” The grubby street-urchin in me is already tallying up how much something like that would go for in a pawn shop.
Wills kisses me softly. “Just smile and wear it. I mean, a little thanks wouldn’t be amiss …” here, he trails one finger down from my collarbone to the top button of my blouse, “but it’s yours, so do as you like.”
“How am I supposed to tell you no, after all this?” I lean up and kiss him, and the kiss grows long and deep. That familiar fire is kindled, and he breathes huskily against my neck, somewhere by my ear.
“Then don’t.”
Chapter 15