He cut her off. “Where are our drinks? This is taking a long time.” He held up his hands in frustration.
Her brow creased. “It’s busy. It’s a Saturday night. I’m sure she’ll be here any minute.” She took a beat. “Anyway, so—”
He shook his head. “This is ridiculous,” he said harshly.
She reached for his arm, trying to settle him. He was never like this. He wasn’t an impatient man who bristled at slow service. “It’s fine. We’ll get our drinks in a few minutes,” she said calmly.
“Everyone else is getting their drinks,” he said, pointing to the bartender now serving a Manhattan to a man a few seats down.
“Then I’m sure we’ll be next,” she said, trying to reassure this unexpected ire from him.
He shook his head, and she swore he was about to start blowing steam. His jaw was set hard, and anger flared in his eyes. “I’m just going to do it myself.”
He stood up, heading to the other side of the bar. Her jaw dropped. Was he crazy? “Clay,” she hissed, forgetting about the proposal. “You can’t do that.”
“Yes I can,” he said as he marched behind the bar and reached for a glass. “Now, I believe it was a Belvedere for you?” he asked, turning around and reaching for the vodka off the mirrored shelf of liquors.
A hot burst of embarrassment splashed down in her body, and red raced across her cheeks. Other patrons were noticing and staring at him as he poured the clear drink into a sturdy tumbler. But the bartender didn’t seem to care. “You have to stop,” she said sharply. “Just let them do their jobs.”
He arched an eyebrow. “I have to stop? But I made you your drink,” he said, handing her the glass of vodka. She waved it off.
“Oh right. I forgot your ice,” he said, and he dug his hand into his pants pocket, and then dropped something into the glass. She couldn’t tell what he was doing from her vantage point, but in seconds the glass was in front of her again, and it took a moment to register what was inside it. She wasn’t sure if she was seeing things or if that was a . . .
She gasped, clapping her hand over her mouth as her eyes widened to saucers.
“Julia, the night we met, you were behind your bar serving me a drink,” he said, and there was no more anger in his voice, only some kind of certainty. “And that night became the start of this love. So it only seemed fitting to ask you this question here.”
She gawked at the glass and she was sure now—there was ice in the drink, all right. A huge, gorgeous, blindingly beautiful, perfectly-cut diamond ring. For the briefest of moments, she felt nothing. Then, like a dam bursting, she felt everything—hope, love, wonder, and unmitigated joy. She managed to tear her eyes away from the ring to look at him, to gaze into his deep brown eyes that were filled with love. “I don’t ever want this love to stop,” he said. “I want it for all time. Forever. I meant every word I said earlier tonight. Will you do me the great honor of marrying me, Julia?”
She couldn’t speak at first. She simply swallowed and nodded, as if that would keep the tears of joy at bay. But it didn’t work. In a second, they were sliding down her cheeks. She was sure she’d be a blubbering mess soon. She trembled from head to toe and shook with happiness. “I already gave you my answer. And it’s yes. It’s only yes. It’s always yes,” she said, and he reached across the bar to cup her cheeks in his hands. She moved closer, offering her lips for a first kiss as his fiancée. It wasn’t their first time kissing, of course, but it felt like a first time. Because it was the first time with this promise. She melted as he kissed her. Her heart took flight. Hell, she might have even launched a fleet of hot air balloons from all the happiness surging through her. Started a parade. Lit up a summer sky with fireworks.
Soon, there was clapping and cheering, and even a few wolf whistles from the line of patrons down the bar. They broke the kiss, and the bartender waved happily. “She was in on it. I arranged it with the bar in advance,” he said, then fished inside the glass for the ring. Wiping it quickly with a napkin, he walked around the bar, dropped down to one knee, and asked for her hand. “Marry me,” he said, and she could hear the certainty in his voice.
“Yes. A thousand times yes.” He slid the ring onto her finger. It sparkled like all the stars in the sky. “It’s gorgeous,” she said, and that word felt like a cruel understatement to describe this jewel. The ring’s beauty was more than the size, more than the sparkle. It was what it represented. Him. Her. Them.
He stood and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her hair, her lips, her cheek. Kissing away the tears once more. Only these were good tears. The kind you wanted to shed. Longed to shed. The night they met, she’d never expected anything more than one night; she’d never envisioned that she’d fall so madly and truly in love, that one night would lead to many, would lead to a life together.
“Julia,” he whispered, tugging her closer, so she could tuck her face in the crook of his neck.
She kissed him on his neck, then his jaw, and pulled back to look at him. “For the record, and just so you know, I thought you were seriously asking me when we made love earlier. You also need to know, I also seriously meant it when I said yes then. So you got two proposals and two yeses, Mister.”
He grinned at her. “I was seriously asking, but then I felt like an ass for asking like that.”
“It was actually kind of perfect for us,” she whispered.
“And so is this.”
“And I also was just about to ask you before you asked me.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You were?”
She nodded. “Yep. Right before you walked behind the bar.”
“Were you going to get down on one knee too?”
She shrugged. “I hadn’t really mapped it out that far. All I knew was I wanted to marry you and I didn’t want to wait any longer.”
His eyes twinkled, a sparkle in them that seemed to say he had an idea. “You know what? I don’t want to wait any longer. What do you say we get married this weekend?”
She couldn’t contain the grin, and didn’t even try to. “Why I thought you’d never ask.”
* * *
Over sushi and more kisses, calls were placed, information was looked up on phones, pictures of the ring were texted, and decisions were made.
When they left the restaurant, he arranged for a limo with the parking attendant. They were driven along the Strip, enjoying it in the way that lovers did: up and down, inside and out, hot, wet, hard, and most of all, full of passion. Deep, true and endless passion.