Technically, we weren’t living together, but we hadn’t spent a night apart since that night in the yurt on a different mountain on the other side of the world. I never wanted to be apart from her again. I would have asked her to move in with me, but my apartment had only ever served as a place to land between travels, and her apartment was full of interfering friends and family members who were tickled pink that we had finally succumbed to the attraction between us. When we got back to Brooklyn after this trip, I’d already lined up a real estate agent. I was going to buy us the house of her dreams. But first . . .
I took her hand and led her up the path, half grown over, stone stairs worn by centuries of footsteps taking us up higher and higher until we broke through the jungle to face the stone temple.
“Oh,” she gasped.
The temple rose above us, ancient stone carvings, reaching to the sky. She stepped out, walking towards it reverently, turning to take in everything. I had to capture it. Her. This moment of beauty, this moment of connection. I lifted my camera to my eye and snapped away. Everything about her, perfection.
She finally turned and shot me a sly look. “Are you really taking pictures of me and not the temple?”
I smiled. “I’m taking pictures of a miracle.” I took another picture of her.
She blushed and ducked her head without a word. I’d learned this about Mona. When she was feeling big emotions, soft ones like love and joy, her words went away. The words were her defense against the world. When she let her feelings free, she lost her words. So, it was my turn to smile.
“Okay, I’ll put away my camera.” I capped it and tucked it into my camera bag and retrieved something else while I was at it. “But how do you feel about this?”
I walked towards her with it in my hand. She smiled at me, then saw the box. Her eyebrows drew together for a minute then flew up to meet my eyes. “Jack?”
I got down on one knee and opened the box to show her the ring. An emerald cut bicolor sapphire with delicate platinum filigree and diamonds. “Will you marry me, Mona?”
She blinked at me, without words, then fell to her knees in front of me, her eyes brimming with tears. She put one hand to my cheek and pressed her lips to mine, a gentle, moving kiss, that stopped my heart . . . or set it to beating. I wasn’t sure which.
When she broke the kiss, I pressed my forehead to hers. “So, that’s a yes?”
She laughed and the tears in her eyes fell. She nodded. She didn’t stop nodding. “Yes. Of course. Yes. I love you so much, I don’t know how to say it. So, I’m just going to have to show you, every day, for the rest of our lives.”
I slid the ring onto her finger. It wasn’t as beautiful as her. It wasn’t as beautiful as us. It wasn’t as beautiful as the future we would have together.
She was the miracle of my life.