" Then what are you waiting for? You're a Serpent now, aren't you? Take what you want. Take this moment to make it something more."
//OR//
In which, a young girl is tired of being pushed around by her family, so she grows up.
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Chapter Seventeen: Just Say Yes
"Life is not the amount of breaths you take, its the moments that take your breath away." -Hitch
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"Well maybe you'd fit better as a Jones."
Time stops.
My body freezes in its place.
The hand that was running itself through his dark salt and pepper hair, stops.
After several moments of a stiff silence, neither of us saying a word, ultimately afraid of what the other might say, I finally speak up.
"FP, what do you-what do you mean by that?" My usual strong and confident voice is replaced with something much softer and more quiet. A voice I almost didn't even really recognize.
"Well, I guess I'm asking you to marry me, Cheri." He says and I notice the fear in his voice in the way it trembles.
His usual strong and authoritative tone is also gone and replaced with a shaky tone thats quiet and nervous. It held so much fear.
I move off of his lap and stand to look at him.
"FP, I-I don't know what to say." I shake my head, running a hand through my hair.
"I mean, your divorce isn't even finalized yet." I look at him with wide eyes.
"But it's getting there," He starts and stands in front of me, gently grabbing my hands in his.
"Pretty soon, it will be. And I've never felt love like this, Cheri. One that makes my heart skip a beat when I hear your laugh or see you smile. A love that makes my brain go fuzzy when I smell your perfume or your shampoo that I don't even know what it smells like because I'm a dude. And its a love thats so strong that when you're not here, I physically hurt. Its this deep pain, right here," He takes one of his hands and puts it over his heart.
"And I'm not a man of romantic words or a man of many words, even, and I don't know much about life or what the hell I'm doing with my life, but there is one thing I absolutely know for sure. And its that I want to wake up every morning to you sleeping, ever so peacefully, in my arms. I want to have you sitting beside me, as my Serpent Queen, for the rest of my life." He laughs softly.
"Because you, Cheri, are and always will be the love of my life. What I had before wasn't love. She never tried to make me better, she wanted me to stay like I was just so she could hate me for it. But you make me want to be a better man. You make me see the world in a brighter, better light. My skies aren't dark and gray anymore, they're bright and sunny and full of laughter and love. I was bitter and old and tired when I met you and I didn't even want to have anything to do with anyone when you came along. Do you get how amazing that is? That if you weren't as persistent and feisty as you are, we wouldn't be here right now. I would still be a mess and a drunk and I wouldn't have any purpose to my life. I said I didn't want to teach you guitar and you kept on and kept on until I said yes and ever since that day in Pop's my life has been forever changed. And you could say no to me right now. You could say no and call me crazy and whatever else you want, but I wouldn't care. Because I love you and you taught me that when you love someone you don't give up." He shakes his head as he looks deep into my eyes.
