Your Average Collection of Short stories||✔︎

The Proposal

Every year on exactly the same day me and Mike walk side by side down the pathway to the London Eye, it's sort of like a tradition, why? Because it's where we met. 

In the summer of 2015 I was walking by myself along the river and I was having a really great day, I had just got out of university and I was ready to start my life as a full adult. Except my first day of freedom didn't go as planned. The sun was starting to set and the Eye had started to light up so I decided to sit and take in the view... until i got mugged. A middle aged man came and sat down next to me, we didn't say anything but it seemed a little awkward so after a few minutes I stood up and started to walk away, I expected to be able to just walk away form the situation but the man grabbed my arm and started wrestling me for my bag. Fortunately for me a handsome man of around my age was walking past and decided to help a damsel in distress. Luckily both me and Mike came out of the situation ok but I knew at that moment that we had a connection. So we started dating and that leads us to where we are now, four years later.

"Hey Niki?" Mike said, "Maybe this year we should ride the Eye, we could see the whole of London up there." 

I nodded and Mike kissed my cheek. "Let's go!" and with that he had let go of my hand and was racing off to the Eye, leaving me chasing him in hope of actually getting there first.

I reached the Eye a little bit after Mike, he had always been the sporty one, and when I finally reached the ticket queue I had found that he had managed to buy the tickets in advance. Something is going on. 

We stood in the queue and talked about little things and when we weren't talking we were watching the sun go fully down, it was beautiful. 

We quickly reached the front of the queue and stepped onto the carrier thingy. It was just me and Mike. 

"Babe, aren't there supposed to be loads of people in one carrier?"

"Yeah," Mike replied, "But I reserved this one just for us, this is a really special night for us."

And with that we were in the sky, in awe of the gorgeous view. The London street lights were on and all of the cars seemed to be as small as ants, The buildings looked like the size of monopoly and the people, well, they were like specks of dust being moved by the wind. Everything was perfect.

Everything kept getting smaller and smaller and as we neared the top of the wheel Mike put his arms around me and we just stood in silence.

At precisely 23:00 me and Mike were at the highest point of the Eye and we started talking again, about the future.

"Yeah, so, one day I want to be able to go to Greece, that would be such a cool holiday, Mike..." Mike interrupted with  a small clearing of his throat. 

"Niki, I want to ask you something," He said, "And you have to be quiet until i'm done ok? No questions or anything that involves speaking." I nodded my head hesitantly and let Mike twist me around to be facing the back of the carrier.

"Ok, in three seconds I want you to turn around."

1...2...3...

I turned around and gasped as I saw Mike on one knee with a box in his hand. He winked at me with a huge grin and tears came to my eyes as he flicked open the lid and the most beautiful diamond ring I had ever seen rested inside.

"Niki Marie Emmerson, I love you so much, ever since the day we met I knew you were the one. You are beautiful, kind, funny and smart and I love you to the ends of the Earth, I would do anything for you. So would you give me the greatest pleasure of allowing me to spend the rest of my life with you. Niki, will you marry me?"

I nodded, not able to form any words as tears escaped my eyes. Mike took my hand and placed the ring on my finger. He smiled and you could see in his eyes that he was just as happy as I was. I kissed him and jumped up into his arms, holding him tight. I whispered in his ear, "I love you, so, so much!"

He laughed and kissed my cheek.

"Now how about Greece for the Honeymoon?"