Proposer’s Blog
Day 7: The Blue Plaque Proposal. Location: Hyde Park.
I love history – the interesting snippets, the gossip, the intrigue, the filth and the glamour. Who was sleeping with who. Delving into the past is like reading a copy of Hello, there was so much backstabbing, treason, murder and sordid affairs. Suzie loves it too – she insists she doesn’t, but with every little bit of history I tell her, her eyes light up like a kid in a sweet shop.
London is filled with so much history. I love how you can be walking the streets alongside men and women in their power suits, amongst red buses, black cabs and high rise office buildings, and suddenly you round a corner and – beyond the vision of the office workers who walk past it every day – there’s this tiny corner of the city wall built nearly two thousand years before.
The blue plaques are great for this, just wander around London and you might unexpectedly come across the place where Samuel Pepys lived, where he wrote those famous diaries hundreds of years before.
I was with Suzie the other day when we stumbled across one for Ian Fleming. She’s a huge James Bond fan, read all the books many times. She got very excited to have found where he lived.
This gave me an idea.
So, after work, I gave her a map with some of the more interesting blue plaques marked on it. Suzie lapped it up. We strolled through the streets with Suzie almost yelling with excitement as we found Charles Dickens, Florence Nightingale and Winston Churchill. The funny ones are good too, Sherlock Holmes in Baker Street and my favourite, and now Suzie’s favourite too, simply reads: ‘Jacob von Hogflume 1864-1909 Inventor of time travel. Lived here in 2189.
So after our little treasure hunt, we ‘found’ ourselves in Hyde Park, one of our favourite places. As we walked through the naked trees, amongst the snowdrops and crocuses that indicate the start of new life, we found a bench we regularly sit on and on it was a new blue plaque that Suzie had never noticed before. It read:
‘It was here, on this bench, on February 17th, that Harry proposed to Suzie.’
I love seeing Suzie smile, it’s one of my all-time favourite things in the world.
This is my last blog on this page. Next time you visit here, you’ll be automatically redirected to my new blog page at Silver Linings magazine. You will still be notified as normal of new updates. As most of you will be aware, from our news page, our One Hundred Proposals is about to go international. We fly to The Galapagos Islands in three days.
Proposer’s Blog
Day 9: The Underwear Proposal. Location: Suzie’s Bedroom
We leave for The Galapagos Islands tomorrow, and then we’ll spend ninety days travelling around the world. There is so much to see and not enough time to see it in. But we have to pack for every eventuality too.
We packed together as the amount Suzie wanted to take would fit in five suitcases rather than one – so I decided to help limit the intake.
I came up with a strict rule. I said one of everything. I thought that was fair.
One pair of jeans, one smart top, one pair of smart trousers, one pair of combats, one pair of hiking trainers, one pair of black flat sparkly sandals – they’ll go with everything – one dress, one pair of shorts, one vest, one T-shirt, one long sleeved T-shirt, one hoodie, one cardigan, one hat, one scarf, one pair of gloves, one swimming costume, one bikini – because apparently a bikini doesn’t count as a swimming costume, as it’s so tiny I let that one slide. Every time I turned my back, she sneaked things into the corners of the case, or hid them underneath already allowed clothes. She thought I didn’t know. I turned my back a lot.
Suddenly she remembered her underwear. Finally, my big moment.
I presented her with a box of little shorts with my face and the words ‘Marry Me’ printed on them. She didn’t stop laughing for ten minutes.
Then she said that, as nice as they were, she would probably take her own underwear. When I asked her why, she laughed and said if she was with another man and if it ever came down to sex, seeing my face whilst undressing her would probably put the other man off. I told her that was all the more reason for taking them.
Then we had a big row.
She accused me of having double standards and asked why it was ok for me to screw around with a different woman every night but not for her. I did point out that she wasn’t gay so she probably wouldn’t be screwing around with a different woman every night anyway.
She said I’d probably have a woman in every port and she’d be left sitting in the hotel like a Billy No Mates.
I’m sure the topic of other men and women don’t come up with other would-be proposers.
An excellent start to our holiday.
