Chapter Text
The restaurant is so fancy, the decor so pretty, the little tables draped in white linen, music low and soothing; Phee can't help but stare.
As her escort walks her solicitously through the small space, she attempts to settle her heart. Wearing her prettiest dress, the soft gauzy material in pale hues of pink, orange and cream standing out against the subdued decor of the space, her thick, long auburn hair neatly pinned up, make-up carefully done, she knows she does justice to the moment, and yet she still feels overwhelmed.
The way in which Clyde holds her tight around her waist as they walk towards the table he has reserved for them, though – attentive, always near to her, his bulk reassuring – it has comfort flowing through her.
Seating her at their table, he gazes at her as though the stars shine from her eyes.
He's wearing his dress uniform tonight, it’s complete down to the decorations he’s earned and the clip-on tie she'd once helped him adhere to his collar when he was first growing accustomed to wearing it - his dark hair has grown out a little bit since Basic, she sees, and the length of it suits him. (She's glad, though, for how she can still see the very bottoms of his ears peeking out from under the wavy mass of it.)
"This is lovely, Clyde, thank you," she tells him as she picks up the menu of thick, rich, ivory cardstock to decipher the elegantly calligraphed script spelling out the Italian dishes she’d heard of only in books.
He looks so handsome sitting across from her in the low, romantic light.
"Wanted to give you a nice dinner to celebrate your graduation," he tells her in his low, gentle tone, and seems eager that she enjoy his gift.
She smiles, big, bright, happy; she does.
Neither mentions what will happen the day following; he’s only here in town for less than 72 hours, then back on duty, he has to go. She wishes he could have gotten a longer leave – she’s missed him every day – but she's happy he still managed to swing getting home to see her walk the stage to claim her diploma.
It's been barely two years since he graduated, still, his being gone feels as painful now as it did then. She had walked the halls of their (former) high school those long months and, even knowing him away, she hadn’t been able to help but look for him around every corner. Determined to enjoy her time with him for this short period, though, she does her best not to mope – or think on him leaving – as they bask in each other’s company and enjoy a lovely (delicious) dinner.
Linger.
They're enjoying coffee and dessert before he brings up the elephant in the room – their looming separation.
"Was thinking the other day about how I missed your birthday."
He’s smiling as he says it, though, reaching into his pocket, he pulls out a long, slim, thickly stuffed white envelope and slides it across the table for her to claim.
Resting her hand on it, the pale pink of her neatly painted nails contrasting the white of the crisp paper, she tries to hold back the tears that spring to her eyes – it means so much that he had remembered, even after all these months. She can’t deny she had missed him especially that day, the day she'd turned eighteen, especially with three months of high school still hanging over her head, but he'd done his best to wish her well regardless. He had called, though, sent a card – timed it perfectly to arrive the day before – and that had been all that mattered.
She couldn’t have imagined he would have gone this extra step tonight.
"Clyde. You shouldn't have," she tells him, delighted and overwhelmed, for once shy as she feels his dark eyes on her, but he merely smiles again.
From the gleam in his eye, though, he's as excited about having her open this new gift as she is.
"Sending me to Florida to do sort of special training," he tells her, a seeming non-sequitur to fill the silence, one directed more to her dinner plate than to her eyes, even as she carefully slices open the back sealed envelope with a dinner knife. "Comes with a promotion, too."
She looks up with delight, a big smile on her face, the envelope in her hands forgotten; she's so proud of him, all he’s done, she can't but hardly breathe.
A smile on his face to match hers, he directs her back to her gift.
Sliding free it from its wrapping of white paper, she unfolds the contents of the envelope and stares, her eyes wide. In her hands, she holds a return train ticket - Charleston, West Virginia to Miami, Florida - plus a printed-out schedule of her itinerary and setting out the details of a hotel reservation there.
"Come see me in Florida, Phee."
She can't speak, as she feels the tears threatening to spill, as she holds them back only barely as she raises her trembling right hand to her mouth.
Yes, she thinks, yes.
"Come see me, Phee. Come to Miami so I can ask you to marry me on a tropical beach as the sun shines in your hair."
She should be shocked – Clyde wants to ask her to marry him, she had known it likely, and yet there’s something about the reality of it that is beyond her every imagining – she thinks she must be. She should be shocked, and yet, it makes such perfect sense that it’s less of a surprise and more of the fulfillment of a promise made between the two of them long ago. It’s less of a revelation and more the next step forward that the two of them had long foreseen.
She and Clyde, standing by the ocean, bare feet in the sand as he asks her hand – she can almost picture it.
"Come to Florida," he says again, quiet and loving, and she knows deep within her what he’s actually asking as he does.
Marry me, Phee.
Opening her mouth to say 'yes', of course ‘yes’ a thousand times ‘yes’, she's stunned by what comes out instead.
"Marry me now."
She’s stunned even as the words come out of her mouth – and yet, the whisper of it is so right. It’s so right, so perfect, so inevitable, so right – and now he's the one staring as a blush stains his high cheekbones even as she smiles at the thought of it. She hadn't thought of asking him before, hadn’t even considered it, hadn’t planned it, could never have imagined asking even a moment earlier, but now, picturing it, the prospect seems perfect.
"Marry me now, Clyde. We'll go to City Hall tomorrow, when they open, just you and me."
She hopes the stunned look in his eye is love – hopes it is a ‘yes’ in return – and knows well it is, because she knows him.
"Marry me now,” she says again, soft and hopeful, as the gentle candlelight shines on the two of them, as she holds the train ticket he’d bought her in her hand. “Marry me tomorrow so I can come to Florida along with you when you leave."
She reaches for his hand.
"As your wife."
***
When the tall, uniformed Marine leaps out of his chair to grab up the pretty young redhead in the gauzy dress made from all the colours of summer, as they both whisper 'yes', as they pledge their troth with a kiss, as he pulls a velvet box from his pocket to place a ring on her dainty finger before they kiss once more, the entire restaurant erupts in delighted applause.
Saluting the blushing couple, they all wish them well.
–
Original draft, Tie, here.