“Adam,” I whisper, shaking my head, eyes flicking from the ring to him and back again.
“No more games, Cassie McBee. No more letting other people get in the way, or cursing bad timing, or letting miles stretch between us. I want you — all of you — from this very moment until my last full breath. I want to follow you to Baltimore and then to wherever you may go next. I want to be the only man who has the pleasure of cuddling you in your sweatpants and feeding you mint chocolate chip ice cream,” he says, and another round of laughters and awww’s reverberate around us. “I want to wipe away your tears, even if I cause them. I want to be the first one to call you doctor when you get that white coat — and I know you will. But more than anything else,” he breathes, taking the ring from the box and holding it in his shaking fingertips. “I want you to know with every beat of your heart that I am yours, that you are everything to me, and that we can face anything this crazy universe throws at us. Together.”
He reaches for my hand then — my left hand — and I tremble as he takes me in his grasp.
“Marry me, Cassie,” he says, his green eyes shining where they look up at me. “Marry me, and I promise, I will spend all my life infuriating you.”
A laugh rips from my chest, but tears invade my vision all the same as I nod, vigorously and relentlessly. “Yes,” I whisper for good measure.
And he slips the ring on my finger.
The crowd at the gate cheers, whistles and claps and hoots and hollers ringing in our ears as Adam rushes to his feet and pulls me into his arms. I kiss him in a way that is far from airport appropriate, but I don’t care. No one else exists to me in this moment. It’s just me and Adam floating on a cloud, his promise weighing down my finger, his love forever in my heart.
“Thank God you said yes,” he breathes into my ear for just me to hear. “It would have been really embarrassing if you’d said no.”
I laugh. “You knew my answer before you even thought to ask.”
“You’ve been known to surprise me.”
“That’s true,” I concede. When we pull back, I hold my hand up between us, moving my finger at the shiny, unfamiliar ring now occupying it. “Wow,” I breathe.
“Do you like it?”
“I would have said yes to an onion ring.”
He laughs, but I can’t take my eyes off the rock.
“Damn, that would have been a lot more affordable. Why don’t we return this one and just hit Burger King on the—”
I press my finger to his lips to shush him, and then kiss him to silence him even more, allowing him nothing but a satisfied chuckle against my mouth.
“Alright, before I lose myself completely and check us into the nearest airport hotel, we need to go beg that flight attendant to give us another ticket for this flight.”
I frown. “Wait, we’re still going?”
“Are you kidding? It’s your last semi-formal. Besides,” he says, kissing my hand. “We’ve got to get you graduated.”
Graduated.
I’ve been so lost in my heartache that I haven’t had time to let it sink in, that this is it, this is the end.
My time at Palm South University is almost up.
Adam collects my bag and then his, shrugging the duffle over his shoulder as he wheels mine behind him. Then, his blazing eyes find mine, and he crooks a smile.
“Ready?”
There he is. My fiancé. My future husband. The man who owns me, body and soul.
I slip my arm around his, the diamond on my finger catching the light. And I know that no matter what happens next, life will be the biggest adventure with him by my side.
“Ready.”
“OKAY, BITCH,” JESS SAYS as soon as we’re in my room. To call it my room at this point is kind of a stretch, seeing as how I have until tomorrow morning to have all my stuff moved out of the house. My sheets and comforter are the only thing still in place, everything else packed in boxes lining the walls. “Time to show me the money.”
“You really don’t believe me?” I ask.
“You really want her to prove it?” Cassie mirrors with a wrinkled nose.
Jess waves her off, popping one of the bottles of champagne we snuck into the house and covering the opening with her mouth to save any drops from spilling over. She snaps her fingers and points at me, then at the floor, telling me without words what she wants.
I laugh. “Alright, but remember you asked for it.”
“Oh, God. She did but we—”
Erin doesn’t have time to plead her case before I dramatically unzip my graduation gown, letting it fall to my feet in a puddle of polyester.