Page 73 of Someone Like You

We ate and talked and laughed as the clouds rolled by lazily overhead. Isaac, who preferred to be touching me at all times, had one hand on my thigh as we sat there. And I preferred the same thing, so I had my arm slung around the back of his chair, my fingers toying with the hair at the nape of his neck. When everyone was finished eating, I looked at Bri and raised my eyebrows, and she slipped away into the house.

“Bri!” Isaac shouted. “Wait a sec!” Before I could grab the slippery little fucker, he raced after Bri into the house.

I should’ve just done this the old fashioned way. All this secrecy and collusion was giving me a headache, and I was probably going to fuck this up anyway.

Isaac came bursting through the sliding door that he’d left open, a book in his hands and seriously out of breath. “Okay,” he panted. “I just?—”

“Isaac,” I said. “Breathe.”

“Yeah,” he gasped, falling into the seat beside me. I looked at the book he was clutching in his fingers, and when I saw the title and author, my eyes went wide.

“Is that—” I reached for it, but he pulled it away. He was smiling, and there was a faint pinkish blush spreading across his cheeks.

“Yeah,” he said, “It’s my book. I got a few copies the other day and…gave one to Bri for safekeeping.”

Why would he give it toBrifor safekeeping? Why wouldn’t he just keep them at our apartment? More importantly, why hadn’t he shown me a copy right away?

I kept those thoughts to myself, though. Whatever his reasoning, the book was here and I wanted to look throughit. See what my baby had spent years on, all that hard work culminating to this very moment.

“Got some drinks,” said Bri, stepping out of the open sliding door. She set a bottle of soda in front of me, Isaac, and then Uncle Boone, who was watching everything with a small smile. He knew what I was up to.

My heart was pounding, but Isaac’s attention was on me. His blush deepened as he handed me the book. “You should, uh, look through it,” he said.

I kissed his cheek and focused my attention on his book. The cover was eye-catching, bright colors that swirled around each other and detailed illustrations of the world Isaac had brought to life with his words. I thumbed the pages open, looking through the illustrations he’d shown me a hundred times, looking at the shape of the poems, the varying lengths and how some of them looked like drawings all on their own.

“This is so great, sweetheart. God, I can’t believe how good it looks,” I said.

“Um, you should start at the beginning,” Isaac said, clearing his throat and shifting nervously in his seat. He still hadn’t touched his soda.

“You should drink something,” I said, nodding my head toward the soda.

“Oh, yeah, of course,” he agreed, grabbing the bottle. He hadn’t even looked at it, and his eyes were glued to my face. He fiddled nervously with the label while I prayed he didn’t rip it, and when I wasn’t getting to the beginning of the book fast enough, he turned the pages himself, until I was on the first page. I eyed him, then the bottle, then him again. I don’t know what he was so nervous about, butIwas really starting to sweat. “You should read the dedication, Brody.”

Fuck, I guess my thing was just gonna have to wait. I looked down and saw the words clearly, as Isaac had used a font Icould read, and my heart swelled in my chest. But when I finally registered the words, I had to re-read them a few times because I was sure it didn’t say what I thought it did.

But no, right there on the page, Isaac had printed:I love you to the moon, Brody Correlli. Will you marry me?

When I looked up at him, at his gorgeously flushed features, the uncertainty in his eyes, at the hand he was holding out, at the open box sitting atop his palm, at the silver band inside, I couldn’t believe it. I started laughing, and when his expression faltered, then crumpled, I set the book on the table and drew him into my arms. “No, no—baby, that’s not why I’m laughing.Yes,” I said. “Yes, I’ll fucking marry you, you dummy. I want to spend the rest of my life making you happy. There is no world in which I wouldn’t, sweetheart. I love you.”

Isaac’s arms were wrapped around my neck, and he drew back and said, “Then why did you laugh?”

I chuckled and pressed my lips to his. “Because,” I said. “Look at your soda.”

He looked confused, then picked up the bottle of soda he’d dropped between us. When he started reading the label, his eyes getting wider and wider, he gasped. “Brody! Are you serious? Oh my fuckinggod,” he cried, dissolving into laughter. “What—how—oh my god, yes! Of course I will. Christ, it’s like a scene from a movie.”

“Yeah, what are the chances?” I said, pulling the little black box from my pocket and opening it so he could see the gold band I’d picked out for him. What were the odds that we’d both propose on the same exact day?

“You guys are hopeless,” Bri said. “Seriously.” But she was smiling, and now I knew why she’d been giving me that look earlier. She must’ve been laughing to herself all week long.

“Must be kismet,” I said, sliding the ring onto his finger, letting him do the same with mine.

“Yeah, fucking kismet.” Isaac kissed me gently, his lips moving slowly over mine, and only pulled away when Bri said, “Ugh, we’re still at thetable. There’s food on it and everything.”

“Congratulations, boys,” said Uncle Boone. He was smiling fondly at us, a wistful look in his eye. He’d never been much of a talker, but he’d always had nothing but love and support for Bri and I after everything that happened. He didn’t need to say anything at all, he showed us every day what we all meant to him. He slapped the table and then got up, saying something about dessert.

When Isaac and I got home later that evening, I laid him out on our bed, undressed him slowly, and showed him just how much I loved him. His sweet sighs and endless moans let me know just how much he liked being the recipient of my love, and I thanked fate for bringing us together.

After we’d cleaned up and were lying in bed, the TV on in the background and Isaac’s entire body wrapped around mine, he said sleepily, “I don’t need a ring, Brody. Your soul and my soul are already irrevocably entwined. You can’t ever get rid of me. No matter where you go, you’ll always be mine. I will find you?—”

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