“Thanks, baby. I love you,” Maggie said as she kissed me again. I started piling the dishes into the sink, waiting not so patiently, for her to call out to me, asking me about the new picture above the couch.

By the time I was finished, I realized Maggie was strangely quiet. I went into the living room to find her staring at the matted and framed canvas.

“What is this?” she whispered, her eyes never straying from the new artwork. “Did you paint it?” she asked, looking at me over her shoulder.

I nodded, letting her take the time to absorb what I was trying to tell her through my picture. It was a silhouette of the two of us, darkened in shadow but with a brilliant, bright light behind us revealing the intricate details of our faces bowed in close together. Butterflies rose in flight around us and it vibrated with the love I felt for the girl standing before it.

On the bottom, in neat script, I had carefully written: And he asked her to share his forever.

While she stared at the picture, I pulled out the small velvet box I had kept in my pocket all day and got down on one knee. When Maggie turned around and saw what I was doing she gasped, her hands flying to her mouth. And then she did the craziest thing. She fell down to her knees in front of me.

“I’m the one who’s supposed to be on my knees here. You’re ruining the moment,” I teased her. She held her hands to my cheeks and gave me one of her earth shattering smiles. It was a smile that could cure cancer. It told me that I was responsible for this perfect slice of happiness in her life.

With tears rolling down her face, I tried to tell her with words that could express everything I felt for her, everything she was to me. But words could never be enough to explain the way she had completely filled me.

“Over six years ago I met a girl who saved me. I didn’t realize at the time, mostly because her attitude pissed me off, that she would become the most important thing in my life.” Maggie playfully punched my shoulder as I wiped the wetness from her cheeks with my thumbs.

“But then I got to know her and when I was drowning, she became my air. In the cold, she became my warmth.” I cupped her face in my hands as she quietly sobbed and for once I didn’t feel any guilt for her tears. Because these tears were filled with nothing but joy. And those were tears I was glad to give her.

“In the dark, she became my light,” I whispered, my voice breaking and my own tears started to make their way down my skin.

“Our road hasn’t been an easy one. But good things rarely are. You taught me that the person I am is worth loving, worth fighting for. You gave me strength when I had none. You held me up when I wanted to fall. And now, I want to give you everything. I want to give you the world. Because, Maggie, you’ve given me mine. And it’s you. It will always, forever, be you,” I said, the lump in my throat making my voice a harsh whisper.

“Clay,” Maggie sobbed and she fell against me, pressing her forehead into my shoulder.

Holding her tight against my body, I whispered in her ear, “Will you marry me, Maggie?” She tilted her face up and her smile was absolutely radiant.

“I think you already know the answer to that,” she quipped as I slid the diamond ring on her finger, over top the promise ring I had given her all those years ago. Even in the middle of this intense, emotion filled moment, her sarcasm was ever present. And I loved that about her. I kissed every inch of her face, over and over again. “And just so you know, I already have the world. You’re just expanding my universe a little bit,” Maggie added, touching the side of my face and I captured her mouth, kissing her with every ounce of love and adoration I felt for her.

And I held her, this girl who had saved me and continued to save me every day. Our path would never be smooth but I hadn’t lied when I said good things were never easy. And I was okay with going the hard way. Because as long as she was beside me, as long as we were together, I knew we could face anything.

So together we walked into our future. One that we had mapped out. And that future was nothing but light.

THE END