*
I stared across the aisle of the plane at Harry, sitting two rows in front of me, as he flirted with the air hostess. The cabin was busy with people getting ready for departure but she seemed to only have time for him.
I had been so excited about this trip, but my excitement had quickly dwindled over the week. In between all our planning and preparations, Harry had been out with Kate, the redhead, three times. The sex, apparently, was amazing. Of course I was jealous, but I think the worry of what he would be like on our holiday was also starting to set in. I think the final straw had been when Harry had written into our round-the-world plan, arrangements to meet with an old girlfriend, Chloe, who he had remained friends with and now lived in New York.
I suppose I couldn’t expect Harry to remain celibate over the three months around the world, he’d already done that for almost a year after Jack had died, but I didn’t want to be sitting in a foreign country alone. Hooking up with my own man was almost out of the question. I was hopeless when it came to flirting or approaching men. And on the rare occasions men approached me, I became a bumbling mess that quickly put them off.
Maybe I would try a little practice flirting now. If Harry could do it, I could do it too. I turned to the bloke next to me and I was disappointed to see a short, bald man in his late fifties, sweating profusely from every orifice and mopping his brow with a pink satin handkerchief. I glanced down to see he was holding hands with the man next to him, a man dressed entirely in black with a dragon earring.
I looked around for someone else who I could flirt with, but happy couples were everywhere. Honeymoon couples, middle-aged couples, even elderly couples who had probably spent their entire lives together.
I was alone.
The plane started to move and I gripped the arms of the chair so hard my knuckles turned white.
That was another thing I was upset about. This was my first time on a plane and amongst the manic preparations over the last few days I had discovered I was a nervous flyer. Nervous was an understatement. My stomach was rolling, my heart racing. In my nightmares I had seen our plane explode, crash into the sea, crash into another plane, and even get abducted by aliens. I wanted Harry to hold my hand and distract me but instead he was over there staring at the air hostess like she was the only woman in the world.
I hadn’t told Harry about my fear of flights. I didn’t want him to know that I was petrified. This flight was thirteen hours to Miami, then another two hours or so to Guayaquil airport in Ecuador, followed by a another two hour trip on a tiny little plane to Baltra Island. It was going to be a long day.
I looked over at Harry again. The air hostess was showing him how to use the seatbelt, as if he didn’t know.
The plane rocked a bit as it bumped over the runway, but it was enough to make all those nightmares come flooding back.
Jules had recommended that I take sleeping tablets. Apparently I’d wake up the other side of the world, completely refreshed and none the wiser about the thirteen elapsed hours.
I swallowed two tablets and closed my eyes as I waited for the effects. There were announcements, people chatting, the noise of the engines. It all became white noise.
I heard the roar of the engines, the pitch of the plane as it took off, my ears popped and we levelled out. We were now approximately thirty thousand feet in the air. I’d researched it over the last few days. That was a long way to go when plummeting to the ground.
But I was thankful that the sleeping tablets already seemed to be taking effect. My last thought as I drifted into oblivion was of burning fire balls of molten metal crashing into the sea like meteorites.
*
I woke as the plane jolted underneath me. My eyes shot open with panic but buildings whizzed past the small airplane windows outside and I realised we had landed. My head felt so heavy and my eyes were already drooping, taking me back into the dark abyss again. My next realisation was that I was lying on the chest of the bald man next to me, a small patch of dribble soaking his shirt. My hand was resting on his crotch.
I quickly struggled to get up but the bald man stopped me with his arm round my shoulders.
‘Take it easy,’ said the bald man in a voice that sounded just like Harry. ‘Give yourself a chance to wake up.’
I peered up at the bald man and to my surprise found Harry staring down at me.
‘You’re not the bald man.’
I felt like I was drunk.
‘Not the last time I checked, no.’
‘But…’ I looked around me in confusion. The man with the dragon earring had also gone, replaced by another younger man in a suit.
‘We swapped seats,’ Harry explained.
‘Oh.’
I relaxed into him before I remembered I was still angry at him, but with his hand in my hair, stroking me, it hardly seemed important any more.
‘Are we in Miami?’
‘Yes.’
