The Missing Gem

30 | Au Revoir, London!

Lucas 

"Ni- Nicole..." I felt like I was becoming a stutterer, the rest of the words curling under my tongue and not coming out at all. 

I was confused but more than that, I was shocked, surprised. I've been feeling a lot of that lately. 

I spent two or three good minutes in silence, my mouth agape and ready to say some words but none came out. 

I searched her brown eyes for a small hint of hope, a hint of direction on where to get my speech started.

"My answer is yes..." My eyelids slid down as my eyes closed and I drew in a sharp breath.

"Your hesitation tells me there's a but coming." She said with a small voice, a whisper that was barely audible. 

I could feel the disappointment in her trembling voice, and my heart broke into a million pieces that I was causing her any kind of hurt or sadness. 

"But..." I said, the three lettered word burning my tongue as I said it out loud. "I don't think we should get married just yet."

I couldn't decipher the new expression that took over her flawless appearance, her smile now gone and the brightness in her eyes nowhere to be seen. 

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Ye-yeah, I-I just... Enlighten me, then."

I gave her a questioning look, reflecting my questioning mind, wanting Nicole to blurt it all out and explain what she meant by that. "I don't follow..."

"Look, I agree with you. But I..." Her eyes looked around the room, as if she was looking for words on the walls. "I thought you wanted to get married now."

"What made you think that?"

"You told your parents you wanted to spend the rest of your life with me. I-I thought you wanted to propose to me. Then I found the design for an engagement ring and I... I thought you were going to do it it tonight and I... Guess I was just driving myself crazy all this time."

"No need to." With my fingers hooked around a strand of her hair, I pulled it over her ear and let my hand rest on her cheek, her soft skin making my fingertips tremble. 

"Look, I do want to spend the rest of my life with you. You knew that already, we're in this forever, aren't we?"

She nodded in agreement while she gulped at the same time, an indication for me to continue. "To clarify things, when you heard that I wasn't thinking about proposing to you, that wasn't what I implied when I said that. I think that if we want to make things work between us, we need to communicate. I would never catch you by surprise with an engagement ring without speaking to you first about marriage itself." 

We communicated, like we always do, and came to the conclusion that this was just one big, fat misunderstanding and that neither of us was ready for a commitment that large, this soon into our relationship. 

We agreed on one thing though - we wanted to get married in the future, and we wanted to get married to each other only. The timing just had to be right. 

Her velvet smooth tongue met mine as they fought for dominance during a heated kiss we shared. My hands traveled to her waist and my fingers hugged her curves unwittingly. 

Despite being 4 A.M., I couldn't stay an inch apart from Nicole right now. We could sleep all day tomorrow. In fact, I could not care less if we didn't get any sleep at all, I only cared about having her close to me, about feeling all her love.