This story is named in honor of some of my faithful readers. All the fictional people having imaginary sex would be over 18 years old if they were real. I hope you enyoy it.
"Cleopatra Sage Dwyre, will you please do me the honor of becoming my wife," I said kneeling on one knee and looking into her shocked eyes.
I had reserved a table at an exquisite restaurant not too far from my apartment. Lately I considered it OUR apartment even though Cleo had three months left on the lease of her studio. We have been dating for six months in what I considered a whirlwind romance.
We fell deeply in love in very short order. I was literally still learning about her family, likes and dislikes, and many of the things that make her who she is.
I have never felt like this about a woman. Sure I had my infatuated romances in high school and my horny, sex driven flings in college, but this was way more than any of that. Since I graduated and started working as a computer engineer, I haven't had time for dating that much. The few dates I had usually ended with sex and not much more.
Cleo came into my life unexpectedly. She was a salewoman for a company we had started dealing with at our company. The first time we spoke I was infatuated. She fit my "type" to perfection. She was about 5' 4" and thin, very light skin and hair with breasts on the smaller side of average and the cutest little ass you ever saw. But it was her personality that made the sale. She was friendly which isn't abnormal for a salesperson but it was genuine. She had a dry sense of humor just like I enjoyed. Her intelligence was at a level that made her intensely interesting. She also seemed to like me since she always stopped by my desk to talk.
Soon I realized I needed to do something about it. I asked her out on one of her visits and the rest is history. She has been staying at my apartment for about three months now. We are both pretty busy at work so our time together is a little limited.
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The patrons at The Siam Orchid were watching and holding their breath. The slight hesitation seemed like an eternity, maybe just two heartbeats too long. Then, after looking away from me and seeing everyone that was watching she said, "Yes." It was a bit weak but she stood up as I did when the crowd cheered and kissed me then put me in a bear hug. I could see some sort of conflict on her face. Did she mean it when she said yes? It hadn't been the ecstatic reaction I had envisioned. She didn't even put the ring on.
My nerves were now creeping into my brain. I was wondering about all sorts of bad things that might happen and we hadn't even left the restaurant yet. We hadn't even said anything of substance to each other since that life changing moment.
I was afraid. I didn't know what to say next. 'Nice weather tonight?' Nope, that would be bad. 'You look beautiful tonight?' That would be great if I hadn't already said it twice before the proposal. I thought about waiting for her to say something but that could get extremely awkward.
We walked towards the car and I just decided to take a shot. "How are you feeling?" There, I put the ball in her court without being too confrontational. I waited. Again the delay was far too long to be okay. My heart sank. Something was wrong.
As she opened her mouth to say whatever it took her so long to think of, I interrupted with the real question I had. "Do you really want to marry me, or did you just say that in the restaurant so we wouldn't be embarrassed?"
"Noah," she got out at the beginning of her sobbing. "I'm sorry, this should have been a highlight of our lives but I fucked it all up, I'm sorry."
She was crying on my shoulder standing next to the car. I helped her into the passenger seat and I drove away not sure what was going on. It was silent for half the drive home. Cleo finally broke the silence.
"I do want to marry you," she said and began sobbing all over again.
"Buuuutt, you're already married to someone else?"
"No!!"
"You forgot to tell me you used to be a man?" This time I got a chuckle.
"No," she said in a softer voice. "I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I love you so much. You caught me off guard tonight, I wasn't expecting it."
"Babe, I know this is a little quick, but we can have a long engagement. I just want you to know my intentions. Still, even if it was a little too soon, I sense more of a problem than that. Am I wrong?"
"No, you're not wrong. Let's not start this conversation until we are sitting at the apartment, changed, comfortable, with a drink in our hands." I nodded.
The last 5 minutes of our trip seemed to take forever. We didn't speak but Cleo cried again. At home we both washed up and put on sleepwear. I poured a red wine for Cleo and grabbed one of my expensive beers out of the four pack. We sat at the kitchen table and I steeled myself for the coming conversation.
"Ok babe, you have the floor. What's on your mind?" I smiled one of those smiles that means 'I'm not so sure a smile is in order here.'
She wrung her hands with white knuckles. She couldn't make eye contact. She started to cry again so I took her hands in mine and said, "I will listen without judgement until you're done. Please babe, just spit it out."
She finally looked at my eyes, probably seeing worry in them. "Noah, you know I love you, don't you?" I nodded.
"When I met you I knew right away you were special. You turned out to be more than I could have ever hoped for. I had never met a man that was so close to perfect."
"I wasn't perfect though, was I?"
"Please babe, let me get through this. I wanted to have this conversation soon because I had a feeling you were going to propose before too long. I was scared and kept putting it off thinking you wouldn't propose this soon. Well, I was wrong. Babe, did you tell anyone you were going to do this?"
"No, I wanted to keep it a secret so I could surprise everyone at once. Besides, people get angry when some people know and others don't."
"Good, if you decide to retract your proposal we can just make believe we just broke up." I was shocked. Why would I want to do that? She saw the shock in my eyes and took my hands.