I tried to surreptitiously wipe away some of the dribble from Harry’s shirt when I noticed a huge skull and crossbones ring on my wedding finger. I looked up at him in confusion.
‘What?’ he asked.
I waggled my finger, as much as I could with the heavy weight of the ring on it.
‘Oh yes, that. We got engaged.’
‘Whilst I was asleep?’
‘Yes. It was quite a big proposal, very elaborate. I’m sorry you missed it.’
‘And I said yes?’
‘Well no, obviously. But the bald man next to you nodded your head for you which everyone in the plane took to be a yes.’
‘Everyone on the plane?’
‘Yes, it was quite the show. I did record it on my phone. I’ll show you later.’
I looked down at the ring and smiled. I liked the idea of being engaged to Harry a lot, even though it was a fake engagement.
‘I know the ring isn’t exactly to your taste, it was donated to us.’ Harry indicated the seat where the man with the dragon earring had sat.
‘I love it.’ I said, honestly. Any symbol of our engagement, no matter how hideous, was fine by me.
I returned my attention to the dribble and Harry watched me try to wipe it off. I blushed. ‘I dribbled on your shirt.’
‘I noticed. It’s ok.’
I closed my eyes and leaned into him, sleepily.
‘I love you, Harry.’
I felt him tense under me straight away. Crap, crap, crap.
I looked up at him, his eyes were wide with horror or shock.
‘Not like that. Never like that,’ I said.
He continued to stare at me.
Thankfully then the seatbelt light went off and everyone around us scrabbled to their feet, reaching into overhead lockers and fighting their way down the aisle so they could be first off the plane. I lumbered to my feet as well, my legs not performing as I wanted them to.
I managed to get a few people between me and Harry as I walked up the aisle, trying to calm down my blushing cheeks. I felt so sleepy. What happened to waking feeling refreshed? I felt like I could sleep for a hundred years. I got to the end of the airplane tunnel and as everyone veered left to collect their baggage and go through passport control, I found a little bench to the right, out of view of the other debarking passengers.
I sat down and rubbed my face, willing myself to wake up so I didn’t stagger through passport control looking like I was on drugs.
‘I told you not to take those sleeping tablets,’ Harry said, appearing from nowhere and passing me a bottle of water. ‘How many did you take?’
‘Just two.’
‘Jesus.’ He knelt in front of me. ‘You’re only supposed to take one. No wonder you were out for so long.’ He peered into my eyes with concern.
‘I’m fine.’ I batted away his hand as he felt my forehead.
‘Can you walk?’
‘Of course I can.’ I stood up and my legs wobbled treacherously.
‘That doesn’t look at all suspicious, does it, for the American authorities?’ Harry sighed, swinging his rucksack on his back, followed by my own. ‘Here.’ He scooped me up as if I weighed nothing and walked purposefully down towards passport control.
‘And this doesn’t?’
‘We’re married, honeymooners, play along, look at me as if you really do love me.’
I could do that.
I wrapped my arms round his neck and nuzzled into his neck. He smelt so good.
‘Here we go Mrs Forbes,’ Harry whispered in my ear, his hot breath on my skin making my gut clench with desire.
‘Good evening sir, would you mind putting your girlfriend down for a moment.’
‘My wife,’ Harry said, without batting an eye. ‘We’re on honeymoon, and I promised to carry her over the threshold of every country we enter.’
I glanced at the passport officer. He didn’t seem amused.
Harry slid me down, but held me pressed tight against him.
The man looked at us, looked at our passports and back at us again.
‘Married you say?’
I nodded, happily. Oh God. What if he asked us questions about our wedding? Would he be suspicious about the lack of wedding rings? Wouldn’t we have a marriage certificate with us? Did we need one? What if he discovered we were lying? Would we be thrown in jail for fraud?
The man smiled at us and passed us back our passports. ‘Welcome to America.’
I let out a huge sigh of relief which drew the man’s attention to me again. Harry ushered me on, his hand clamped firmly round my shoulders.
‘Oh, sir,’ the man called after us and my heart started thumping loudly again. We turned back, both smiling rigidly. ‘Congratulations.’
‘Thank you.’ Harry turned me away before I sagged to my knees and confessed the lie and then we were in the safety of the main airport moments later.
