Aphrodite's Beauty

Epilogue

Six years later

I sit in the car, dressed in the dress that Reed gave me for my birthday, while he drives us to a secret location. No matter how many times I try to get anything out of him, he insists on it being a secret and tells me to be patient.

"Here we are," Reed says, climbing out and racing around to open my door and help me out of the ute.

"Are you ever going to let me have a drive?" I ask, giggling, already knowing what his answer will be; It's like an inside joke with us.

"I love you, but I also love this ute," He says, his face splitting into a grin. "Maybe someday."

"You've been saying that since you got it," I tell him, shaking my head.

"I'll take you out to our favourite four-wheel driving spot next weekend," Reeds tells me, chuckling. "You can be persistent; you know that, right?"

"You knew that when you fell in love with me," I point out as he grabs my hand and starts leading me down a small garden path. Looking around trying to figure out where we are but I recognise nothing familiar.

"I know, it's one of the very many things I love about you." Reed kisses my hand and pulls me to a stop in front of a lake.

I now recognise the lake as the one behind the hotel where we had our first dance together. It's the lake where Reed asked me to be his girlfriend. Across the other side of the lake is the Children's hospital where I donated the cubby house I made for my final Design and Technology project; the children love it and it brings them joy. Laying in front of us is a blanket laid with a picnic basket sitting on top; there are fairy lights twisted around the branches of the trees about and a bouquet of roses sits on top of the basket.

"What do you think?" Reed asks, scratching the back of his neck. Even after six years together he still gets nervous about stuff.

"Reed, it's amazing, I love it. You did all of this for me?" I look around at everything in awe.

"I had a little help from West and Carter," He confesses, sheepishly.

"Thank you, so much, for everything." I sit down on the blanket and pull him down next to me. "What did you pack? I've been feeling like Macaroni and cheese with fries."

"Lucky you then," He tells me, opening the basket and pulling out a baking with macaroni and cheese, followed by a container full of french fries.

He sets them down and I serve some on to our plates. "What would you like to drink? I have champagne or orange juice." He holds up the champagne in one hand and the orange juice in the other.

"Orange juice, please," I tell him, with a smile.

"Are you sure you don't want some champagne with me?"

"Maybe, later."

"Okay, well let's dig in," He tells me set a champagne glass full of juice next to my plate.

We eat in relative silence with the just the lapping of the lake in the background. When we are finished eating Reed gets up from his on the blanket and ducks behind the tree.

"What are you doing?" I ask, curious what he is doing.

"Grabbing this." Reed comes out from behind the tree with the guitar he's had since we meet. "I want to sing you a song."

He takes a seat and checks that the guitar is tuned. Once he's finished tuning it, he takes a deep breath and starts playing. After the intro he sings, "In case you didn't know" by Brett Young. I recognise the song and I'm blown away by the emotion that Reed puts into the song.

When he finishes singing, he sets his guitar aside and pulls a small velvet box out of his pocket. Getting down on one knee, Reed looks up at me with eyes filled with so much love. He opens the box to reveal a lovely platinum band with two small heart stones in the center; one a topaz and the other a ruby, our birthstones.

"Aphrodite Swartz, I started falling in love with you the day I meet you, and I've continued falling in love with you more and more every day since. Will you do me the greatest honour in the world by becoming my wife?" Reed asks, holding the box out to me.

"Yes, yes. A thousand times, yes," I answer him, diving into his arms, with tears of joy running down my face.

He pulls back to place to the ring on my finger and kisses my hand before kissing me with all of the love we feel for each other.