The Fashion of Love | Adult F/M Romance [COMPLETE]

ch. 61 - New Year's Eve, Again

-x-December 31st-x-

Ravi gathered Sora into his arms to watch as the clock struck midnight on December 31st.

"Not too bad a year, eh?"

Sora settled into his embrace, a content smile lighting her face. The boys were sound asleep upstairs, having tired themselves out early in the night playing with the other children at the Himura Media New Year's bash. Unlike there, she and Ravi were the only ones invited to this party. Gallegos and Misra, party of two, but this time it was the right two.

"Not too bad at all. And you know what I just realized?"

"Tell me."

"They say that what you're doing at midnight on New Year's Eve is what you'll be doing all year. Last year, this time, you were holding me, and look where we are."

"We'd better make this a tradition, because I never wanna let you go."

"I like the sound of that."

"Tell me how you like the sound of this:

"Then grudge me not my fond endeavor,
To hold you in my sight forever;
Let none, not even you, disparage
Such a valid reason for a marriage."

"And you're a Nash fan. How did I miss that? Is this your way of proposing?"

Ravi looked at her sidelong. She nearly bought his ploy; she would have if his fidgeting hands didn't give him away.

"I was just wondering how you liked it."

She stilled his hands with hers. "Ravi, be serious."

"About us, always."

"Then you should know, I think it's a very valid reason for marriage."

"I'm glad to hear that. I might have had to have an embarrassing talk with Diana Parrilla had you disagreed." Ravi reached between the sofa cushions to unearth a green velvet box. "This is yours."

He opened the box and Sora couldn't quite catch her breath.

The ring was rose gold inlaid with flawless diamonds. Anthony's had been a showier affair. This one dwarfed the mother lode Anthony had left her for meaning.

"Read the inscription."

"To my difference, just as fair."

Sora struggled for a moment to think of where the words came from. She hadn't had much occasion to read her poetry when her life had become an epic in itself, but she reached and on the edge of memory she found the words.

"Frost."

"I butchered him a little to make it fit, but I think you get my meaning. You are no less fair than the road I've already traveled. You're the one I'm travelling from here on and you've made all the difference to me."

Ravi took the ring and slipped it on her finger. No audience. No family. Nothing else that need said. Just the two people who mattered most underneath it all.

At 12:02 on the first day of this new year, Sora kissed the man who would be her next husband and, she hoped, her last.

"Happy New Year, Ravi."

"Happy New Year, S."

...

...

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

-The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost -

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