February 12th, 2013.
It happens over breakfast.
They are eating sugared crepes at Aaron’s dad’s house. Erin’s eating hers with powdered sugar while they talk about her next college, “Aaron’s doing anesthesia, assuming he didn’t tell you. I’m gonna be doing geology, which I’ve always wanted to do.” She beams as she talks, but she can’t see it. It’s almost funny when Aaron notices it: she always puts him first, not from admiration or anything of the like, but rather her competitiveness.
Aaron’s got a smile on his face, but he’s silent to keep Erin from knowing. “Last I heard, Aaron was done with school.” His dad says, giving a look to his son in hopes of getting an explanation. When he notices the smile across his face, his dad raises eyebrows in curiosity.
Aaron taps his ring finger, and it clicks together in his dad’s head of why he was so happy. Erin scoffs at their silence, though. “Yeah, he’s the worst. I’m not surprised he didn’t tell you.” The two boys at the table with her snicker and her confusion becomes apparent. “What did you do?” She directly only towards Aaron, with accusation painfully clear in her words.
“I did nothing.” He states honestly. He hadn’t yet done anything -- that much was true. Yet, she still kicks him under the table in hope of getting the ‘true’ answer. “Stop that, I really did nothing!” He tells her, all while kicking her back. The two of them are smiling in a way sweet enough to make Aaron’s dad’s heart melt, and the kicking turns more to a game of footsy than anything else.
“He really didn’t do anything yet, sweetheart.” His dad says, before he gets up from his seat at the table. “Aaron, why don’t you take your girlfriend out to the yacht? The weathers perfect today for that.” He suggests as he pushes in the chair, picking up his plate.
Erin whines at the comment, “I’m not his girlfriend!” Her voice jumps an octive when she says it, though, and everyone knows that, while they weren’t official, that she was. Even she knew that.
“Dee doesn’t actually like yachts very much anymore.” Aaron explains with a complete disregard to Erin’s whining. He gets up too, though, pushing in his chair and giving his own plate he ate the breakfast snack off of to his dad. “I do want to ask her something first, though.” He comments as she gets up, and it makes her entire face twist with distrust.
“You are such a creep.” She mutters as she does the same as the other two did.
Once she’s standing, Aaron begins to talk. “For as insufferable as you are, Dee, I rather believe that you are something spectacular.” He tells her, a smile filled with more pride than love and awe across his face for her to hear. The words don’t quite feel natural to say, and they don’t sound natural either. It didn’t quite fit who they were as friends: and Erin is sure to point that out.
“Ew, stop it. You obviously did something: what did you do?”
Aaron laughs, and so does his dad as he gently sets the plates back down on the table as he watches the two love birds. “I didn’t do anything.” Aaron reassures, but she huffs. When she goes to say something, he interrupts so he can continue with why he was saying these things. “Maybe I don’t quite think of you of spectacular, just more tolerable than most people. In fact,” He pauses, and Erin only has the soft sound of his movement to tell that he had gotten down to one knee.
“What are you--”
“I’m talking.” He interrupts again, before she can even ask what he was doing. “As I was saying, I think that I could tolerate you for an eternity if I was asked too.”
Erin scoffs, “I don’t know if I could.” She claims as she brings her arms to a cross. She doesn’t put together why the word eternity would be said while he was down on the ground. Aaron wasn’t even her boyfriend, technically, so she couldn’t even begin to come up with guesses of anything. “You are an irritating, flamboyant, posh creep who--”
Aaron scoffs, “Talking.” He tells her again, and once he has her attention: “I’ll let you keep your last name if you say yes.”
“Keep my last name? What are you--” Suddenly it all clicks in her head: the snickering, the oddly nice comment, the way he was down on the ground. The mention of eternity; the mention of last names. It all made since under once specific context: Aaron was proposing to her. Her best friend since Oxford was proposing to her. “God, you’re such a creep!” She exclaims, “I hate you!”
As soon as she cuts off her question of what he was talking about, he was getting up off of one knee. He knew he needed to get up in order for her to do what she wanted to react properly. After all, her exclamation of hatred in her high pitched voice was enough of an answer for him: “You can kiss me now, since you want too.”
She puts her hands out to find where he stands, and when she finds him, she yanks him closer to him with a force that’s almost enough to make him stumble. She presses her lips against his, and she knows that she is grossly enamored with him. Especially when the kiss ends and he says something in a voice quiet enough, it was like he didn’t want his dad to hear. “My mom wouldn’t leave me alone until I ask.”
There’s a smile spread across her face as her mind already envisions signing the papers in court with both of their own names. The idea of married without shared last names or a ring was something that owned her heart in this moment: no matter how hard it would be for most people to understand. Still, she acts as if that wasn’t the case. “I’m only saying yes because my parents would kill me if I didn’t agree to tax benefits.”
It’s the most painfully clear lie she could have said, but then again, so was his.