The Missing Gem

45 | Perfectly Imperfect Fairytale

Nicole

I don't know how I haven't gone blind.

Ever since Lucas and I got engaged, I can't stop staring at the ring on my finger. It is so beautiful.

We haven't even thought about when and where we wanna get married, for now we're simply enjoying being engaged. We have a lot on our plate right now with the unexpected baby and our own professional projects.

Now that we're back in San Francisco after my little book tour ended in London, we have had more time with each other and that was just what we needed after getting engaged.

"Hey." His voice caught my attention and I averted my look from the ring, to Lucas.

"Hi." I whispered back, moving my body closer to Lucas'. "Sorry, I was distracted staring at this beauty."

We were sitting on the sand with our legs close to our chest and our arms resting on our knees lazily.

He traced his thumb across my bare back. "I'm really glad you like the ring."

We decided to come to the beach this morning with Sparkles. She had grown to the full size of an adult dalmatian, which meant she was almost taller than me whenever she got on her two back legs. And that meant that she had a lot of energy and could really use the free space of the beach to run as much as she'd like. An apartment wasn't ideal for that.

"Are you kidding? Of course I love it. Especially because you created it for me. It's unique, it's the only one. It means something."

He smiled at my words before leaning in to kiss my lips passionately.

"You know, I thought a lot about whether or not I should propose with a ring."

I inhaled deeply. I knew why, it was obvious.

"This is different. This means something. I would love whatever it was you proposed to me with, and I would always say yes."

Sparkles dropped the tennis ball on the sand before licking my finger.

"She likes it too, see?"

Lucas scratched the spot behind her ears while I grabbed the lime green ball.

"Quick, go fetch!" I threw the ball into the water and the dog ran like the wind into the ocean to catch the ball with her mouth.

It is true what they say - the weekend goes by way too fast, and that meant we were now hours away from getting back to another week of work. On Sunday night, Lucas and I sat next to each other in bed, scrolling through a bunch of realtors' websites, looking for a more permanent place to live.

We've been talking about it for a while now, my apartment in San Francisco is way too small for the two of us, a dalmatian and a baby.

"So, with the money from the book and the money you're making for this first film at Pixar, I think we can afford a small three bedroom house, with a backyard." I said after doing some calculations on my phone.

"Sounds good."

"Why do I get the feeling that it doesn't sound that good to you?" I questioned after seeing the blank expression on his face.

"Well," He started explaining, tilting his head to my side, looking at me. "A three bedroom would imply we were considering having another baby in the future, am I right?"

Right.

"Oh, I'm sorry. We didn't talk about another baby... I-I've always dreamed of a family of four - us and the kids. But if you don't want to, that's-"