YESA
TRAVIS TOLD ME HE wants to introduce me to his parents, but they’re out of the country until fall. I told him that was an easy out, but I knew he was telling me the truth. Now we’re in the car coming home from dinner. Travis is driving and I’m in the passenger seat with a doggie bag of leftovers on my lap for Lucky. The radio is obnoxiously loud but I don’t mind because Sara Bareilles is singing Brave and it always makes me happy. Half way through the song Travis reaches to change the station. I reach to grab his finger before it hits the change button, he hits it anyway and now Tim McGraw is singing a song I’ve never heard. Tim McGraw. I don’t even want to tell Travis how much I don’t listen to him now that I don’t have to. Instead of saying something, I poke my finger on the radio and change it back to Brave. Take that Travis. It’s all fun and games, for the time being. I smile and tap my fingers on the doggie bag and look out the window because I love this song and because I won the radio war. I can’t believe we’ve never fought over the radio before now. But before the song is over, as I’m taping my fingers and belting out a tune, Travis changes the station without regard for my obvious happiness. I’m left singing “I wanna see you be brave!” in silence as the station he switches it to is between songs. I turn and playfully punch Travis in the bicep. “Hey!” I’m mad that he’s changed the station, even if it is just to mess with me and I’m embarrassed that he’s just heard me singing out loud without back-up.
He shrugs and looks straight ahead, focusing on the road. “We hear that song every other time we’re in the car.”
“So?”
“So, I wanted to listen to something else.”
“So…” I drag out the o. “Speak up. Don’t just change the channel. Rude much?” I don’t know why but I’m getting pissed. What makes him think he gets to pick what we listen to?
“Chill out.”
“What?”
Silence. Did he just tell me to chill out? It’s not like he just cursed at me or anything, but I feel hurt. We don’t talk to each other like that. What’s with him tonight? Now the radio is playing an old Reba song. I like Reba, but that’s not the point. The point is he shouldn’t get to choose. After a few beats Travis speaks up again. “You have a great singing voice. Have you ever considered auditioning for American Idol?” He teases, but I sense an undertone of malice in his words.
“Shut up.” I don’t think I’ve ever been so sassy with him. I know I don’t have a beautiful singing voice, but I like to pretend I do. Great. Here we go. I’ve been thinking what we have is so terrific. I thought we were really connected. I thought Travis Tate was the one. And now we’re fighting over the stupid radio. Seriously? I can’t think of anything better to say than shut up, so I sit quietly, looking out the window. I can smell the left overs inside of the doggie bag. It smells like rice and chicken.
“I like it when you sing to me.” He taunts me. I feel his head turn toward me, but I don’t move my blank gaze from the passenger side window. After another minute I feel his hand press against my thigh. “Hey…” he taps, trying to get my attention.
I refuse to look at him. I know it’s stupid, but I’m pissed.
“Say what you wanna say, and let the words fall out!” He belts out a tune, singing the words from Sara Bareilles’ Brave. I peek out of my left eye and see his right arm swinging in the air dramatically as he sings the words. His left hand holds onto the steering wheel. I press my lips together trying not to laugh. He sings again, “I wonder what would happen if you say what you wanna say!” He emphasizes the word say and I can’t help but look at him now as he sings to me in his oh so out-of-tune manner. Our eyes meet and I burst into laughter. He’s being dramatic as he sings. Okay, so he’s turned what could have been a colossal argument into a guffaw. We both realize that we’re being so painfully wrong and dumb that now we are cackling like children. I really love this man. I feel my shoulders relax as Travis grabs my hand. He is still singing and now I know that he is a terrible singer, too. In fact, I’m certain he’s worse than me and that makes me feel better for some reason. When we get back to my apartment I step out of the car and look up at the sky. It is full of thousands of stars. There must not be a cloud to hide a single one. I’ve never seen so many stars in one night sky before. After Travis climbs out of the car I point above us and we gaze at the stars together in the dark.
“Can you believe how many there are tonight?” I say, still looking up in awe. Seriously, there are so many stars I wish I could take a picture. I wonder if it is some kind of special night. I’ve heard that there are certain moons like the blood moon and the harvest moon. I wonder if this night has a special name and astrologists expected to see ten times the number of stars than any other ordinary night.
Travis wraps his arms around my waist as I face him and I think he is hugging me so I place my arms around his neck. But he isn’t hugging me, he’s picking me up. He gently places my bottom on the hood of his car and then places himself next to me and lays back with his hands behind his head. I do the same. We lay there like we’re watching a movie, but we’re just watching the stars and that’s more than okay with me. It’s my life, and right now it’s the best movie I’ve ever seen. It hasn’t even been a minute before we both point and shout at the same time. “Did you see that?” It was a shooting star. I’ve never seen one until now. I feel giddy with childlike excitement. A shooting star!
“Make a wish.” Travis says. “I made mine.” He grabs my hand, we both keep our free hands behind our heads and we continue staring above us, waiting, hoping for another shooting star. Maybe, if we’re lucky. But still, we’ve seen one and that’s pretty great. I wonder how many people go through their entire lives never seeing even one.
I squeeze my eyes closed for a beat and make a wish. I wish for a long, happy life with Travis. I don’t tell him what my wish is and he doesn’t tell me his, either. I feel his thumb move up and down on my hand and I know without a shadow of a doubt that we are meant to be together. I don’t know how to put it into words exactly; all I can say is that I can see our life together. I can see our future all in that instant as we lay there on the car, holding hands and looking up at the starry sky. And I know it’s a happy life. I know it’s the life I want.
