CHAPTER 17
Audrey
A bout an hour later the helicopter returns us to the rooftop. We’re down to the first floor and out onto the street in no time. I turn the corner towards where the car is parked, but Tamás motions toward the other direction.
“I thought we could all take a walk. It’s a beautiful night.”
“Dad, it’s getting late,” Tina says.
“You’re right. That’s exactly why we need to take a walk.”
I process his words and draw a blank. Tamás makes a living based on the words he chooses, so I know he wouldn’t waste any or choose the wrong ones. I can’t process his cryptic message no matter how hard I try.
We walk through some side streets before coming up to the start of the Chain Bridge.
“One of your daughter’s favorite places in the entire city,” Tamás says to my dad, as he winks at me.
I smile thinking what he asked me last time we were here, and wonder what question he has prepared for tonight.
We walk out onto the bridge, and I’m glad we’ve picked this late hour to cross. There’s literally no one out. I stop for a second.
“Everything okay?” my dad says, turning back to look at me.
“Yeah, it’s just that I walk this bridge as often as I can and I’ve never seen it totally empty like this. Never once, day or night.”
I lean forward a little and squint, trying to see the end of the bridge.
“Maybe something’s going on. Maybe it’s closed for cars tonight. Repairs or something.”
I turn back around and look towards the side we came. Then I see it. There’s a man there blocking all traffic…car and foot.
I turn back around and there Tamás is, right in front of me.
“Most people may not be aware that Buda and Pest are two separate cities. It’s this Chain Bridge that was the first to connect them. To bring east and west together.”
What is he up to?
“I find it fascinating that of all the wonderful things in this country to enjoy, it’s this bridge that you enjoy the most,” he says, looking me in the eye. “This bridge that has bonded east, like me, and west, like you, together for a long, long time, and will continue to until the end of time.”
Tamás kneels down and I feel myself getting light headed from all the air off the river and what I can’t believe is about to happen.
My father’s arm wraps around mine and he holds me up. “I’m okay,” I say regaining my footing.
“Audrey, I’ve contacted the college you attend. I asked them if you could complete your education through their distance-learning program. They said yes. I spoke with your father this afternoon and asked him if he would give his daughter away to me in the biggest and most beautiful wedding this city has ever seen. He said yes. They say the third time’s a charm and it’s that third yes that I want the most. That third yes that I need to make my life complete, perfect, and most importantly joined together forever with you.”
I’m literally shaking as my hands come up to meet my face.
“Audrey, the absolute love of my life, and the only girl in the world for me. The one who has made me feel unlike I ever have since the very first moment she arrived in my life earlier this summer. Beautiful…will you marry me?”
He opens a small black box, and I may be no professional, but under the streetlight the diamond looks pinkish…and absolutely huge.
“Yes!” I say and jump into the air. I’m like a kid in a candy store and all the candy in the world is mine when he’s there with me. And now that we’re engaged that’s exactly where he’s going to be forever…right by my side, and me by his.