The Wrong Ending

If you're signed up to my newsletter, you've read my short story Never Forget Me. And...I'm totally giving a lot of spoilers in this post, so if you haven't read it run over to this page quickly and sign up to my email list--the story will be sent directly to your email--before reading this post. :)

So!

Having now read the story, you'll know that James proposes to Paige at the very end. And it's not the 'Marry me,' kind of proposal, but that 'One day, I'll be stable enough to provide for a family, and I want you to be my wife,' kind of proposal. So, super emotional. But I'm not talking about what he said today...I'm talking about how he did it.

In the short story, James (Paige's boyfriend who takes her on a special road trip for her birthday), proposes with a velvet box and a whole bunch of candles in a lavender field. BUT what if, instead of doing the traditional way, where he opens the box, makes a speech, and so on, James does this:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He picks a bouquet and bundles it together. Ranunculus (photo above; aka Poor Man's Rose) and lavender and maybe some filler (just greenery to make the bouquet look bigger...because we all know how tiny lavender stems are. XD).

James takes the ring, nestles it between the petals like so:

Then, like nothing is different or wrong or odd, he passes the bouquet to Paige.

She smiles, takes the flowers, and bends down to smell the sweet scent of lavender and the citric Ranunculus perfume.

Her nose hits something cold.

Paige looks up at James for a moment, watching him stand in the box up the pickup, licking his lips, hands in his pockets. He watches her with such intensity.

Slowly, Paige looks down, and there, nestled in the small pink flower is a gemstone ring.

Tears slowly crawls down her cheeks.

James walks up to her, takes the bouquet out of Paige's hands and plucks the ring out of the flower in one swift motion. He grabs her hand, wiping away her tears as he sits beside her on the edge of the pickup box.

And then the speech begins.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I took a couple of photos there, staring the ring I was given in honor of this story.

It was a fun photo shoot. I was excited to get the idea--and in the greenhouse after a loss of motivation for a very long time. Maybe I'll go back and edit Never Forget Me so it includes this. Or, maybe I'll add it as a deleted scene. Whatever I do, I'll share it with you wonderful readers.

I have this one note, though: It probably won't happen fast.

You all have the most wonderful day!!

The End,