Pulse

The suggestion

I woke up wrapped in Aaron's arms, with the sun streaming through the blinds. I don't move, instead I just cherish the quiet moment. I finally get restless and make my way out of bed, waking Aaron and Chelsea. I stretch and yawn, then get up to go downstairs.
"We should go out tonight." Aaron follows me down the stairs, and searches through the cupboards, for some reason, knowing I'm not making breakfast today.
"Sure, where you want to go?" I join him in the search for some food. I pull out some Lucky Charms and throw them on the counter while I grab a bowl and spoon. Aaron grabs Cheerios.
"I was planning on that one fancy place right in town, but we can go somewhere else if you want." He grabs the milk along with a bowl and spoon. He pours cereal in the bowl while I pour the milk in mine.
"That sounds good to me. I am not cooking tonight." I leaned up against the counter and tiredly ate my bowl of cereal with no enthusiasm.
We soon finish our cereal, and I decided to dedicate my day to cleaning the kitchen. I first load the dishwasher, carefully rinsing and wiping grime off of the dishes before placing them in a neat array in the dishwasher.
I realize the silence, and stop to put on some music. I jam out as I plug the drain and fill it with warm, soapy water to wash the remaining dishes that either couldn't fit in the dishwasher or isn't dishwasher safe.
I wonder where Aaron is. He left the house around a half an hour ago, but didn't say where he was going. I continue doing the dishes and clean the rest of the kitchen, using around 3 hours of my day.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

    "Hurry up!" I can hear the smile on his face as I rush to fix my hair and grab my purse. Sure enough, I run down the stairs and he's standing there, grinning. He's wearing a really nice suit, but one I've never seen before. The dark gray suit looked brand new, and he wore a silky red tie with it.
    "What's gotten into you? It's not like we've never been out before." I walk past him, and out the door. But he runs in front of me to open the car door for me. I, on the other hand, was wearing a silky dark purple dress that went down just past my knees. I completed the look with a pair of black velvety one-inch heels. I wasn't wearing much makeup, I was feeling confident tonight, just a little thin line of eyeliner.  My hair was down, but pinned up on one side with a barrett with a little red flower.
    He gets in the driver's side, starts the car, and lets it idle down for about a minute. Meanwhile putting the heat on considering it was early March and still frigid. "You look beautiful," He smiles at me and puts his hand on my leg.
    "And you look especially handsome." I smile back at him and put my hand over his. I still don't know what's gotten into him, he's always happy when we go out but this is especially odd, he never waits at the bottom of the stairs telling me to hurry. He pulls out of the driveway and off we go.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

    We pull into the parking lot of the restaurant, and we both step out of the car. Aaron comes around the side of the car as I close my door and takes my hand. We walk up a flight of stairs that bring us into the restaurant, and a woman a little older than me with blonde hair approaches us. "Aaron and Aphmau Lycan?" She looks up from a pad of paper she holds in her hands.
    "That's us." Aaron proudly smiles, briefly squeezing my hand.
    "Ha ha, we're not married." The waitress and I exchange smiles.
    "Not yet,"
    "Well, I'm just going to say you guys could definitely pass for a married couple." The waitress seems to lose her professional personality for a moment and Aaron and I laugh. "Well, I must now show you to your table, follow me." She gestures for us to follow, and she leads us to a seat with a window, since the building is elevated a bit above the rest of the city, we get a great view of the city below. 
    The waitress takes our drink orders, and continues to make small talk while she writes down the drinks (red wine). After she is finished, she leaves. A few seconds after she leaves she turns around and gestures to the many happy couples and mouths "This is why I have this job," She smiles as we laugh together.
    "So, what are we going to get for dinner?" I pick up the menu and scan through looking at the things I like.
    "I was going to have the spaghetti with some of this grilled chicken, looks really good." He shows me a picture of the order he wanted.
    "Oh, that actually looks really good, I think I'll have that too." Since we decided what we wanted, we stacked our menus and put them to the side of the table. The waitress comes over to pick up the menus, drop off our drinks, and take our orders.
    "We'll take two spaghetti with grilled chicken please," He orders for us as he takes a sip of his wine. The waitress leaves and soon comes back with our food.
    We start to eat while talking and laughing, downing our wine and asking for refills. As the night goes on, we will finish up our food and Aaron drops his fork on the ground a foot away from the table. We both reach for it, I'm just leaning over but Aaron abandons the fork and instead reaches in his back pocket. I pick up the fork confused, you don't need something from your back pocket to get a fork off the floor.
    "Aphmau Phoenix" I look up from the fork I hold and there he is, on one knee, holding a black velvet box with a beautiful ring sitting in it. I stand up fully and cover my mouth with my hand, tears instantly spring into my eyes and my bottom lip trembles. "I am ready to spend the rest of my life with you, will you marry me?" He's grinning like an idiot. He's adorable.
    The tears slip down my face and I knew the answer before he finished. "Yes," I collapse into him and the people around us clap. I didn't realize they were looking. "I love you so much, yes." I cry into his shoulder, sitting there on the floor, crying with unbearable joy. 
    I finally compose myself enough to stand up, and he takes my shaking hand and slips the ring on my finger. I instantly break down again. Aaron pulls me into a huge hug, and I gladly hug back. After a minute of hugging, he pulls away and grabs my shoulders, "Now let's get out of here." He smiles and I laugh.
    I start walking, but Aaron has other ideas. He lifts he off my feet and puts an arm under my knees to carry me. Aaron hands a $100 bill and a $50, and without comment turns us away, towards the door. The next few minutes go by, but I'm not really there.
We get to the car, and he doesn't put me down so I wrap my arms around his neck to hold me up while he unlocks the car and he brings me in with him and sits me on his lap. After he closes the door, I rest my head up against the window, and my feet trial over into the other seat. I kick my heels off and get comfortable as Aaron kisses me.
    I expect him to just sit here in the car and eventually stop and start the car, but he starts the car and pulls out of the restaurant, and he stops kissing me so he can focus on the road, which I am happy about no matter how much I wished we could have just stayed in the moment. I guess he just wanted to get home to resume, at least that's what it seemed like. At least that's what I wanted to do.
    We drive home in silence, and he always sneaks glances at me and smiles, squeezing my hand. I eventually doze off, but wake up to silence, which only means the car has been turned off. We were home.
    "You look adorable while you sleep by the way. Hate to say this, but we have to get up now." He helps me get off of him and out of the car and go to the other side to grab my shoes, but then I see Aaron already got them for me and I smile and head inside.
    Not a minute after I put my stuff down, Aaron comes from behind me and turns me around, his lips crashing into mine. We blindly make our way up the stairs, surprisingly not hitting anything or tripping. Once we get into our room, we change into night clothes and slip into bed, not caring about anything else, just happy to be home and together.
    He pulls me into his chest under the covers, and we cuddle. "Hey," he strokes my hair with two fingers. "We're getting married!" he says it with quiet excitement, and I smile even though no one can see.
    "And I am absolutely overjoyed," That's the last thing I say on one of the best days of my life.