Proposer’s Blog
Day 10: The mile high proposal. Location: Thirty thousand feet over the Atlantic
So we’ve just landed in Miami, we have a half hour wait before we fly south to Ecuador and then in a much smaller plane west to The Galapagos Islands. So a quick update of my latest proposal.
I’d arranged with one of the air hostesses to use the intercom to propose to Suzie. I started off by playing ‘Marry You’ by Bruno Mars and singing along to the lyrics. Nothing could have prepared me for the reaction I got.
First the air crew joined in as backing singers, helping me out with the chorus and clapping their hands in the air in time with the music.
When the chorus came round a second time the whole cabin joined in. It was one of the most uplifting experiences of my life, I literally had goose bumps as I walked up the aisle to propose to Suzie.
Unfortunately she slept through the whole thing.
Buoyed up by the support of the crowd, I proposed anyway and with a little help from the man next to her, nodding her head for her, she said yes.
I won’t get too excited though. A forced yes is hardly the yes I was looking for.
Though when she eventually did wake up and saw, from the donated skull and crossbones ring on her finger, that she was engaged, she did take it all in her stride.
Watch the video clip of my proposal here.
The next few hours passed in a blur of airports, two more plane rides, more passport control, baggage carousels and a taxi ride. I was so tired it was ridiculous. I wasn’t sure if it was still the effects of the sleeping tablets or the general fatigue of travelling.
It was dark and I guessed from the quietness of our surroundings that it was late at night or early hours in the morning.
Through my sleep hazed eyes I was aware of the harbour, filled with lots of white boats bobbing gently on the water. I registered that our boat was called The Star before Harry ushered me inside. A man dressed all in white showed us to our cabin. It was small but brightly lit, with cream walls and the comfiest looking bed. A large window filled one wall and outside stars peppered the night sky. I crashed out on the bed and sank into the pillows, watching the water ripple in the moonlight.
‘I can’t believe we’re here, in The Galapagos Islands. It seems so unreal,’ I said, my eyelids drooping.
‘I can’t believe that we have arrived in one of the most beautiful places in the world and all you want to do is sleep.’
I yawned, hearing the fondness in his voice. ‘It’s been a long day. I got engaged, I got married.’
‘And now for our honeymoon.’
I opened one eye and saw Harry pull off his shirt. Bloody hell. The man should never wear clothes. I loved his arms, so strong and safe. When he took his jeans off I couldn’t resist lifting my head off the bed to watch. Mmm… the tight little shorts, his great, muscular thighs.
I looked up and realised he was watching me.
He stalked towards me like a panther and knelt on the bed by my feet. I giggled at the predatory look in his eyes as if he wanted to do dark and evil things to me. ‘Are you ready?’
I closed my eyes, sleepily. ‘Sure, I’m insatiable, I could go all night.’
I felt his hands either side of my head and I looked up into his face as he leaned over me.
‘Really, because you look exhausted.’
I closed my eyes again. Sleep was there. If I relaxed it would take me within seconds. ‘You start. Just give me five minutes to sleep and I’ll be right there.’
Harry huffed dramatically. ‘That’s what every husband wants on their wedding night, to find out that he’s so good in bed that his bride falls asleep during the act.’
‘If you want, I’ll throw a few cursory oohs and ahhs your way, make you feel better.’
‘That would be great.’
‘Ohhh Harry. That feels so good.’
‘I haven’t started yet.’
I felt his weight disappear off the bed and I peered round to see him taking my shoes and socks off.
‘Let me know when things get going then.’
‘I would hope that you would know.’
I smiled. ‘You know, just in case I miss it.’
He flashed me a dark look and I closed my eyes again, this time I knew I wouldn’t be opening them again, not least for several hours.
I felt my breathing going heavy and just as I felt myself fall asleep, I heard Harry speak again.
‘Trust me Suzie, you would know.’
*
I sat up in bed and watched the iridescent blue waves glide past. The sun sparkled off the water and there was a heat coming from outside that we hadn’t felt in Britain for many, many months.
