Natalie picks him up and dances around with him, still singing. She has a truly amazing voice. I jump to my feet and applaud when the song ends.
Natalie and Alex walk hand in hand over to the piano. Ashley has come out during the performance!
Alex sits on the bench next to the pianist. He smiles at me. I wave back and laugh.
Natalie begins to sing the same love song she sang when Ashley and I had our first kiss. My heart skips a beat.
Ashley slowly makes her way over to me. This wasn’t the plan at all. This is so much more extravagant and yet also so personal.
Ashley stands in front of me and gives me a kiss. It takes my breath away. Natalie quiets her voice down to a hum.
Ashley gets down on one knee. She pulls a ring box out of her pocket and presents it to me.
“Jessica Cox, will you marry me?” She asks.
I know that this is all part of the plan, but I still feel dizzy from all the emotions I feel. Tears begin to fall down my cheeks.
“Yes,” I say. “Yes, of course!”
She gets up and pulls me into an embrace. This time, it’s her turn to dip me. She gives me another kiss.
If this was a movie, I feel like the credits would roll. This is my happy ending. All of the nerves have faded into euphoria.
She stands me back up and I stumble a bit. We both giggle at my clumsiness. I notice everyone else in the room is applauding. I’m reminded that we were doing this for the sake the audience.
I hope they were entertained. I take a breath to steady myself. I have to make an effort to remind myself that this isn’t real.
None of that was real. It’s hard to believe because I think the tears I’m crying are real.
Fifteen
Ashley
I can’t believe how well this plan worked. It went off without a hitch.
I thought of giving Jess a little surprise with the proposal, but I didn’t expect it to go so well. This is absolutely amazing.
I didn’t realize Jess was such a great actress. She looked so shocked. When her eyes started welling up, I nearly began to cry myself.
She really sold her performance. She almost tricked me into thinking it was real too.
I hug her tightly.
“You did great,” I whisper in her ear. She hugs me back.
“Thank you.”
I take her hand. I reach up to wipe her tears away.
“Should we go mingle?” I ask.
She smiles at me. “Mingle we shall.”
I laugh and take her over to meet people on the crew and guests who were in the dining room during the proposal. They’re all grinning so much. I’m grinning too.
We chat with the people around the room. The conversations are mostly the same. They congratulate us and ask to see the ring. We tell them how happy we are.
Jess really drives it home during these conversations. She even sounds like she’s getting choked up. I hug her tightly as we go from group to group.