Deserve [H.S.]

Chapter 53

ELATION

Harry excused himself to run some errands the following day after they returned home from their booth at the farmer's market. Noah wasn't surprised, given his conversation on the phone the night prior about meeting somewhere and discussing payment for something.

The excuse for him going out was to get more materials as usual, but Noah knew that he was specifically going somewhere else to do something else. She just didn't know exactly what.

While he was out, Noah decided to do the only logical thing and gave Colette a call. She told her best friend everything, after all.

"...and now he's out doing whatever it is he's doing and seemingly lying to me about it," Noah explained, sitting on one of the benches behind their apartment building that overlooked the dried-up creek.

Playing with the end of her simple sundress as she felt the sun's warmth seeping into her skin, Noah's eyebrows furrowed when Colette let out small laughs.

"Noah," she said, with a tone that indicated she knew something that Noah had not caught onto yet. "Come on. You're smart. Your amazing, caring, loving, loyal, serious boyfriend is meeting with someone under a contact name with the word 'ring' and is talking about payment."

"Yeah..." Noah trailed off, clearly not catching onto whatever Colette was trying to spell out.

Noticing that Noah had yet to understand, Colette rolled her eyes to herself and asked, "what other type of ring would your serious boyfriend be buying?"

The unmistakable gasp that flooded through the phone indicated to Colette that realization had finally befallen Noah.

All that Noah could do was ask, "you think?!"

Colette hummed, "gotta be. I'm a little offended he didn't reach out to me about what type of ring to get you, though."

Completely ignoring that comment, Noah felt an indescribable sense of electricity circulate throughout her body. "You really think he's buying an engagement ring?"

"Duh. Think about it. He has been working more lately, probably to be able to afford a ring, and you guys are as solid as they come."

Noah went silent for a moment, letting her mind take in the information as best she could. Was Harry really planning on proposing to her? It wasn't the craziest thing to consider. After all, they had known each other for nearly 2 years. While they weren't necessarily together for that entire 2-year period, they might as well have been. It felt like they were, anyway. Not in a bad way, either, but in the best way. It felt like they had always been meant for each other and had always been missing a piece of themselves until they found each other.

Did Harry really think they were ready to take such a big step in their relationship? Or, was it even that big of a step for them anyway? They were already living together and had been for over six months. That may not have been an outrageously long time or anything, but it felt as if it was. You learn a lot about a person after living with them for an extended period of time. One major thing that they both learned was that they are very much able to live together easily. Sometimes other couples aren't so lucky.

As such, marriage didn't seem like that big of a step for them to take. It didn't feel like it was that far away from what they already had. Plus, they were both on the same page about wanting kids. While marriage wasn't necessary to have a family together, it wasn't crazy to think that they went hand-in-hand for their relationship.

"Holy shit..." Noah muttered under her breath before asking in a whisper, "he's really gonna propose, isn't he?"

"Mhm," Colette dragged out her hum of affirmation. "I better be your maid of honor."