I quickly ate the breakfast that Harry had left on a tray by my bed. I was starving – and the eggs, toast, croissants and jam filled the gap perfectly.
There was a note on the tray telling me to get changed, and I guessed from the bright pink wetsuit hanging on the back of the door that I was supposed to get changed into that.
I dressed quickly, hating how clingy the wetsuit was around the stomach and how loose it was around the crotch, reminding me of a baggy nappy.
I raced up the stairs and out onto the deck. In my sleep-induced state the night before I hadn’t appreciated the beauty of the little yacht. Little blue sofas, sun loungers, and double beds dotted the sun deck, which was lined with AstroTurf to make it have a garden feel.
Voices at the back of the boat drew my attention and I went down some steps to get to the launch deck. A dozen people were milling about, in various stages of getting ready for snorkelling and scuba diving.
My heart leapt with joy. I had done a lot of scuba diving a few years before – there were some brilliant wrecks around the British coast and I had seen many of them, at varying depths. British diving required warm clothes, a thermal undersuit and a drysuit over the top so I was padded out like the Michelin man. Diving here would be so much freer and the visibility, I expected, would be outstanding. I had never dived in warm waters before, though I’d had wetsuit training in a local pool. I was hoping to see something a bit more exciting than a few plasters and hair ties today.
I noticed Harry chatting to one of the crew. He looked magnificent in his wetsuit, the black neoprene clinging to his body like a second skin. It was unzipped slightly at the chest, and I could see his smooth skin glistening in the sunlight.
I said hello to a few of the other passengers as I approached him. He continued to talk but slung his arm round my shoulder, including me in the conversation.
He introduced our dive leader, Elias, who was beautiful – with warm caramel skin and dazzling green eyes, flecked with gold. His wetsuit was tied at the waist, revealing a wonderfully toned, brown chest. He was obviously smaller than Harry, everyone was, but he was clearly very strong – years hauling around heavy diving equipment had done things for his body that working out in the gym simply couldn’t achieve. When Elias took my hand to shake it, I felt a spark of pure lust slice through me. His eyes darkened as he continued to hold my hand. He had felt it too.
Though any thoughts I might have had of me and Elias finding our own little island paradise somewhere to get to know each other better, if those sorts of things actually happened in real life, were quickly quelled, when Harry introduced me to Elias as his girlfriend.
Elias dropped my hand like he had been burnt.
‘My apologies, I was told you were friends,’ Elias said, with a glorious Hispanic accent.
I was confused too. There had been incidences over the last few days where we had lied about our relationship status, to Frank to get the hot air balloon ride at such short notice and the American authorities the day before, but I wasn’t sure what gain we would get from lying here.
Harry pulled me tighter against him, claiming me as his own. The vibes telling Elias to back off were so strong, I was surprised he didn’t pee up my leg to mark his territory. Well if Harry wanted to prove we were together, I could do that. Feeling brazen and silly, I ran my hand down Harry’s back and squeezed his bum hard. Harry jolted in shock and stared down at me incredulously. I raised an eyebrow, daring him to protest. Elias smoothly changed the subject, telling us about the dive instead. He talked to Harry, hardly even glancing at me again.
It seemed the dive route we were going to go on was the site of some old volcanic activity, that had left the sea bed textured with walls, ridges and trenches which were now home to a huge array of sea life.
I was itching to get started.
Elias left to help the other passengers and I looked around the bay we were in. We were too far out to appreciate the true beauty of The Galapagos Islands, I hoped that would come later. The boat glided through the tranquil indigo waters, barely causing a ripple. Out in the distance, green hills undulated in rolling peaks, forming a loose circle around us.
Harry turned me into him with his hands on my shoulders, giving me his full attention. I loved it when he looked at me like that, as if I was the only woman in the world. I ignored the voice in my head that told me he had stared at many women like that. He arched his eyebrow at me.
‘What?’ I tried to supress the smirk.
‘I was just surprised by the bum squeeze.’
I shrugged. ‘I was surprised by the upgrade in our relationship status.’
Harry seemed completely unabashed as he lowered his mouth to whisper in my ear, turning my legs to jelly as his hot breath moved over my neck.
