Over the next few weeks Kris and I completely redecorated our apartment. When it was finished it looked exactly as I thought it would, and the bedroom was a perfect culmination of the theme that was hinted throughout the rest of the home. After I bought Kris's ring I gave it to Zac to hide in a place so Kris wouldn't find it until I gave it to her on our weekend in Vermont during our anniversary.
"You know, Kris, we're only going for a weekend. You don't have to pack everything in the apartment," I said from the doorway. It was the day before our anniversary and I wanted to leave about ten minutes beforehand, but unfortunately Kris was still packing.
"I'm almost done," she said.
"Well I have to get something from upstairs. I'll be back in a minute." I walked out of the room and went upstairs to Zac and Ginger's apartment. I went inside and wasn't the least bit surprised to find Zac and Ginger making out on the couch. Well, at least they weren't doing anything more than that.
"Don't mind me," I said. "Just picking something up." I went into their bedroom and to Zac's closet. After digging through the trunk he had in there, I found Kris's ring and I put it in the pocket of my jeans. I'd put it in a more secure location once I got back upstairs. I closed the trunk and walked out of the bedroom. "See you guys on Monday!"
"Have fun!" I heard Zac say before I left the apartment. When I got back downstairs Kris was ready.
"What'd you have to get from upstairs?" I passed by her and went into the bedroom to get my suitcase.
"Nothing," I lied. "I got in there and I realized I already got it yesterday." Looking at the door I quickly put the box into the suitcase and zipped it up. "Do you have everything? Did you remember to pack the sofa?"
"Shut up," she said, putting her hand on her hip. "Are we going to go?"
"Yeah."
"I'm so excited," she said, smiling. "We're finally getting our weekend together." I kissed her. "Okay, let's go." She grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the apartment.
I'd gotten us a room for the weekend in a well-known Vermont bed and breakfast. It was supposed to be extremely romantic and from what I've heard it was probably the best place to spend a weekend alone. The trip there was longer than I'd expected but once we got there it was definitely worth it.
"Oh my God," Kris said, looking around. "Taylor, this place looks is so beautiful. Oh, they have a garden here too! This is so awesome."
"Let's go inside and get checked in first," I said. She looked reluctant but followed me inside anyway. I stepped up to the counter to a homely older woman who looked to be thrilled to have more guests.
"Good afternoon," she said. "Checking in, are you?"
"Yes. Taylor Hanson," I said.
"Ah, yes, Mr. Hanson." She looked behind me at Kris, who was looking around, still amazed. "I'll show you to your room." She took a key from the key rack and took us to the stairs. I took Kris's hand; she was still looking around.
"This is a simply magnificent place," Kris said.
"Why thank you," the woman said.
"Who's your interior decorator?" Kris asked.
"I did it all myself." Kris smiled.
"It's wonderful." We were led to a room. The woman unlocked it and showed us inside. Kris and I went inside. The woman handed me the key.
"I hope you enjoy your stay here," she said. "You can call me at the front desk if you need anything." She gave us a smile and left, closing the door behind her. Kris sat down on the bed.
"Oh, it's comfy," Kris said, smiling. She bounced up and down on it. "And springy." I raised an eyebrow. "Sit down." I sat down next to her.
"Oh, you're right," I said. I let myself fall back onto the bed, taking Kris with me. I began to kiss her but she stopped me. "What?"
"Can we talk for a little bit?" she asked.
"I don't know�I'm really in the mood."
"Well I'm not." I sighed.
"All right, baby. What do you want to talk about?" I asked, rolling onto my back. She put her head against my chest.
"Do you think we'll get married?" she asked. I felt a large smile cross my face but I had to tone it down so she wouldn't catch on to anything.
"Of course we'll get married, Kris."
"Do you want kids?" I thought about it.
"To tell you the truth," I said a moment later, "I never really thought about it before. But yeah, yeah I do. Seeing Jenny kind of changed everything." Kris agreed, but I expected that from her. I knew when Jenny was born that Kris was immediately thinking about kids.
"How many kids do you want?"
"I don't know," I said. "Forty-five?"
"Taylor!"
"Okay, okay�four."
"Four?" she asked.
"Yeah. Why? Is four too many?"
"Why don't we have three first and then decide if we want another one?" I nodded. That sounded good to me.
We stayed in bed pretty much for the rest of the day, getting up only to have dinner. We were just having one of those awesome conversations that kept going on and on, where in the end we were talking about the popularity of post-it notes and neither of us knew how we got there. We hadn't talked like this since we started dating and we spent all day on the phone. For a while I was afraid that this weekend would be a complete disaster because for the bulk of our relationship someone else has always been around, and that someone was always Ginger. Kris and I never had any time to ourselves and I was afraid it was always going to be that way. I was afraid my relationship with Kris was based on the fact that someone else was always there, but to my great relief we were just as comfortable without anybody else around as we were with them around.
It was later that night when we were lying in bed, far away from the topic of post-it notes. I was falling asleep and I think Kris was too but we were still talking, this time more airily with longer pauses in between. "You know what I noticed?" Kris asked.
"What, baby?"
"You don't write anymore," she said. "When we first started going out, way back in that first month when we were on the phone all the time, every time I talked to you, you were singing under your breath and constantly writing. Even when you came to Europe with Ginger and me you kept writing and when you weren't writing you were walking around singing�"
"I guess I just ran out of ideas."
"That's crap." I didn't want to tell her the real reason I stopped writing. I didn't let anybody know how much Zac's decision to leave the band hurt me. I didn't let anybody know how much it hurt to even think about music anymore. I was so mad at Zac and even madder at myself. I'm such an ass. If I hadn't slept with Ginger I would still have my band and my music. It was all my fault and everybody knew that. The more I wrote the more I thought of that so I just stopped writing altogether. I stopped singing. I stopped everything that had to do with music so I could stop thinking of what a terrible mess I created.
