Green-minded (EDITING) ✔

T H I R T Y - F O U R: Serious talk

*Tony's POV*

Lucy announces, "They're getting married and she even signed the proposal! It's so romantic!"

Her countenance is priceless. It's a fusion of shock, choler and is that a bit of.. delight? Her mouth forms a big' 'O' when she faced me.

That's wonderful to know that she feels even slight happiness of getting married to me. My heart is full. I can't hide the smirk that forms in my face because I'm swelling with joy.

She clutches my hand tightly, taking me outside the house with her. I've never seen her look so angry and confused but I'm fascinated because she looks so cute.

We silently traverse a wide, wooden walkway on top of the still lake and when we reached the end of it, she pulls me down with her. Side by side, we sit next to each other. There's a moment of silence as we ponder on what we should say to one another and during that time, I watch numerous white, brown, and black ducks swimming peacefully on the lake.

The heavy atmosphere gets tranquil as time passes by. I'm thankful for the sound of the birds and barking dog on the front lawn, swaying trees beside the lake, the horses, beef cattle and sheep on the other side of the ranch. Ash begins to breathe freely and I mirror her respiration. A quiet calm settles over us and that's when I know that it's time to talk.

"Will you marry me, Ash?" My eyes wander to her beautiful face as I sincerely ask. My heart's pounding against my chest as I take her hand.

"So this is your brilliant idea of a proposal? Break the good news to my mom and grandma first before you even ask me?" She looks a bit irritated yet I'm relieved that the anger is already absent on her voice.

"It's not that. I'm sorry... Your grandma asked me what's the real score between us. I got a little excited. I know it's my fault and if you don't want to marry me, I'll tell them the truth." I don't know what came to me at that time and I regret that I put her on the spot like that, but I do not regret writing on the blank oath my pure request to marry her, "I hope you know that I want to marry you."

"How are you so sure that I'm Ash? Also, why do you want to marry me even if we've cheated on each other?"

I look straight into her eyes, "You can hide your angelic face under your thick make-up, your gray eyes with green contact lenses, you can color your hair with ash gray, pink, red or rainbow colors, but you can't conceal yourself from me. I've already got a hunch when you've slept beside me taking my nightmares away, when you make my heart beat fast like no other women can. When you make me want to protect you and forgive you, other than that, I've got the confirmation when you've kissed me. It's the very same kiss that we've shared on the well except that there's an added longing to it."

Her face gets so red and she shyly takes her eyes off me. I lift her chin up, "After the cruise trip, I've got to ponder upon everything. I know in my heart that you're not the type to cheat and you must've said those words and kissed Ashton because you were hurt. Please know that I did not cheat on you. Joan and another woman planned it."

"What do you mean and who's the other woman?"

"I don't know, Joan came to me the night you were with Trixie and Ashton. She barged into our room, telling me there's something I need to know urgently." I close my eyes trying to remember what happened that night, "Then she showed me a photo of you with Ashton and it seems that you're kissing him passionately. I didn't believe it due to my strong intuition that it might be set up by Joan herself, I've decided to go to the bar to protect you but before I get to leave the room, another woman injected something on me, making me dizzy and unconscious. I woke up the next morning after hearing Trixie's shout, surprised that I'm already bare naked with Joan beside me. Believe me, there's nothing that happened between us."

She shakes her head. Ash looks so confused, she stares into my eyes as if trying to check on something, "Are you telling the truth? You're a superb actor, I'm not sure if I can believe you."

"I understand, you may still think it over. I know our relationship then was like a whirlwind romance, it happened in an instant but I was sincere when I said I love you and I still feel the same way." I want to kiss her so bad after seeing her bite her plump lower lip. I struggle with this strong desire but chose to continue to speak, "Kelly helped me find out the truth. She was a retired U.S. secret agent and I hired her to find you and Ashton for the past two years. She didn't find you but she located Ashton in the United Kingdom last year. At that time, he agreed to meet with me. I came to the United Kingdom to talk to him, he said he doesn't know your whereabouts. He also admitted that the kiss never occurred between you and him, he said I was tricked and he laughed at me. Until now, my blood boils whenever I remember his belly laughters." I roll my eyes and breathe out loudly, "He and Trixie are dating by the way."

"For real? Trix didn't tell me. That's weird."

"Do you still communicate with her?"

"I do, she visits the bar sometimes whenever she's in California."

"I'm aware that she's based in Miami. I met with her a year ago to ask about you, however, she says she has no idea where you are. I explained but I only got slapped on the face twice."

She beams, "That's my sister."

"Yes, she's a badass and got some sass like you."

"No, I'm the good girl, you're the bad guy."

I chuckle, "Vice versa, love."

Her cheeks flushed after hearing me say 'love', she's really cute.

"You're bad, you've kept the blank oath even if it's void and used it as you please."

"That's unfair. It can't be void, I've kept the end of my bargain and so did you."

"We only learned about that just now. I didn't benefit from it. It didn't serve its purpose to save my career."

"It's not too late. We'll save your career. I'll help you."

"I doubt it can be salvaged."

"It will be. Mark my word."

She shakes her head as she smiles.

"Now back to the original question, can you please answer it? I'm dying here."

"That's the longest proposal statement or should I say argument ever." She grins from ear to ear, revealing her perfect set of white teeth, how I miss those smiles for me.

"Come on now. Yes or yes?" My breathing is fast as my heart somersaults inside my chest. She's killing me.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Note

Cliffhanger!

Don't kill me, guys. Love y' all

Thanks for reading,
Miss*s Happy 💗