The Pull of Destiny (89 page)

His eyes were sad and he
hugged me tight. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay,” I replied, and
it was okay. I barely knew my mom anyway, and while I wish I’d had a chance to
see her before she died, I could appreciate the fact that everything happened
for a reason. “I was pretty sure that it was inevitable.” I shrugged as Luke's
arms fell from my shoulders and he stepped back from the hug. “Sure, I wanted
to find her alive because I have so many questions, but that wasn’t to be. I’ve
made my peace with it and I know that she’s resting easy after a hard life.
And- why are you looking at me like that?”

Luke was staring at me, a
mixture of awe and incredulity on his face. “Teach me.”

“Teach you what?” I frowned,
not understanding. For such a cutie, Luke sure wasn’t making any sense.

“How to come to terms with things
that easily.”

I smiled bitterly. “I only
make it seem easy,” I admitted, staring unseeingly at the New York skyline. “It
pisses me off that she left me when she didn’t need to, but at the same time it
was for the best. If I had stayed with her, I would have ended up dead.” I gave
Luke a twisted smile. “And we wouldn’t have met, which would have sucked.”

“I know,” Luke said, nodding
in agreement.

We went through the rest of
the items in silence, each wrapped up in our own memories, recalling what the treasures
we unwrapped meant to us.

I grinned when we finally
turned to the letters Luke had made us write.

“Read yours first,” I coaxed
Luke, who picked up my letter to him, opened it and started reading out loud, a
big grin on his face.

He cleared his throat. “
‘Dear
Luke, if you’re reading this it’s five years later and life has changed. You
overcame your aneurysm, made headway with your bucket list (thanks to me) and
you’re probably thinking that you’re the man. And you’re probably right.’
”
He chuckled as I listened, ears smarting at how corny but true the letter was.
“
‘I just want you to know how proud I am of you overcoming all these
obstacles you’ve had recently. And I’m even prouder of you for doing it all
with a smile on your face and a positive attitude.’
” I flushed harder as he
read the last part of my stupidly embarrassing teen love letter. “
‘Love,
Celsi Sawyer, aka CiCi.’
You’re so sweet! Come here!”

Luke wrapped his arms around
me, hugging me to his body in a super squeeze. He kissed my cheek, sending
tingles up and down my spine.

“I just spoke the truth,” was
all I could splutter once he let go of me, grinning happily.

He handed me his note to me.
“Now read mine,” he pressed.

“Okay,” I said, taking the
surprisingly heavy letter from him. I started unfolding it, my eyebrows rising
with disbelief as the piece of paper grew larger, like some kind of origami
trick. “What the
hell
.” It was one of those ginormous pieces of paper.
“How many times did you fold this?” I asked Luke. “Do you have a life?”

He chuckled from the other
side of the paper. “Trust me, it was hard work,” he replied simply.

I could only see Luke's Nike
clad feet but the rest of his body was blocked by the massive sheet of paper,
as creased as it was. “This better be worth it,” I said, wondering what the
hell kind of essay Luke had written me. But how come I couldn’t see any writing
on the paper?

He better not have written in
invisible ink!

“It’s so worth it,” Luke said
softly.

Finally I finished unfolding
the piece of paper, which was almost as tall as me and twice as wide. Luke's
small, neat handwriting was written in all caps in the middle of the huge sheet
of paper and I squinted, reading the words out loud. “
‘Celsi, will you marry
me?’
” I let out an exasperated groan. Classic Luke.
Should have seen
that
one coming.
“Very funny,” I drawled. “I actually took the time to write you
a heartfelt letter and you play this joke on me?” I stomped my foot in fake
tantrum mode. “Luke!”

“Who said it was a joke?”
Luke said from behind the paper.

Chuckling reluctantly yet
appreciatively at Luke's impressive timewasting skills, I said, “Well, it can’t
be anything else!” I started to crumple the ‘note’ into a huge ball as I spoke,
shaking my head in despair. I wasn’t going to fall for yet another one of Luke's
‘marry me’ gags. He kept trying that on me though, didn’t he?
Sheesh!
“I
know you’re not really asking me to-.”

A gasp tore itself from my
throat as I stared at the sight that the paper had been hiding.
He planned
this. He planned everything!

Luke was on one knee, an open
box in the palm of his hand and a hopeful yet nervous expression on his face as
he looked up at me. As I stared in shock, the familiar soft, melodious sounds
of ‘Suddenly’ by Billy Ocean piped through the speakers on the observatory deck. 
And for a moment, I was sure my heart stopped as my body went cold.

It can’t be. It can’t be.

“It’s not a joke. Will you
seriously marry me, Celsiana Sawyer?”

CHAPTER 36

i believe...

Luke's Point
of View

Months of
intense internal debate and soul-searching, weeks of planning and hours of
fine-tuning to get things just right had culminated into me getting down on
bended knee in front of CiCi, holding the ring I hoped she would let me slip on
her finger.

And yet I
still
didn’t know if she would say yes.

The look of
astonishment on her pretty face wasn’t giving me anything positive to work
with. Her eyes were huge and her mouth was slightly ajar, giving her a ‘deer
caught in headlights’ air.

“Celsi? Did you
hear me?” I asked, staring up at her frozen features. Hey, maybe her shock was
due to seeing me on one knee in front of her and she actually hadn’t heard a
word of my (corny, I know) proposal! It
was
pretty windy up here. I
tried again, clearing my throat nervously. Here goes nothing. “Will you marry
me and- at the risk of sounding mega corny- make me the happiest guy in the
world?”

Swallowing as
her hand slipped to her throat, CiCi managed to splutter, “Luke- I- what?”