"Oh, look," Kris said, looking over me to the clock. I looked over and the time had just rolled over to midnight. "Happy anniversary, sweetie."
"Happy anniversary."
"Can I have my present now?" she asked. I laughed.
"No."
"Oh, come on, why not? It's our anniversary!"
"No! I told you already that you're not getting anything until after dinner!" I told her. She huffed.
"Fine, then you're not getting anything until after dinner either." She turned away from me.
"Ugh! Kris!"
"I don't want to hear it! If I don't get any, you don't get any!" I groaned but a few minutes later the both of us fell asleep.
The next day I had Kris's ring with me everywhere I went. I told Kris I wouldn't give it to her until after dinner, although it was practically burning a hole in my pocket. I was anxious and scared out of my mind all day and I think Kris could tell. Before dinner we were outside walking through the gardens and Kris noticed how jumpy I was.
"Baby?" she asked. I looked over at her.
"Yes?"
"What's wrong?" she asked. "You're so jumpy. What, are you afraid of the bees?" I gave her a look. "It's okay, honey, if you ignore them they'll ignore you."
"Shut up," I told her. "I'm not afraid of the bees." She laughed.
"Sure you're not�oh my God."
"What?" She pointed and I turned around. At the edge of the garden a deer had come out of the forest. "Oh, wow."
"I want to go pet it." She took my hand and started carefully walking towards the deer.
"Kris, no, you'll scare it away."
"Well I'll either scare it away or it'll let me pet it. I don't see a downside to this. Now be quiet." She led me over to the deer; I could feel in the way she held my hand how excited she was to be this close to something this beautiful. "Oh my God," she whispered when we were about two feet away. The deer hadn't looked up yet. She took another careful step but snapped a twig. The deer looked up and upon seeing us immediately ran back into the forest. "Dammit!"
"I told you."
"I don't care! I got to see a deer! My life is complete now." I smiled. Her life was far from complete but it was cute that she thought so. I looked at my watch.
"Do you want to go back inside for dinner?" I asked.
"I'm not really all that hungry, but yeah, let's go." She just knew that the sooner she got dinner over the sooner she got her present. We went back inside. There was a little dining room in this place that served all three meals, which was good because neither Kris nor I really felt like leaving the grounds this weekend. "Taylor, this has been the absolute best weekend of my life." I smiled.
"Well that's good to hear," I said. "That's what I was aiming for."
"This place is so amazing. It's decorated beautifully, the gardens are gorgeous and there are deer! Even this dining room is beautiful. It's all so quaint and private�even though there are other people here." I forgot that there were other people here. I told the manager of this place that Kris and I wanted to be alone so she must have told everyone else to leave us alone, because they did. Of course when we entered a room it was obvious people were trying not to stare, but nobody had bothered us and that was what I was looking for.
Kris and I ordered dinner from our semi-private table in the corner of the dining room. "You know we should really tell Zac and Ginger about this place, I bet they would love it."
"Or we could keep it our little secret," I said. She shook her head. "Yeah, I bet they would love it." It was the first time we'd mentioned Zac or Ginger the entire weekend. They had been such a big part of our conversations before now that I told Kris I really wanted to keep away from the subject of the two of them. I knew we couldn't go an entire weekend without mentioning one of them, but we had held out for quite a long time and I was happy for that.
"So when do I get my present?" Kris asked. I smiled. I was waiting for her to bring it up.
"After dinner, I told you that already," I said. She rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, yeah, you told me that already, but when is 'after dinner' anyway? Is it when we finish eating, is it when the table is cleared, is it when we're upstairs�?" She was just anxious to get her present because I've been hinting at how incredibly huge it would be.
"After we finish eating and we go back upstairs, then I'll give it to you."
"All right."
"And no rushing, honey. I don't want you to end up choking because you're so bloody impatient."
"I am not impatient! Where's our food?" I shook my head, smiling. She was more impatient than she gave herself credit for. It was a few minutes before our dinner came out. Although I told her not to, Kris was eating fast. However eating fast for Kris isn't exactly eating fast because I still finished before she did.
When we went upstairs Kris quickly shut the door and sat down on the bed. "Present time!" she said, smiling.
"Okay, okay," I said. I pulled the blue box out of my pocket and handed it to her, and then sat down on the bed next to her.
"Tiffany's?" she said, giving me a smile. "You got me something from Tiffany's? You really do have good taste." She giggled a bit and opened it up, revealing the velvet case inside. My heart began to beat faster in my chest as she took it out and opened it up. "Oh�oh my God, Taylor." Taking a deep breath I got down on my knees in front of her. She eyed me carefully.
"I love you," I told her. "I've loved you since the moment I met you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you." She put her hands over her mouth, her eyes filling up with tears. "Will you marry me?" She nodded, tears slipping out of her eyes.
"Yes�" she whispered, taking her hands away from her mouth. "Yes!" I took the ring out of the box and put it on her finger. "I love you so much!" She threw her arms around me and kissed me. When she let go she hit me in the arm.
"Ow! You are not supposed to do that!"
"You had this planned all along, didn't you? You set up this weekend so you could propose, didn't you?"
"Of course I did," I said. "I just wanted everything to be perfect."
"Well everything is perfect, Taylor." I sat down on the bed with her in my lap, my arms around her waist. She admired her ring. "This rock is fucking huge, Taylor."
"What else did you expect?" I asked. She kissed me. "So can I please get laid now?"
"Of course you can, baby." She kissed me again.