Love Me Like You Do
[ONESHOT] Love Me Like You Do"Nice catch, Amber.”
She could hear the teasing in his voice.
"Though you looked as if Elsa had frozen the place over."
When the bouquet fell into her hands, her mind just went blank, her arms unmoving and heart beating hard against her chest. She didn’t even want to be there during the tossing of the bridal bouquet, afraid of getting trampled by the vicious women, who believed that their romantic future would rest on catching a bunch of tightly wrapped flowers.
But they wouldn’t let her be a spoilsport and she stumbled forward with a push from behind. She swore she would kill the person if she found out who it was, and she didn’t have to look far when she caught her boyfriend trying to hide a self-satisfied grin.
She narrowed her eyes. Henry feigned innocence with a shrug.
She didn’t even bother when the bride threw the prized item into the air and just watched in amusement as the bouquet bounced atop the women’s fingertips, constantly out of their grip. But before she knew it, a flash of white crossed her vision and she looked down to see a bundle of lilies in her hands.
Her ears buzzed with muted congratulations that poured from around her until a familiar voice floated towards her. She remembered him singing ‘let it go, let it go’ as he weaned the flowers out of her grip.
"Enough with the Frozen reference," Amber muttered, still failing to understand the hype over the movie, but would never voice her opinion, in case of upsetting someone.
He reached for her hand, their fingers naturally intertwined together, and led her out of the tent, away from the wedding party. The cool breeze of the late autumn evening enveloped them as they walked along the hotel's garden path towards the beach.
He looked over to her. "So what do you think about it?"
"The bouquet? I don't know," she shrugged. "You know how we aren't really bothered about the marriage timeline. Like we usually say, let it run its natural course. Also, it cuts you the pressure of getting me a huge, dazzling diamond ring."
"Hey, I can afford a huge, dazzling diamond ring," he countered, earning him a pair of rolled eyes. He bent down to pluck the wild daisy growing at the edge of the manicured lawn.
"Of course you can, Mr. Bigshot Interior Designer," she stuck out her tongue, "though I can certainly afford it too if you couldn't." She winked.
"I would never let you beat me to it," he laughed. Henry draped his arm over her shoulders, and Amber wrapped hers around his waist.
She sighed. "I know we’ll get to it eventually, but I just don't get why people are always on our case.”
"Maybe because we've been together for almost a decade?" he offered. Henry found it amusing that it still manages to bother her when they’ve been interrogated since they celebrated their first-year anniversary.
“I mean, we’ve been together long enough that your farts no longer disgust me,” he added with a cheeky grin, which earned him a light punch in the stomach.
Amber switched into a headlock and his hands flew to her waist to balance himself from the sudden attack. “Well, me too. I’m no longer surprised at your special ability to always lose to me in games, or for the matter of fact, everything that’s physical related.”
“Whoa, whoa, hold up,” he tried to straighten his back but got yanked back down, “I only lost because you’ve always cheated.”
“Did I?”
“You threatened that I can’t touch you for a week. You know my weakness is you because I can never keep my hands off you, you cheater.” He playfully smacked her followed by a gentle squeeze. “And are you sure it’s everything physical related, even in the bedroom?” His eyebrows did a wiggly dance.
She leaned down and he stared at her lips, expecting them to connect with his as their lips brushed but it deviated away and stopped by his ear. “Duh.”
He almost snorted at the anti- and shook his head. “You couldn’t be more y than ‘duh’ coming out of your mouth.”
Amber blinked. “Were you expecting something else?” she asked, face straight but the little lift at the corners of her lips betrayed her. “Anyways..” He was released from her death grip.
"It's always the same questions at family gatherings. 'Are you two marrying soon', 'how long more till we hear church bells', and my favourite 'do you not want kids while you're still young'." Amber resisted rolling her eyes and threw her hands into the air.
"I can have kids then get to the marriage part. Are there instructions in life detailing the steps?" she fumed, and let out a frustrated groan.
"No, but people gossip when you don't fit the social norms.” He rubbed her arm, hoping to quell her anger.
