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.“Pleeeease.” He gives me his best puppy dog face, and I hear a voice inside me start to think it’s not such a bad idea.“Fine, but then we’re going back to the hotel.Promise?”“Yes, yes.I promise.”It’s my first time to the Arc de Triomphe, but between jet lag and exhaustion and being cold, I’m not really paying attention.It should be impressive, and I should be appreciating the sculptures set into the exterior stone, but as we pass underground and come up inside it, the only thing I’m thinking about is how good it will feel to get in that bathtub tonight.We climb the stairs that wind through the inside of the structure, steps upon steps, until at last we reach the top.Adam is in one of his perpetual good moods as he leans out over the carved stone to get a better look at the square below.It’s not even dinnertime by American standards, but the daylight is already fading, and I’m surprised he can even see much.“Ryan,” he calls to me, ignoring the other tourists up here.“You have to at least look.It’s no fun if you just stand there.”Forcing back my first shivers of the day, I join him at the edge that faces toward the Eiffel Tower.“It’s nice,” I say, but I’m not really into this anymore, and he definitely knows it.I’m not mad or anything, but I can feel myself getting a bit cranky.My gaze wanders away from Adam and toward the city.The lights and streets sprawl out from the giant arch and into the twilight, and I have to admit that it is an impressive sight.Somehow winter makes Paris feel different.Not just the temperature, but the whole feel of the city.It’s more raw, more real.While I stare out into the evening with my teeth clamped together to ward off the cold, Adam bends down to tie his shoe or something.Except when I glance back at him, his shoes are both tied and he has one knee pressed into the stone beneath us.He’s looking up at me, and between his fingers, he’s holding a gold band.“Will you marry me?” Adam asks.Holy shit, Adam is proposing to me.The forever kind of proposal, where we spend the rest of our lives together.My mind drums up thoughts, but I ignore them.He’s still gazing up at me, waiting.But I will never have another chance to give him shit while he’s proposing to me, and I just can’t pass up the opportunity.“Why didn’t you ask me on the Eiffel Tower?”“I didn’t want to be like everyone else,” he explains quickly.“We’re still in Paris, though.That’s where everyone goes.If you were going to throw me off, you should have taken me to Prague or something.” I’m kidding, because I am surprised.Maybe I’ve always just been a bit oblivious, but I haven’t really thought much about my future with Adam.He frowns, and it clashes with the smile he’s still trying to put on for me.“Okay, so I’m not perfect.Are you going to heckle me some more or are you going to give me an answer?” He hesitates, and his last words hold a vulnerability that nearly brings me to my own knees.“Because people are starting to stare.”He’s asking me for forever, even though it’s barely been more than six months since we moved in together.But it feels like we’ve been with each other for years.Loved each other for years.And maybe we have.So when my heart whispers say yes, and my soul hums with contentment, it’s not really a question at all.“Hell yes, I’m going to marry you.” I pluck the ring from his grasp and slide in onto my right ring finger.“Now stand up so I can kiss you.”He does, and I do.Adam is kissing me back now, his lips cold like the day but his tongue warm.My fingers are in his hair and my face is pressed against his, squishing his nose and his glasses but I don’t mind because I’m going to spend the rest of my life with this man, and the thought is a beautiful one.Finally he pulls away, and he flashes me his smile.A smile that is meant for me and me alone, to cherish today and tomorrow and forever.The one that says I love you with a million words and none at all.And we hear… clapping? There aren’t that many other tourists up here, but apparently we’ve made an impression, and calls of congratulations crisscross the top of the Arc, a mix of French and German and English.Maybe Italian too.I ignore them and pull Adam close so I can look him in the eyes without all that air between us.“Okay, now I want to go back to the hotel.”“Still?” He sounds disappointed.“No glass of wine or celebratory dinner?”I shake my head, and I touch my lips to his so he can have just a taste of the desire that’s coursing through me.“I want to get you alone so I can consummate this engagement by doing bad things to you.”He grins.“Yes, please.”* * * *The moment we get back to the hotel, we tear our clothes off and do just about all of the bad things we can think of.And then some more.The bed is very comfortable, so is the couch.The luggage rack not so much.We go at it for a good hour before Adam excuses himself to shower.While I wait, I try to figure out how we were almost-lovers for so long without ever crossing that boundary.Hanging out with Adam is great, and it always has been.But making love with Adam is even better.Lying naked in the bed, I hear the shower stop.Then the sound of water filling the tub drifts out of the bathroom, and my interest goes in a different direction.The hotel must have fantastic pressure, because it sounds like a fire hydrant ruptured in there.After a few minutes, my phone vibrates on the bedside table, and I stretch across the expansive bed to read the message.Dear future husband, please join me in the tub at your leisure.I’m in the bathroom in about two seconds.Adam is already in the tub, concealed from his shoulders down by a dozen little rubber boats floating around him.They cover half the water’s surface, bobbing against the side of the tub and each other and Adam.“Whoa.”“The correct response is ahoy,” he says.“Hop in.”My heart swells as I cross the room and push the boats apart to get into the tub.Hot water swallows my feet, followed by my knees, and finally the rest of me as I sit down into the tingling heat.“This is awesome.”“I know you like boats.Thought you might enjoy them in a bathtub too.”“I’m pretty sure I have the best boyfriend in the world,” I tell him.“Fiancé,” he corrects me.I’m smiling like a fool now.“When you say that it makes me want to cuddle up with you and kiss you until neither of us can breathe.”He smirks.“So do it.”So I do, and for a while oxygen is a luxury that neither of us has enough of.Eventually when our fingers are starting to pucker up from the water, our voracious kisses slow, and I rotate to lean back into Adam’s chest.Relaxing into him, I let my head tilt back and rest on his shoulder as he surrounds me with his arms.As if he’s been waiting for this all along, Adam’s hands begin to move gently over my skin.Over my chest, my stomach, my arms, and other places too.“You’re still hard?” he asks as he ventures into one of those other places.I chuckle and the movement shakes off the rubber boats that have been trying to dock on me.“It’s your fault.You keep touching me.And you’re… you know, hot.”He wraps his fingers around just one part of me, and he just holds me like that for a while, as though he’s afraid I’m going to slip away from him.When his arms return to squeezing me gently around my chest, he says, “I knew you’d say yes.”“Oh yeah? How is that?”“Because if you hadn’t, they would have had to rename it to the –” he adopts an exaggerated French accent, “Le Arc de Tragedie.”I refuse to encourage him with a response.Sometimes I wonder how I fell in love with someone with such a bad sense of humor
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