He smiled softly as he began from…wherever it was he was beginning from, “Obviously you knew this was coming at some point.” He told her, “I didn’t plan it this way, I wasn’t going to plan it. I was just waiting for the moment. And I think this is the perfect moment.” He said, “Syd, what can I say that I haven’t told you already? I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. You’re my family, my home. You’ve helped me realize a lot of things in the past few months, you’ve helped me through a very hard time in my life when you didn’t have too, and I am truly grateful for that.”
She just stared at him.
“I respect you more than anyone. You’re such a strong person, and at times I do feel guilty, because I feel the opposite. I feel like advantage of you. That I don’t deserve what you give me, even though you’ve told me otherwise.” He said, “But I promise you, one day I will pay you back for everything you’ve done, you have my word on that. I’ll always protect you.”
“This didn’t exactly work the first time I did this, but this time it’s for real, it’s forever, no joke.” He said, “I talked to your mother, and I talked to your father, they gave me their consent without me having to put up a fight. And that just tells me that people actually realize that we are in love, and people accept that, no matter how long we’ve known eachother. When you left my bar before Christmas, I never thought I’d see you again, let alone be here at this moment, about to start up our new bar.”
He stood silent for a moment, not knowing what else to say. He slowly bent down on one knee in front of her.
“Vaughn…”
He reached into his right pocket for the ring, but his fingers grasped nothing. He looked up at her panicked.
“What?” She asked, “What’s wrong?”
He looked back down at his pants and felt around his leg. He moved down towards the bottom of his pant leg until he felt a lump in the inside of the lining. He looked up at her and sighed. He stood up.
“Don’t move.” He told her. She watched him as he ran over to where the razor blade sat on the window ledge. He bent over and cut a slit in his pants and took out the box that had slipped through his broken pocket. Sydney laughed slightly as she stayed in the same spot. He ran back over to her and kissed her softly before getting down on his knee again, “Let’s try that again, shall we?” He asked.
He smiled.
“Sydney, will you marry me?” He asked as he opened the box from Harry Winston. Sydney’s eyes immediately filled with shock when she saw the ring.
“Oh my god…how did you…”
“Later.” He said.
She looked back into his eyes, “You actually think I’m going to say no?” She asked, “Of course I’ll marry you, I thought you were going to do it at the park, I seriously didn’t expect this at all…I mean…”
She had been too busy rambling to realize he had already slipped the ring on her finger and was standing up in front of her again.
“Sydney?” He asked.
“Yeah?”
“Shut up.” He told her softly.