“Another one!” I scream and giggle, amazed to watch a second shooting star cross our path. This has to be a good omen and even if it isn’t, it’s still amazing. Two shooting stars in one night! We lay on the hood of the car, hand in hand for forty more minutes, and we see seven shooting stars. The only words we speak are to alert each other of the next shooting star that we see. We don’t have to say any other words, I know in this moment that we love each other now more than ever before. And that is more than enough.
AFTER WITNESSING SEVEN shooting stars we stumble into the apartment. We have not been drinking, but I feel euphoric. Lucky is jumping at our legs, excited to see us and to receive his treat. I shake the contents of the doggie bag out into his bowl and he devours the food with a wagging tail and total delight. I stand and walk to the trash to throw the empty bag away. When I turn around Travis is holding two dishes of ice cream. Both dishes have double scoops. I look at the two half gallon cartons of ice cream still sitting on the kitchen counter and know that he made a stop at The Frozen Spoon to pick up my favorite kind, chocolate heaven. His dish is full of mint chocolate chip. I thank him for the ice cream by kissing him. I take the ice cream in one hand and his hand in my other, pulling him toward the couch. After two or three steps I watch as my top scoop of ice cream falls out of my dish and onto the carpet. “I’m such a klutz!” I wince, dropping my hand from his and placing my dish of ice cream in it as I run to the kitchen to retrieve a towel and some cleaner.
“Wait!” I hear Travis plead. But I’m already in motion. I don’t want a stain to set in the carpet. The faster I can clean it, the less of a chance it will leave a mark. As I rush back with the cleaner and towel in hand, I see that Lucky has beat me to it. He’s licking up the ice cream in a rush. He must love chocolate heaven too, although I don’t think chocolate is good for dogs. I pat Lucky on the head and gently push him away telling him the ice cream will hurt his stomach. As I do this, Travis is on the ground with me. I reach for the towel, but Travis’ fingers are already in what’s left of the ice cream.
“What’s going on?” I ask, confused.
“Nothing, ugh…hang on.” He’s focused on the ice cream as he frantically fingers through it. “Oh!” He shouts with relief. His fingers clasp something in the ice cream. We are both down on the carpet on our knees, Lucky is sitting right by my side. The three of us are within an inch of each other’s noses looking down at the ice cream on the carpet.
“Your hands are covered in chocolate ice cream!” I laugh, looking back and forth between his messy hands and his blue eyes.
Without another word he leans forward to kiss me. Lucky takes the opportunity to lean down and lick the rest of the ice cream up from the floor. When we pull back from the kiss Travis sits back on his legs and holds his messy chocolate covered hand out in the air toward me.
“Please don’t wipe that on me!” I beg, a smile creeping across my face.
He holds his hand steady and I watch it as he turns his palm upright and I see the ring. Now Travis sits back up onto his knees, his eyes twinkle, sending my stomach into a hundred flip-flops. My eyes widen as I look at the sparkling ring. It has a little bit of chocolate heaven on it, but shouldn’t every engagement ring? I sit back on my feet, watching Travis. I’m in awe. “Yesa” he’s never called me anything else. “I know it sounds crazy, but I knew the moment we met at the ice cream shop that we could have an amazing life together. And now we’re living it. I love you so much and I want to spend the rest of our lives together. Will you make me the happiest man on earth and marry me?”
I watch him kneeling before me and of course I already know the answer to his question. Of course! But first, I lean forward and place my hand in his sticky chocolate covered hand. I feel the ring sitting between our palms, poking my skin. If he is messy, I’ll be messy with him. “I love you so much too, Travis.” I want to tell him so many things right now. I want to tell him that I can see our whole lives together when I look into his eyes. I want to tell him that no one’s ever made me happier and no one ever will. I want to tell him that in the blink of an eye he changed my entire life when I spilled the ice cream on him the night we first met. Oh, the irony that I spilled the ice cream again tonight! I nearly laugh out loud when I think about how perfect his proposal is. He couldn’t have possibly planned for me to spill my ice cream again. At least Lucky didn’t eat the ring. Then we’d be waiting around for a different kind of surprise.
“Is that a yes?” He raises his eyebrows.
“Yes! Yes, I’ll marry you Travis Tate. Of course I’ll marry you.” I lean forward as he places the chocolate covered ring on my finger. Lucky leans in to lick his hands and then my ring.
I wink at Travis. “Obviously, Lucky approves too.” I laugh and then lean in to kiss him. We don’t make it any further than the couch. I throw the red afghan over my back as I press my body on top of his. I could kiss Travis Tate forever. Lucky for me, now I get to. It’s official.
In the morning when we wake and push ourselves off of the couch, I see the bottle of cleaning spray and the unused towel still sitting on the carpet. Only there is no stain. Lucky took care of that for us while we were preoccupied with each other. It only serves to confirm my belief that when you’re with the right person, everything else seems to find a way of working itself out. I can’t wait to call both Trish and Mollie to tell them about last night. Especially Trish. She was there the day Travis and I met. And this time she’ll be at a wedding where I’ll stay. A wedding where I’ll actually say I do. A wedding that I actually want to attend. This time it feels right.