Okay, so she
wasn’t speaking in full sentences, but that was a start.

“Huh?”

“Is this a
joke?” CiCi whispered, her eyes almost willing me to admit that I was just
playing a mean prank on her, some sort of vicious mind game, and there was
actually a candy ring in the box, as opposed to a platinum plated blue sapphire
and diamond ring that I had picked out just for her.

I couldn’t help
cracking a smile as I replied, my knee cramping. “Celsi Sawyer, I’m kneeling in
front of you with an engagement ring in a box, asking you to marry me. Trust
me, it’s not a joke.”

I mean, I had
gone through a lot of trouble (all worth it if she said yes) to get things
perfect for tonight. Contrary to what I told her, I actually flew into New York
early yesterday morning so that I would have enough time to put my plans into
action. Yeah, that’s how I knew about it raining yesterday. Seriously, I’ve got
better things to do than check the Weather network when I’m not even
in
the country. I spent almost two hours in jewelry stores, finally settling on a
beautifully simple ring from Tiffany’s. I thought that CiCi would appreciate a
gorgeous, non-flashy ring, but apart from the initial first glance, she hadn’t
even looked at it. After buying the ring, I headed to a stationery store to buy
the huge piece of paper, hopped on the ferry to Liberty Island, switched the
letter I had written 5 years ago for my handwritten proposal, arranged for a
surprise that would only happen after CiCi accepted my proposal and she was
asking me if this was a
joke?

Just how
malicious would I have to be to go to all this trouble for a joke?

Pretty damn
malicious, I’d say.

“Luke- stand
up.”

“Um, I’m pretty
sure that I have to be on one knee when I propose,” I replied semi-teasingly,
shrugging as I looked up at her. CiCi’s forehead creased as I continued. “You
know, for effect and all that-.”

Her voice firm,
CiCi cut in. “Get up.”

The tone of her
voice didn’t change but the way her lips tightened and her eyes hardened made
me realize that, for whatever reason, CiCi was pissed the hell off. I didn’t
want to piss her off more by not adhering to her wishes (or maybe I did since
angry Celsi had always been able to turn me on) so I scrambled to my feet in a
hurry, groaning as blood started recirculating through my leg. Shit, I was in
for a major attack of pins and needles now.

I sighed to myself
as I looked into CiCi’s face, her hazel eyes filled with bewilderment and
irritation. Okay, so maybe I had gone about this the wrong way. We hadn’t seen
each other in two years, she thought I was madly in love with someone else and
I came back and dropped a proposal on her without any warning.

Yeah, I can see
how that would throw someone for a loop.

“CiCi,
listen-,” I started, unable to get over the anger flashing in her eyes. I hated
having CiCi mad at me, hated it almost as much as I hated seeing her cry.

She interrupted
me, her mouth set. “What are you doing?”

“Well, I was-.”

Before I could
even get a chance to finish my sentence, she talked over me again, her voice
embittered. “Proposing, yeah, I get it. But- ugh!”

She ran a hand
over her face, kneading her forehead as she tried to find the words to say.

Biting my lip,
I stared at her. “I don’t get it, though. Why are you so mad?”

“Really?” CiCi
raised her head and fixed her eyes on my face, her nostrils flaring. “You show
up after
two years
, tell me you just broke up with your girlfriend,
randomly propose to me and you think that’s
okay
?”

I scratched my
head, feeling a shamefaced blush spread. Okay, maybe I didn’t exactly think
this through. “Well-.”

“Luke, forgive
me if I think this feels like one of your high school jokes,” CiCi said
sarcastically. “I mean, you can’t just ask me to marry you just like that! Why
are you proposing, anyway? Just because you feel like it? Or do you want me to
be your rebound chick, is that it?” I was blown away by the vehemence in CiCi’s
voice. She
really
thought I was just punking her? “Or maybe you proposed
because you’re bored and you thought this would be a fun way to shake things up
when you came back?”

My heart
thudded against my ribcage as CiCi spoke. She was totally missing the point!

Couldn’t she
tell how I felt for her? I couldn’t get her off my mind on a good day. On a bad
day, she was the only thing I could think about. All I wanted to do was spend
the rest of my life with her, giving her everything she wanted, taking care of
her and letting her take care of me. Sure, we had only dated for a short while
in high school, but didn’t the fact that I was still in love with her after all
these years show that our relationship had been anything but puppy love? I had never
been able to get her out of my mind, even when it became apparent that her
memory was slowly eroding my relationship with Seiko.

But CiCi didn’t
realize that because I had never told her what I felt for her. I never told her
about the sleepless nights I spent, trying to remember how she felt in my arms,
replaying memories of our conversations, our kisses, hell, even our arguments.
I never told her about how I had punched a hole in the wall of the hotel room I
was staying in when she told me she was dating Ahmed or how elated I had felt
when she called me to tell me they had broken up. Part of me had hoped, wished
that the breakup had something to do with the fact that CiCi still loved me,
but I never had enough nerve to ask her. We rarely talked about those few,
heady months we had been a couple, with CiCi preferring to sweep those memories
under the rug and act like we never happened. Sure, it was kinda presumptuous
of me to think she would agree to marry me when we didn’t really have much of a
history to fall back on, but I liked to think positive. As clichéd as it may
sound, I knew CiCi was the one for me the very first time I kissed her. I never
believed in that soul mate stuff until we got together and now- well, now I
knew that we were meant to be. Maybe this proposal was the worst timing in the
world (in hindsight, it totally
was
) but at least it cleared the air so
that we could finally talk about things we had been wanting to talk about for
years. Namely- our feelings.