“Brat.” His voice spills over with fondness as he places a plate down in front of me.
“You love it.”
“Guilty, your honor,” he winks and my chest flutters with love for this man who just surprises me every day in the best possible way.
Caleb sits back down, his eyes suddenly intent and serious as he fumbles with his napkin.
“What?” I eye him, then reach for the small spoon next to me.
He picks up his spoon, too. “Nothing. Eat your cake, baby.” He nods at my plate, then digs his spoon into his cake. I do the same, then lift the spoon to my mouth, closing my lips around the sweet, spongy texture, the taste of cream and sweet condensed milk exploding on my tongue. It feels like my entire body is moaning, and I close my eyes in bliss.
“That good, huh?”
“Sooo good.”
We eat our cake quietly, just getting lost in each other’s eyes, the low hum of music and laughter from the street below drifting past us. The air is warm, humid, but luckily, there’s a cool breeze blowing in from the ocean at short intervals. My body tingles, sated from today, my skin all sun-kissed and prickly. When I’m halfway through my cake, I lean back in the chair and groan, patting my stomach.
Caleb eyes me like a hawk.
“I’m done,” I sigh, stretching. “I can’t eat a single bite even if you threaten me with a coconut.”
“Who has ever threatened someone with a coconut?”
“It could happen.”
“Right.” Caleb’s expression grows serious, his eyes darkening. The air between us shifts, becoming heavy with anticipation. Caleb reaches over and picks up a strawberry from my plate and holds it out in front of me. “At least eat your strawberry, baby. They’re really good.”
“I can’t,” I protest. “I’m all full.”
His jaw tightens, his gray eyes locked onto mine. “Eat your strawberry, K.” A shiver moves through my body, and I nod, unable to ignore the slight plea in his voice.
“Okay,” I whisper, accepting the strawberry from Caleb’s fingers. He smiles tenderly, his eyes shimmering in the candlelight. It feels like everything is on pause, like the earth stopped turning, and the entire universe is holding its breath. My heart starts racing in my chest. I think Caleb is going to ask me to marry him, right here, right now. No, I don’t think so—Iknowso. I see it in his eyes. The way he looks at me with such wonder and a hint of fear, like he’s afraid I won’t say yes. That I’ll maybe think it’s too soon, when the truth is, I’ve thought about it athousand times already, ever since the day I moved in with him. I love calling Caleb my boyfriend, but I’d love calling him fiancé and husband even more.
I lift the strawberry to my lips, and Caleb tracks the movement. I open my mouth and take a careful bite through the layer of dark chocolate, the taste bitter on my tongue, before the berry’s juicy sweetness follows. I lick my lips, savoring the flavor as I try to keep my nerves under control. On the next bite, my teeth connect with something solid that definitely isn’t chocolate. Tears gather in my eyes, then spill down my cheeks. Within seconds, Caleb is next to me, engulfing me in his arms.
“Baby,” he hums against the crown of my head, holding me like I’m the most precious thing in the world. “Baby.”
I clutch the strawberry, crying against Caleb’s chest, and not in that dignified, pretty way they do in the movies, but rather in that hiccupping, snotty kind of way that’ll make my face all red and blotchy.
“I wanted it to be romantic. If you’re not ready, it’s okay. It can just be a ring. It doesn’t have to mean anything. Not unless you want it to. It can mean whatever you want it to mean.” Caleb’s full-on rambling by now, his voice blending with my hiccups.
I ease away from him, searching his face. He looks so worried, like he’s afraid it’s too soon or too much, when it’s exactly right and just enough.
“I want it to mean something,” I sniffle. “I want it to mean everything.”
Relief washes over his face, his eyes watery too, his voice shaking. “Yeah?”
“Of course!” I laugh through my tears, then look down at the mushed-up strawberry in my hand.
“Shit, let me get that.” He tries to salvage the red pulp, but he just makes it worse; the rest of the chocolate now melting against his fingers. “Fuck, this was the worst idea ever.”
I giggle almost hysterically as tears continue to trail down my cheeks. “How did you even get it in there?”
“Oh, it was a tight fit, sweetheart, but Camila helped me.”
We both stare at each other, Caleb’s words hanging between us. Then a mortifiedewwwspills from our mouths simultaneously.
Caleb places what’s left of the strawberry on my plate, then hands me a napkin. “It was supposed to be romantic. I saw it onYouTube.”