She groaned again. "Social norms.. remember the time when people thought you were into men because you were seen together with me, just because I wasn't dressed in conventional female clothes."
"But you have to agree that there were some benefits to it," he said, and guided her in front of him, pulling her close against his body and entwined his hands behind on the curve of her lower back. "Remember those times when we made out in the fitting rooms."
Both grinned. He leaned in for a swift peck on her lips.
"Do you want to build a life with me?" Henry switched the lyrics and he knew it sounded weird, but he liked pushing her buttons, especially when it comes to Frozen. Nothing annoys her more than that movie.
"No!"
He dropped his arms and turned away with a pout. "Okay, bye."
"Get back here, you idiot." Amber reached for his waist and pulled him back against her body. "Aren't we already building a life together?" Her voice was soft and kind as if she was trying to reason with a child.
Her thirty year old manchild.
"Okay, let me rephrase."
“Will you be legally mine, and me yours?” He held up the flower that he had been fiddling and she stared at the weed that he had fashioned into a ring.
Time stood still for a moment before she tore her gaze away from the yellow daisy and offered her left hand and his face lit up with a boyish grin that matched her shy smile as he slid the ring past her finger.
"It fits you," he admired, proud of his handiwork.
"Of course, I'm fabulous like that." She flipped her shoulder length bob. Her hair flew into the air and fell back perfectly into place. Fabulous. Like her.
"Though I'll be expecting something more solid, that's less likely to wither away by the time I show it off," she chided, but behind that look of feigned annoyance was a wide grin trying to break through.
She knew, he knew, that she was embarrassed from his proposal so he didn't say a word and merely nodded. They stood staring at each other until he cracked a faint smile and opened his arms that she readily stepped into, hugging him tight to her and pressed a kiss on the side of his neck.
“I love you.”
Her soft voice at his ear felt like a warm blanket over his heart, and he rocked their bodies side to side. “I love you more,” he replied.
“Now that you’re next in line to get married, do you still think that the bouquet toss is a bunch of crap?” Henry asked, and realised that it wasn’t a good idea when he got his answer with a kick in the shin.
“I still think it’s crap,” Amber said, and gave him a sharp slap on the back, earning a yelp from him while he was still nursing his shin. “Plus, the so-called future that the bouquet supposedly foretells was somewhat under your manipulation when you pushed me to join the bouquet toss.”
He chuckled. “Well, part of it is still fate. I couldn’t possibly have cast a spell on the bouquet to drop in your hands (‘you would if you could’, she muttered), or predict that you would say yes.” He squeezed her cheeks with both hands, causing her lips to pucker like a fish, and left a chaste kiss on her.
“Hey, you know what will drive our relatives into a frenzy?”
“W-whut?” she asked, his hands still holding her face in place.
“If you walked down the aisle pregnant,” he chuckled. Amber pulled away and her eyes narrowed into slits.
“I’m not going to be a whale on my wedding day,” he followed her gaze as she looked down and hooked her fingers through his belt loops and tugged sharply, “though the idea is very tempting and I’m easily persuaded when I’m pleased.”
He didn’t know why she took off her heels until he recognized her playful grin, further explained by her next words.
“We have a room at the hotel,” she reminded, and shot him a wink. “Catch me and I’ll do whatever you want.”
With that and a girly giggle, she made a dash down the steps leading to beach, leaving a confused Henry behind until it took him a full five seconds to process the situation, but she was already a small figure in the distance, taunting him by the water.
“Would you look at those two?” Ailee nudged at her groom.
Eric looked over to the beach to find their friends chasing each other across the sands until one of them took a stumble. He squinted. Oh, Amber.
The woman kicked her limbs in the air in an attempt to keep the man from touching her, but she failed miserably when he picked her up and hoisted her over his shoulder.
I hope Henry doesn’t drop her, he thought, worried that he would see Amber the next time in a neck brace. “Can you imagine them with children when they’re kids themselves?”
Ailee tilted her head, trying to picture it, but ended up shaking her head and chuckled instead. “They’ll manage.”
Comments