Liar

35

The waves gently lapped at the shore, seabirds singing quietly in the distance as we sat in the peaceful quiet. I loved our getaways. Since our first one the month after we got together, we made sure to take at least 2 breaks like this a year. Longer 2- or 3-weeks vacations where nothing outside of us mattered. Paired with weekends away, we always had something on the cards to be looking forward to that made the year go a lot smoother.

"Come sit on me Tor." I looked up, quickly dropping the chain I was playing with around my neck and tucking it back into my dress. It took a few seconds for his words to sink in, lost in a world of my own thoughts. I grabbed his outstretched hand, not needing to step forward, just turn and sit in his lap rather than the deck chair beside him.

He slowly rand his hand up and down my calf, my eyes scanning across the beach behind him, nestling my hands into his hair.

"What you thinking Tori?"

"I can't believe we've been together 3 years." His chest vibrated under me but I didn't look down. "A lot of big changes in such a short period of time. It's weird when you look back on it every now and then you know. Like when you realize how you're living now was the opposite to what you thought life was going to be like."

"I can't say I do." I looked down at him. "This life I have with you was always how I imagined it being. Happy, working and making crazy money, beautiful house together, the dogs, the cars. All of it. Exactly how I pictured life being."

"Exactly?"

"Exactly." He nodded. "It isn't for you?" I sighed, looking back at the horizon.

"No. When I met you this isn't for a second what I saw the rest of my life looking like. I didn't think I'd be sat on a beach the night before my 30th birthday with you. In fact, there has been a dozen times since we got together I didn't think we'd hit the first year, or the second or the third. I'm not quite sure how I got here in the first place. I was supposed to be like Emmett. Stuck in some loveless marriage with kids I didn't want, living I life I hated, just because it kept the peace with my dad. And somehow in 9 months, I went from being perfectly content with that outlook, in full acceptation of it, spending every weekend with a new guy having fun whilst I could, to cutting off all contact with my parents, quitting all of my jobs to focus on one, living in your house and using all of my savings to set myself up on my feet. I still don't quite understand how you coming into my life undid it all, but you just pulled at one string and it all unravelled." He chuckled. "I know. I know the irony; you tell me all the time. You made me get this damn tattoo." I jabbed my pinkie into his chest, red line around it to match his. "Red string of fate. Still a stupid theory."

"A real one though babe. You said it yourself. I pulled at the string and everything unravelled."

"It did. Literally everything. You took me and just started pulling through the mess and underneath it all was some girl I didn't even know existed. I feel like I was lying to myself my whole life and I'm still trying to work out who she is but I know she's better with you." I cupped his face, kissing him softly. "I love you Ash. I don't say it enough, but I do."

"I know you do." He shuffled in his seat under me. "You know the first time I knew I would fall in love with you?"

"If you say during sex I swear to god-" He laughed as I shook my head. It genuinely wouldn't surprise me if this guy started falling for me as he was inside of me.

"It was watching you leave after that first night. You stood on the street and openly told me you lied about your name. You dropped that you had rules so I knew you did it often, you had a car waiting. Just all of it. From the moment I bumped into you. That first Saturday morning just cemented that I needed you. I was already leaning towards knowing there was something serious between us, that's why I wanted your number so bad. So, whenever this string started unravelling, I knew I had you somehow. And then when I saw you in dad's office, after you'd gone I didn't quite believe it so I looked you up online and stared at all these pictures and I was 100% certain right then that I was right."

"So, you fell in love with a one-night stand with 10 rules you made her break?" He nodded, grinning as my heart pattered in my chest. "Good job she fell in love with you too then isn't it?" I turned in my spot, laying my back against his chest, carefully pulling at the necklace. "I'm glad I had to get the tube that morning."

"You are?"

"Yeah. I hate rush hour in London. But I like it now. I like being down there because it reminds me of you stupidly. There's a lot of things that remind me of you now."

"Like what?" I turned back around slowly, putting my legs on either side of him.

"Like Dom Perignon. Pancakes. Every time I wear heels. When someone walks past me with a hoodie on under a denim jacket. Or when they smell of your after shave. Or like, you know when we go for a walk with the dogs and they cover the bathroom in mud when they shake? That reminds me of the freckles you get in the sun. Just stupid stuff. I was thinking a few weeks back about all this you know. Life before you and everything since. Whilst you were in Paris. I was just sat in the bath thinking about how crazy it was."

"We are a little crazy though."

"I know." I nodded quickly, looking down at him and sighing. "Ash?"

"Yes baby." I tapped my finger on his shoulder, swallowing hard before holding the ring up between us.

"Marry me."