I lie next to him well into the night. The temperature drops even more. I put my clothes back on and snuggle up to Aiden who dozes off. I watch the way his chest rises up and down with each breath. The color in his face is back, but his lips are still a bit dry.

“You know I can feel you watching me,” he says without opening his eyes.

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“Are you ever going to go to sleep?” he asks, this time opening his eyes.

“I don’t know,” I mumble and rub up against him even more.

“What’s wrong? You’re not tired?”

“Yes, of course, I’m tired.”

“Then what?”

I think about it for a moment. I mean, what is wrong? I should be ecstatic. Content. The love of my life is back and he just gave me one of the best orgasms of my life. Why the hell can I not sleep?

“I guess, I’m afraid. I really don’t want this to be a dream.”

“It’s not a dream.” Aiden shifts his body, giving me a little more room. He then pushes my hair back out of my face and runs his finger down my neck and up to my lips.

“I’m afraid that I’m going to go to sleep and wake up and not have you again. Just like before. I’m afraid of losing you.”

“How about this? What if you go to sleep and I stay up? That way I’ll be up when you wake up.”

I consider this for a moment but then shake my head no.

“What?” He laughs. “What’s wrong with that idea?”

“That’s ridiculous. You just came out of a coma. You need your rest. We shouldn’t have even done what we did, let alone this. No, you cannot stay up.”

“Okay, how about this?” Aiden licks his lips as he looks deep into my eyes. “We both go to sleep but only after you answer one question.”

“Okay…” I say, hesitating.

“Ellie Rhodes. I love you. I’ve loved you since the first time I laid my eyes on you. That’s why I bought you at that auction.”

“I love you, too,” I whisper.

“Ellie, I came to a realization today. I realize now that I want to do bad things to you forever.”

I smile.

“I want to marry you, Ellie. And I want to marry you as soon as possible.”

I sit up a little and look at him. We’ve of course talked about this before. We had plans. They fell through. We made new plans. But they were never this…rushed.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“Just what I said. I want to marry you, but not just at some hypothetical time in the future. I want to marry you right now.”

“No wedding?” I ask.

“I don’t know. Do you want a wedding?”

“I’ve never thought of not having one, if I were to get married.”

“I don’t know. I guess we can talk about it. The thing that I wanted to tell you, or rather ask you is, will you marry me? Will you marry me soon?”

I think about that for a moment.

“It’s not that I’m in a rush, Ellie. It’s just that I came sort of close to death. And waking up now, and looking at you and being with you…it just made me realize how much I want to start living my life. I can’t wait for you to be my wife and the mother of my child. I can’t wait to start my life with you. Will you marry me, Ellie?”

“Yes, yes, I will!” The words escape my lips before I get the chance to stop them. But I’m glad for that. There has already been way too much thinking about this and not enough action. I love Aiden. I’m going to have his baby. Why not marry him? Why not become his wife?

I press my lips onto his and the world begins to spin.

* * *

That night I sleep like a baby. It’s well into the morning when we finally wake up. And not on our own accord, but by Brie knocking on the door. When I check the time, I’m shocked to see that it’s well past ten a.m.

“The nurses decided to let you sleep and get some rest since all of your monitors were showing that you are feeling good,” Brie announces. She is carrying a case of three coffees and a bag of croissants. Chocolate. My favorite. I climb out of bed and grab one, handing Aiden another one.

“You look great,” Brie remarks. “How are you feeling?”

“Much better. I actually got a lot of sleep last night. Didn’t think I would need it since I did nothing but sleep for a week straight, but I guess I did.”

Much to my surprise, the coffee and the croissant actually go down well given my tendency for morning sickness. I pop a pill to keep the nausea away and squeeze Brie’s hand.

“Brie, I have something to tell you,” I say, my voice shrieking in anticipation. “We’re getting married.”

“You are? Congratulations.”

“We’re getting married soon,” I add.

“How soon?”

“Well, that’s what we want your help with. We’d like to get married very soon. As soon as possible.”

“But how?”

“I was thinking maybe you could try to find a justice of the peace and ask them to come here,” Aiden explains. “I’ll pay however much it costs.”

“You want to get married in a hospital?” Brie asks, taken aback.

“Well, no,” I say. “We don’t necessarily want to get married in a hospital. We just want to get married. And we’re not sure how long Aiden has to stay here.”

“But don’t you want to have a nice wedding? Wear a dress? Invite Mom and Dad?”

“I don’t know,” I mumble. “I guess that sounds nice except for the Mom and Dad part.”

The last bit was meant as a joke, but it doesn’t come off that way.

“Brie, we’re in love. We just survived this scary thing. Aiden and I could’ve both died. But we didn’t. So, now we want to celebrate. We want to become husband and wife. Do you understand?”

She nods and looks away. Clearly, something is not registering. I don’t understand why she can’t be excited for me. I mean, fake it at least, if you can’t be genuinely into the idea.

“Ellie, can I talk to you outside about this?” Brie asks.

I shake my head no.

“Why not?”

“Because you’re going to try to talk me out of this and I don’t have to listen to that. I want to marry Aiden and we’re going to get married whether you help us or not.”

Just at that moment, Arlene and Dean walk through the door. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the annoyed expression that forms on Aiden’s face.

“Get married?” Arlene gasps. “What are you talking about?”

“Mom, I asked Ellie to marry me,” Aiden says.

“Oh my God, oh my God.”

“It’s really not a big deal. I mean, it is for us. But it doesn’t have to be for you,” he says.

“How can you say that? My only son is getting married and it’s not supposed to be a big deal for me? Are you kidding me?” Arlene asks.

“Ellie, can I talk to you?” Brie asks, nudging me out into the hall.

“I’ll be right back.” I finally give in.