‘People are more inclined to help with proposals when they believe they are real.’
It was a fair point but I was still annoyed that the only man that had looked at me in the last two years had just been scared away.
‘And nothing to do with the fact that Elias is some kind of God?’
I blushed as Elias scooted round Harry at that moment to grab a mask for one of the other passengers.
Harry glossed over my embarrassing outburst.
‘How did you sleep?’
‘Went out like a light.’
‘After the great sex we had, of course.’
I smiled at him sweetly. ‘It might have been great for you darling, but it certainly didn’t rock my world.’
I saw Elias wince as he walked away, though nothing seemed to bring Harry down, not even a slur on his manhood. He smiled. ‘I’ll try better tonight then, my love.’
Before I could come up with a smart answer, the boat juddered to a stop and Harry instinctively held me to stop me toppling over.
Activity around us suddenly intensified as people finished their preparations.
I quickly kitted up, clumsily pulling on an air tank and weight belt, finding a mask that fitted and struggling to put the fins on my feet. Harry seemed to kit up with an ease and elegance I simply didn’t possess.
I tested the regulator in my mouth to make sure the air was turned on and flowing. It was. Clearly not happy with my own ability to test my regulator, Harry took it and put it in his mouth, breathing deeply as he watched me. There was something incredibly intimate about seeing him with his mouth wrapped around the same piece of equipment that had been in my mouth seconds before.
‘Happy?’ I said, being forced to lean into him as he pulled the regulator towards him.
He passed it back to me and nodded.
There were six of us going on the dive, the others were just snorkelling. We were going in pairs, Harry and I watching out for each other whilst Elias would flit between the six of us, guiding us to the best places.
With one giant step I jumped in, Harry was right behind me. The water was cool but not cold. The others jumped in too. Once we were ready we sank beneath the waves.
The water had crystal clear visibility, allowing us to see seemingly for miles in every direction. Coral reefs and rocks peppered the sandy bed about ten metres below us, but the water was alive, teeming with fishes of every size and colour.
Something big and silver flashed past my field of vision and I turned in that direction to see two sea lions twisting and gambolling through the water. I watched them playing until something nudged my elbow. I turned to see Harry patiently waiting for me, the other divers had already moved off, following Elias to a larger section of the reef.
Harry stayed at my side as we slowly moved through the water after the other divers. Fish swam in between us, unperturbed by our presence but every time I tried to touch them they moved just beyond my reach.
We reached a wall of reef, the colours of the plant life, the coral and the fishes that swam around it were amazing. I had kind of expected it all to be blue – but reds, greens, golds, oranges, whites and silvers shimmered and twinkled through the water. Harry pointed to something over my shoulder and I turned to see a great ray flying through the water towards us, his great wings flapping like a giant bird. As he reached the top of the reef, hundreds of tiny fish swam out to eat the algae and parasites off his skin, this was what was known as a cleaning station and was one of the things that Elias had said we would probably see.
Harry nudged me again and I watched him descend to the sea bed. Knowing there would be more sea life in the shadows of the wall, I let the air out of my stab jacket and followed him, being careful not to kick up any sand as I neared the bottom.
I could see the other divers getting further away, but Harry was looking at something in a small crevice at the bottom of the reef. He glanced round for me and took my hand, pulling me closer to him. There hiding in the shadows was a tiny seahorse, its fins fluttering wildly as it moved in the water. My heart filled to see it. I wanted to touch it, but it looked so tiny and fragile I was afraid that doing so would break it.
Realising that we had it trapped and it was probably panicking wildly, I nudged Harry to move on, which he did and we left the little horse behind.
Out beyond the wall, the sandy sea bed stretched out into the deep blue but I could see large shadows moving out there and one was coming closer. I waited to see if it was another ray or sea lion but as it appeared from the gloom I screamed with joy through my regulator. A hammerhead shark was swimming towards us. It was the most magnificent sight as his tail propelled him silently through the water. I couldn’t believe it. Of all the animals Elias had said we might encounter, the hammerhead was the one I had been most keen to see.
Harry was suddenly in front of me, protecting me as if the hammerhead was actually a great white. There was no threat here, and Elias had told us that, but Harry it seemed wasn’t taking any chances.
