Marked

Wide Open Spaces

“What are you thinking about?”

The sound of his voice… I never thought someone’s voice would make one feel this way. It’s not the terrible kind—if anything, it’s a good feeling. I would have hurled and ultimately ran away if I was myself five years ago, but I didn’t. And that’s because of him.

I glanced over my shoulder to see the man I love, and he wasn’t looking. He stared afar with a smile that I couldn’t read. His smiles were always hard to read, but it wasn’t a reason for me to like him less—I doubt I would ever.

“You’re scaring me.” He finally turned to me, but it wasn’t the type he would usually give me when he stares at me to tell me how badly I look. No. “Your thoughts, I hear loud and clear.” He leaned his face closer to me, so before anything happens, I poked his cheeks away, laughing it off, which he responds to with a small grunt.

“Maybe you should stop trying to hear them if you are so bothered by it.” I tilted my head, resting my cheek over my palms to stare at him.

His chuckle faded into a warm smile—the smile that led me to a losing end. “What do you want me to do? Chop my ears off?”

I smiled, humming teasingly. “As a matter of fact…”

“How else am I going to hear you say you love me if I chop my ears off?” He asked, and I knew too well he wasn’t even trying to question it. He just wanted to tell me.

I looked into his eyes, smiling, and just knowing that he was staring back at me was the best feeling. “You said the person I love is lucky,” I paused, noticing how my sentiments changed the environment. “But I’m the one who’s lucky.”

“Are you now?” He flashed a cheeky grin as if he already knew what I was going to say. He liked what he heard, after all.

“You’re unbelievable.” I shook my head.

“You love this unbelievable person, though.”

My lips parted in disbelief as I turned back to him. He wore a consistent-confident smile, which I found annoying the first time I ever laid eyes on it. “Not quite.” I squinted my eyes at him. “I don’t like men with perfectly crooked brows.”

He snorted out loud, looking away. “I am deeply offended.” He was not offended at all.

I hissed at his sarcastic remark, anyway.

“You know what’s more perfect than my perfectly crooked brows?”

I turned back to him, intrigued by his sudden question.

“If you marry me.”