Everlastingly Loving You - Chapter 154

A few decades ago…

A woman hurriedly drove to the oceanside, wondering why she’d been called there. Her boyfriend had made it seem like it was urgent, so she quickened her usual pace. Her nightgown floated in the wind as she tried finding him.

“RAY? WHERE ARE YOU?” She called out, desperately searching for him. To her avail, he wasn’t anywhere to be found.

When she couldn’t find him, she ran to the cove – the one place she and him always went to whenever they wanted to escape.

She stopped when she saw her boyfriend standing there in the middle of the decorated cove.

Shimmery crystals were engraved in the ceiling that now looked like the velvety night sky. It was nothing much – Emilia didn’t like anything extravagant when it came to all the romantic stuff. And in the middle of it all was Raymond, dressed in a casual dress shirt and short trousers.

She looked around, asking, “What is the meaning of this?”

“Raymond, why did you call me in the middle of the god forsaken night here?”

“An impromptu date? We could’ve gone in the morning,” Emilia yawned.

Raymond didn’t look annoyed, he only chuckled.

“My love, this couldn’t be postponed to the morning,” he said.

Emilia blinked, “What couldn’t?”

Their eyes stared into each other’s before Raymond reached for his pocket.

“What are you doing?” Emilia asked as her eyes flared.

She took a step back when she saw him pull out a dark blue velvet box that matched that of the depths of the ocean.

Her hands immediately flew to her mouth – Emilia gasped.

This wasn’t a date.

How could she have been so blind?

This was…

Was…

A marriage proposal.

King Raymond was proposing to her!

“R-Raymond,” she stuttered, unable to say anything other than her boyfriend’s name.

He’d been married once, so why’d he bother doing all of this to ask someone else to marry him for the second time?

She reckoned she wasn’t worth the struggle, but Raymond had different ideas.

He hushed her, placing a finger on her lips.

He got down on one knee.

Emilia’s heart raced – she swore she could’ve heard her heart beating inside her ears. She was trembling.

This wasn’t just a man asking the love of his life to marry him – it was so much more.

She was a nobody compared to him. He was Beldovia’s king.

He had baggage – not only was he king, he had two children – not that they ever disrupted things… yes, she found them annoying and horrid, but it was because like Raymond, they reminded her of his ex-wife, their mother.

She wasn’t meant to be a stepmother, but Raymond loved her regardless. He couldn’t pay any care to his children – he figured their grandmother did a good enough job raising them – there was no need for him to step in and do anything.

It wasn’t any of her business to pry in his family’s matters so she went with it.

She lost her train of thought when he called, “Emile, my love.”

Her heart warmed once she heard those two words.

He never ceased to make her feel special – even if it was just an affectionate nickname.

He inhaled before he spoke the words that came from his heart.

“When I think of my future.”

“I’m uncertain of everything but one part. And that one thing, that part of my future, is you.”

“Wherever I end up, so long as I have you with me, I couldn’t be any more satisfied. So long have I grieved the loss of the woman I used to love but now my heart beats for someone else.”

“Someone that makes me smile whenever I think of them. Someone who I want to grow old with and reminisce about past memories. Someone I can have the pleasure of waking up next to and greeting them good morning by kissing them on the forehead and getting them a glass of water to start their day.”

“I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and that’s because I love you, with all my heart. I may not be able to give you everything you want and I may not be able to be the perfect boyfriend you deserve at times but if you agree, I’ll be the best I can be and give you my all.”

Raymond glanced downwards for a second before looking back up at her, a hopeful smile on his face.

“So, I get down on one knee, and I ask you the question, Emilia, will you make me the happiest man in the entire universe by choosing to marry me?”

There were twinkles in his eyes and she couldn’t help but fall for him all over again.

She felt the wind go up her nightdress.

Goodness, she wasn’t even in the right mind to make her decision and agree to be Queen of Beldovia. It was a huge deal and she wasn’t in the right headspace. Her sandals were filled with sand, and she heard the splashing sounds the water made in the distance. It drove her crazy.

But, at that moment, she let her heart speak for herself.

She knew what she wanted, and this?

This was what she wanted.

A smile tugged on her lips.

The biggest grin made it to her face as she responded with.

“Yes, I do,” she said, her voice nearly lost to the windy breeze of the cove.

Raymond blinked.

“You do?” He asked once more for confirmation, praying Emilia wouldn’t change her mind last minute.

He didn’t deserve her, but here he was asking her for her hand in marriage.

“I do,” Emilia said once more, her grin widening.

The next moments were a blur.

He scooped her up in his arms and spun her around, making her a tad bit dizzy.

“Put me down!” She laughed.

This was all so perfect. It felt so perfect, and so right.

It was like something out of a romance novel, the proposal itself.

The proposal ended with the two of them dipping their feet in the waters, talking about what to do next as they were in a state of blissful ignorance.

End of Flashback –

Emilia sighed, snapping back to reality as she reminded herself of the present.

Raymond had left her. He’d broken his vows, and he’d left her for years and years on end.

She got tearful from thinking about it.

Everything in the past was just that. In the past.

None of what he promised he followed through with. Maybe during the first years of their marriage, but not now.

He’d betrayed her.

The love of her life had betrayed her. And there was no healing or getting over that, no matter how long it took.

He was the one person she trusted and he went and broke her trust. He ruined her.

How could anyone return from that?

She returned to her work, knowing reminiscing on the past wouldn’t do her any good.

__

Blaine asked, “So, any plans for today?”

Clarisse shrugged, “I don’t think so.”

Wriggling his eyebrows, Blaine offered, “So, since I have the entire day off, what do you say about a date?”

A squeal of excitement came from Clarisse, “Definitely!”

However, how she was behaving wasn’t really her.

There was this deep pit in her stomach.

A pit she couldn’t help but try to conceal.

A date wasn’t really what she wanted, but she didn’t want to disappoint Blaine. They barely had any time to spend with each other except during night time where Clarisse and Blaine were too tired to do anything but chat before falling asleep briskly after.

But she agreed anyway. They were worth fighting for, no matter what she thought before. She loved her boyfriend, and she gave him a second chance for a reason.

Throwing that away wouldn’t do either of them any good.

He was a good man, and she was just… her.

She never took her title as reason to think of herself as better than him or higher than him.

They were all human at the end of the day.

No titles, or occupation made anyone more special than the other.

“So, what do you have in mind?” Clarisse asked curiously.

Blaine shrugged, “Whatever you want, babe.”

Being called babe sent a shiver up her spine.

“Why don’t we spend the rest of the day in bed?” Clarisse asked naughtily.

A smirk made its way to Blaine’s face.

“The whole day in bed?”

“What a cheeky idea,” he said, seemingly liking the idea of it as a date.

He crawled onto the bed and next to her.

He chuckled at the sight of her, thinking she was up to something else before she grabbed a nearby remote and turned on the television.

Staring at her, he’d been led to believe she wanted something else. It was a shame he had it wrong.

Lowering his head, he mumbled audibly, “I should’ve never put a television in my bedroom.”