I peered round my over protective bodyguard as the hammerhead swam over us and, with a last flick of the tail, disappeared from view.
From the amount of bubbles Harry was emitting from his regulator I knew he was breathing heavily. He turned to look at me and I gave him two big thumbs up to show him how excited I was about our visitor. When he didn’t look convinced I did calming down gestures with my hands, hoping he would breathe a little slower. He moved on, following the wall but keeping his body between mine and the open sea at all times. I glanced surreptitiously at Harry’s air gauge as we swam – he still had well over a hundred bar left, at this depth that would give us plenty of time.
I saw Elias up ahead, his bright green fins almost glowing in the water. He was waiting for us, making sure we were all right. I gave him the ‘ok’ symbol and he pointed towards something on or in the wall. Harry nodded and we followed Elias in that direction. Brightly coloured stalks of seaweed swirled gently in the water, as if caught in a breeze, fish continued to dart around us, escorting us on our swim. As we rounded a corner of the wall, I could see two of the other divers taking photos of a large turtle as it pushed its way through the water. Its eyes watched us warily as it swam away from the wall and disappeared into the blue gloom.
Of all the diving I had done, this had to be one of the best – there was so much life and colour. It couldn’t possibly get any better.
Harry nudged me again and I looked around to see what other creature we had stumbled upon.
As he moved to one side, I smiled round my regulator. Propped up on the reef was a whiteboard with the words ‘Marry Me’ written in shells. I turned round to look for Harry, only to see him on one knee down on the sea bed.
I floated down to land in front of him and I was very aware of the divers who had been taking photos of the turtle now taking photos of us.
I quickly took my regulator out and kissed him on the cheek. I saw him smile too.
*
I sat on the sunbed under the shade of the roof canopy as the boat bobbed on the water, furiously replying to as many emails as I possibly could. In the one day I’d been away from work due to travelling, there had been fifty-six different enquiries. But despite the sudden surge in my workload, I was blissfully happy. I couldn’t remember the last time I had felt this happy. I was on a plush yacht bobbing on the crystal blue waters of The Galapagos Islands. I was on holiday with my best friend and I had just been proposed to surrounded by hammerheads, turtles, rays and seahorses. My face was aching from smiling so much. Nothing could ruin my mood. Nothing.
I gritted my teeth as a stupid girly giggle broke into my reverie. No – absolutely nothing was going to bring me down today, so the only tiny blip in my nirvana I was just going to studiously ignore. Another giggle and a deep laugh from Harry and I peered over the top of the laptop to see him chatting to some blonde Barbie on the next sunbed. He had actually been talking to her for the last hour. He was now sitting next to her on her sunbed as she showed him some photos on her phone. They were sitting so close that every part of their body from the knee to the shoulder was touching. As I watched, she laughed again, nudging his knee playfully.
I closed the laptop and walked inside, Harry watched me go but I didn’t look back. The bar was cooler inside and the crew were just putting the finishing touches to a buffet of cold meats, roasted vegetables, rice, pasta, and fresh fruit. I took a plate, loaded it up and found a sofa to sit down at.
As my mouth was filled with chicken, a shadow loomed over me. I sighed, really not wanting to speak to Harry at the moment. But when I looked up I was surprised to see Elias standing over me.
I quickly swallowed my food.
‘Do you mind if I join you, Suzie?’
I liked the way my name sounded on his lips. There was an extra oo in my name so it sounded like Sooozie. And with his accent, it was sexy.
I indicated that he should sit down.
He looked at me with those deep green eyes and it felt like he could read my every thought and feeling. I wondered what he would make of my sudden inappropriate thoughts about him.
‘I do not mean to speak out of turn, but I do not like your fiancé.’
‘Harry? Why?’ This surprised me, everyone loved Harry – especially the women – and he made friends so easily, being warm, charming and attentive to anyone he spoke to.
‘He is out there talking to another woman while you are here alone. I see the way he looks at her too. Many men look like that, but normally with a couple who have just got engaged, the man reserves that look for his fiancée, not some woman he’s just met.’
