Imagines (5SOS and 1D)

Wedding Dress )A.I)Untitled Part 193

The apartment is silent. Ashton is out. Grabbing breakfast. Here I stand, in front of my wardrobe. In the bedroom. I had padlocked the doors. I trust Ash. Of course I do. But I always know he's easily swayed. If any of the boys press him to have a sneaky peek at the dress.... It wouldn't take him long to agree. "A little peek? That wouldn't hurt. Right?" Now the doors hang open, the padlock in my hands. The chain fallen at my feet. Hanging in the wardrobe, hidden in a white bag is my dress. My wedding dress. I smile as I remember the day he asked....

--

It was a cold, wintry day. We were walking the street, hand in hand, the snow dropping around us. We had just been to the little café down the street from our apartment block. My mouth tasted of the sweet hot chocolate we'd just drunk. He was silent. I was suspicious. Ashton was a chatted guy. Everything around him he had to discuss. On the way here he had wondered why ice was slippery when unfrozen water was not. Not especially slippery anyway. Then he'd pondered the fact that cats had longer tails than dogs. Or at least most dogs. And finally, when stepping inside the warm café, he wondered aloud who had come up with hot chocolate. And why some had it with boiling water (like I did at home) whilst others preferred warm milk.

Then as we were padding home along the empty, dark streets, he was silent. I knew Ashton. I knew everything about him. I could read his facial expressions. His brow was furrowed, eyes cast down on his feet and his lips were pursed. He was in deep thought. Yet something in his eyes, as I looked deep into them, I caught a glimmer of worry. What could he be worrying so much about? And why wasn't he sharing? I squeezed his hand in reassurance and he gave a small squeeze back. I watched a dog trot across the street, glancing both ways like a human would, and giggled. Ashton followed my gaze but did not smile, nor laugh. That was odd. Really odd. Ashton's laughed at most everything. Almost. That dog would sure get a laugh out of him any other day. But not then.

"Ash?" I stopped. He walked a few steps ahead then turned. "Is everything okay?"

He nodded. "Fine." Our hands had fallen apart and his dipped into his pocket. He let out a relieved sigh. When I tilted my head in confusion he explained, "Thought I'd dropped my phone."

That's when I noticed his phone taking shape in his front pocket on his jeans. "It's in your jeans Ashton," I said slowly. His eyes widened for a brief second. He patted his pocket. "Oh yes, of course."

His lips trembled and he cupped his hands over his mouth and breathed out. "Should we head home? It's freezing."

"Not until you tell me what's in your pocket."

"What?"

"Your pocket Ash. You thought you'd lost something."

Again his hand quickly dipped in. I waited. His hand came out empty. "My wallet," he said quickly.

"Your wallets at home. You paid with cash."

"Oh right. Yeah. My money then."

"Really? How convenient that the thing I mentioned was the thing you thought you'd lost," I scoffed.

"Huh?"

"Don't play dumb Ashton. What is it?"

He sighed then. Ran a hand through his hair, which by now was flecked with snowflakes. "I... It's... Well...." He stopped. Cursed under his breath. "Not bad," he muttered.

"What?"

He took a deep breath. Dropped to one knee. "I wanted to do this someplace special. I was still planning. I didn't want to leave it at home." He dug in his coat pocket and pulled out a blue velvet box.