Chapter 24
"I was thinking that we actually go shopping. I've only ever ordered your clothes online so I wanted us to do something different, and have a different experience." He explained as he drove in the direction that I recognised as the direction that led to the mall.
"That sounds like fun. Is the anything in particular that we'll be looking for?" I asked already knowing where I wanted to start.
"I'm glad that you're keen to the idea, sweetheart and no we're not looking for anything in particular unless of course the is something that you particularly want." He said as he carried on driving.
Nodding and humming in reply I added, "Sounds like a plan to me."
After 5 minutes of silence, I decided to switch on the radio and turned it to my favourite radio channel which played mostly pop music. I was met by my current favourite song which was Anyone by Justin Bieber. Being the singing fan that I was I began singing and humming at the parts of the song that I didn't know. I could see Paxton smiling at me from the corner of my eyes but he didn't say anything. Poor guy, one thing that I knew about myself was that I wasn't the best singer in the world. We continued driving with me singing and Paxton seemingly just enjoying my voice until we arrived at the mall.
"Okay, where to first?" Paxton asked after he locked the car and laced our fingers together.
"Forever 21," I said pulling him over to the shop that I knew all too well. I immediately found clothes that caught my eye. "Okay so I need a couple of jeans, tops, dresses, coats, and shoes." I mumbled as I took at the clothes and showed them to Paxton and silently asked for his opinion.
"Take anything that you want baby. It will look great on you." Paxton responded to my silent question with an encouraging smile on his face.
"What would you like to see me in?" I asked rephrasing the question.
"I like you in anything and everything." He said seeming amused with my indecisiveness.
"Pax, that's not helpful." I whined with a pout.
"Okay, I like you in dresses," He said as he moved to pick a figure-hugging black simple off-the-shoulder dress. "Like this one." He said holding up the dress for me to see.
"I guess that I can try it on." I said as I looked for the dress in my side. After I found it, I took it off from the rack and made my way to the fitting room with Paxton on my tail. On the way to the fitting room we picked up more clothes until I had a pretty big heap of them in my hands.
"It suits you." Paxton said with a smile of approval as I posed for him in the pink figure-hugging spaghetti-strapped dress. I modeled, mostly dresses for Paxton at Forever 21 and then we went to the counter where he insisted on paying, and I let him after he gave me the puppy dog eyes.
We then went to Victoria Secret where I got a couple of underwear sets. And ended our at H&M where I got myself a couple of hoodies for autumn which was just around the counter with it being February and also went to get myself a couple of shoes.
"Okay I'm done, where would you like to go, what would you like to get?" I asked Paxton who had not bought a single thing for himself since we had gotten here three hours ago.
"I'm okay my love, I just wanted to spoil you besides I don't need anything right now." He said making me frown, the was no way that he was going to leave here empty-handed. So I did what any other person would do in my position and pulled Paxton over to the nearest male clothing store.
"What do you want?" I asked him as I turned around to face in his direction. Paxton looked amused and surprised as he replied.
"I really am okay my love..." He started only for me to ignore him and go to the jeans area, where I got a couple of jeans for him.
"Baby, you do know that those jeans are not really in my size right?" He asked looking at me with even more amusement than before.
"I'm bad with guessing people's sizes." I said with a shrug of embarrassment and watched as he went to the rack and pulled out jeans that were his size.
"Are these what you want to wear?" I asked not wanting him to get something that he didn't like and would end up not wearing.
"Anything goes for me besides these are what you would like to see me in so I'm taking them," He said as he took them into his arms. "Where to next?" He asked letting me lead the way. We went around the shop and ended up getting him hoodies, sweatpants, and some short-sleeved and long-sleeved t-shirts. I even got myself a hoodie even though it was for men, I couldn't resist, it caught my attention. After we had shopped we went to pay and then we were finally done with shopping for the day. "Are you happy now my love?" He asked with a knowing, beaming smile.
"Very much so." I admitted just as my stomach rumbled.
"Let's go and eat then," Paxton said as he looked at my stomach in amusement. "Where would you like to go?" He asked as he stared at the food court in front of us not knowing where to go.
"I'm craving a good burger and some ribs." I said just for my stomach to growl even louder as if it agreed with me.
"Okay then, let's go get you a burger and ribs." He said as interlaced our fingers with held most of the shopping bags in his one hand while I held only two.
"Table for two?" Asked the host to which we nodded and then we led towards the table. "Your waitress will be with you in a minute." He said before he left and went back to stand at his post by the door.