‘Oh.’ I couldn’t lie to this gentle man, I couldn’t have him thinking badly of Harry – although I didn’t like him talking to Barbie either, he wasn’t actually doing anything wrong. ‘Elias, we’re not engaged. We’re not even together.’ I dug around in my bag and handed him our business card. ‘We create proposals for couples. That’s our business. We’re doing this big promotion at the moment trying to find the ultimate proposal. What happened today was just another on the list.’
Elias looked at me again and I felt like I had disappointed him in some way.
‘I’m sorry we lied to you, it wasn’t done maliciously. Harry just finds it easier to say to people that we’re boyfriend and girlfriend, otherwise it just seems weird when he keeps proposing to me.’
‘You sleep in his bed.’
‘Yes, but we’re friends. Nothing has ever happened between us, nor will it.’
He watched me. His eyes were startling and I found my gaze drifting to his lips, they were full and pink and I wanted to touch them, first with my fingers and then my own lips.
What was wrong with me? Had it really been that long without sex that I was willing to throw myself at the first man that smiled at me?
I was in love with Harry and just because being with him, or more to the point, not being with him, on a daily basis was sexually frustrating didn’t mean that I should jump into bed with any pretty man. Though Elias was more than just pretty, he was stunning. He was still looking at me and I felt beautiful in his eyes.
‘I think I like Harry even less now.’
‘Why?’
‘Because he lies in bed with his beautiful friend and doesn’t make love to her but then sleeps around with these vacuous creatures that mean nothing to him. He is shallow, yes? He doesn’t appreciate the truest beauty, the wonder of friendship in all its forms.’
My mouth was dry and I rolled my tongue around inside my teeth to attract some moisture. I tried to find the words to defend the slur on Harry’s character, combined with being ridiculously flattered that Elias had just called me beautiful.
‘I bet women throw themselves at you all the time. Women go on holiday to beautiful places like this, see someone like you, and they fancy a bit of a holiday romance. I would imagine you’ve slept with a lot of women over the years. I can’t blame you or him. I think if beautiful men were constantly throwing themselves at me it would be very hard to say no. Especially as there’s always the hope that one day, one man would be my happy ever after. I think it’s hard to find love if you’re not looking for it.’
‘Is that what Harry is doing, looking for the one?’
‘I hope so. My brother was the same, slept with lots of different women and one day there was Jules, there was no one for him after that.’
‘And you? You also sleep with lots of men?’
I laughed. ‘No, I can count on one hand the amount of men I’ve slept with.’ Wow that was embarrassing, why did I say that? But there was something about this man that commanded honesty. ‘I don’t get the opportunities that I’m sure you and Harry do.’
‘Then I think all the English men are fools if they are not appreciating your worth.’ He brushed a hair fondly off my face. Oh my. ‘And as for the opportunities that you say are offered to me, yes there have been a few women that have, as you say “thrown themselves” at me, but just because they are thrown doesn’t mean that I catch them.’
I smiled.
‘I was married to my wife for ten years. She died three years ago, there has been no one for me since.’
‘Oh, Elias I’m so sorry. I know what it is like to lose someone you love.’
He smiled at me, sadly. ‘I could tell. The grief in your eyes, it never really goes away. Your brother?’
I gasped. ‘How did you know?’
‘The grief is different when you lose a lifelong friend than to losing a lover. It taints you differently, you carry the scars in a different way, though the pain you are feeling is still the same. It never really goes away, it just becomes easier to deal with.’
I stared at this man, willing myself to not suddenly burst into tears and cry on his shoulder. He knew, he understood.
‘I’m sorry, it was not my wish to make you sad. Maybe I misjudge Harry, if he has a friend as special as you, he must be pretty special too.’ He leaned forward and kissed me on the forehead. ‘I should go, I have jobs to attend to.’ He stood and took my hand, clasped between both of his. ‘Sometimes you wait for your dreams to come true, but sometimes the dream is just a fantasy, when in the real world there are things or people who could make you happier than any of your wildest dreams ever could. You should not wait any more, young Suzie.’
He kissed my hand, his eyes searing into mine, and then he turned and walked away.
I stared down at my plate of food, no longer hungry.