Xavier took her on a car trip, making enough turns to confuse her sense of direction. At last he pulled into the parking lot of a restaurant, and led her out of the car and into a private room. She had to go up a couple of short sets of stairs and at last he took the blindfold off. Her eyes blinked open.
“Oh my gosh!”
The room was essentially black, but there were mirrors and prisms and such all of the place, with beams of light shining into them, creating a fantastically beautiful abundance of colours. She and Xavier stood on a round platform in the middle of the room. The platform reminded her of a gazebo - close but not quite. As she turned to face Xavier she noticed that in the centre of this platform was a bouquet of red roses sitting on a vase on a short, round table. Xavier was standing in front of a bench, acoustic guitar in hand.
“Have a seat,” he said, before she could say anything.
Electra sat and he did too. Then he strummed his guitar and began to play. As Electra watched and listened, she felt herself being drawn into the music, and she felt tears prick at her eyes.
The last notes died away and Xavier slowly stood up. She was about to say something when he put his finger to his lips. He carefully moved the roses over to her.
“Cornelia Skye Manning -”
“So you do know my name,” she teased.
“Hey, you’re spoiling the moment.”
“Sorry. What’s this all about?”
“I was getting to that. Now I have to start again. Ahem, Cornelia Skye Manning, will you do me the highest honour of all honours and… marry me?”
Electra stared, and her expression became even more stunned when Xavier actually opened up one of the roses (the only fake one in the bouquet) to reveal a beautiful engagement ring. She gaped for a few moments and Xavier knelt there nervously.
“I… I… do you really mean it this time?”
Xavier laughed.
“You know that’s exactly what your Dad said when I asked him for permission.”
“You asked Dad for permission?”
“Ahh, well, y’know… you write about it happening in your fanfics all the time, I thought you might like it…” he laughed again. “When Mum found out she muttered something about the dark ages.”
“Who else knows you were going to ask me?”
“Oh just about everyone,” he grinned. “Most of them I didn’t even tell.”
Electra giggled.
“That was a beautiful song.”
“I’m glad you liked it. You’re the first person I’ve played it to. I knew… I knew the day that I finished it that I was ready to ask you. Which reminds me, you haven’t answered my question yet.”
Electra put her hand on his cheek and kissed his lips softly.
“Can I take that as a yes?” he asked as she pulled away.
“No,” she said, moving herself to his lap. “You can take this as a yes.”
And on that she wrapped her arms around him and they kissed passionately for a couple of minutes. When at last they parted, Xavier took her hand and slipped the ring on her finger. Then they got up and he led her to the door. He opened it and on the other side were all their families, bar Electra’s mother, stepfather and brother, ready to celebrate their engagement.
“We’ll tell them on the way to Tulsa,” he promised her. “You were still planning on staying with us for awhile, weren’t you?”
“What reason could I possibly have to change my mind?” Electra replied.
Xavier grinned, and kissed her lips sweetly.