"This is one lively place." Paxton said as he listened to the surrounding sounds of children and their parents.
"It is, is it too much for you?" I asked feeling worried. Even when he was in his human form, he still had sensitive ears.
"No, I'm okay." He said as he looked around taking it in.
"Good afternoon, I'm Carly and I'll be your waitress for today..." She started and told us about their current special before she took our orders and left. Paxton and I chatted amongst ourselves throughout the time at the restaurant and it was only then that Paxton informed me about his other plans for the day. Turns out that after the long shopping day that we had, we were still going to go out for dinner a little later on. We enjoyed our lunch with a light and comfortable. When our plates were clean and our stomachs were full we paid for our lunch, and made our way out of the mall and drove back home.
"Okay, we're leaving again in three hours so you can go and take a long bath or anything that you want to do until then," Paxton said as he made his way to the kitchen only for him to stop halfway there. "Oh and there is a surprise for you in our room, I hope that you will like it." He said with a hopeful grin. I couldn't help but practically run to our room feeling all giddy with excitement. I just loved surprises.
When I entered I saw two rectangular boxes comfortably situated on the bed. One was large and the other one was the size of a shoe box and both boxes had my name on them. I moved over to the bed and pulled off the lid of the smaller box which revealed a pair of silver glittery stilettos. I then opened the other box and was met with dark red soft-looking material. I pulled out the material and came face to face with a gorgeous dark red, flowy over-the-shoulder, long-sleeved dress. It had a gold belt on the waist and the material gracefully flowed to the ground. I gently placed it on the bed and ran my fingers over the delicate material. One thought passed through my head at that time and it was that 'Paxton had really outdone himself with this one.'
I decided to go to the bathroom so that I could take the proposed bath that Paxton had suggested. Such a beautiful dress needed a fresh body. I stayed in the tub for a good 45 minutes before I decided to actually leather my body with soap. I got out of the tub, towel-dried my body, and leathered some lotion onto my skin. When I was done I walked out of the bathroom and back into the bedroom. Sieving through the shopping bags I took out the underwear that I had bought today and pulled it on. When i was done with that I combed my hair and pinned one side of it to the side. I applied dark red lipstick onto my lips and finished off the look by going for smokey eyes. When I was finished with all of that I gently slipped on the dress and tried to make sure that it didn't mess up my hair. I tightly closed my lips to make sure that I didn't get lipstick on the dress to. After putting on the dress I wore my diamond studded earrings, wore my heels, and then sprayed some perfume on. By the time I finished everything it was already 17:55 meaning that I had finished just in time to leave.
I walked out of the room and walked to the kitchen with the short trail of dress splayed on the floor, gently caressing the floor as I walked. Before I could get to the kitchen I was greeted by the sight of Paxton who was approaching me with a bouquet of red and white roses which I didn't even remember seeing him buy. He was dressed in a black tux, with a crisp white shirt and a red bowtie. His hair was jelled backward with a few stubborn tendrils that hung over his face and he had on black dress shoes to finish off the look. He radiated confidence and sophistication as he stood tall in front of me.
"Wow, you look dazzling, my love, way beyond gorgeous." Paxton said looking mesmerised as he stood in front of me looking more dashing than ever.
"Thank you, you clean up pretty nicely yourself." I responded with a giggle as I openly admired the man in front of me.
"These are for you." He said, giving me the bouquet in his hands.
"Why thank you, these are beyond beautiful." I said as admired the bouquet made out of fresh flowers.
"Not as beautiful as you." He said his eyes openly drinking me in.
"Getting a little cliche now aren't we?" I asked with a smirk as I looked at Paxton from under my eyelashes, who burst out into laughter.
"Maybe just a little," He said with an illustration of his fingers. "Shall we go before we run late for our reservation?" He asked as he offered me his arm.
"It would be a pleasure." I responded as I took his offered arm with one hand while I held the roses with my other arm.
When I got outside I saw a white Audi I think A6 instead of the previous rental car that we had. Paxton opened the passenger door for me I said a quick 'thank you' and climbed in. Paxton waited for me to pull my dress into the car before he closed the door behind me and then he got into the driver's seat and closed his door and then we were off. Throughout the ride, I would catch Paxton looking at me with such admiration that I finally couldn't help but to speak out.
"What?" I asked him with a smile that said 'I caught you staring'.
"I just can't help but stare, you look gorgeous. How did I get so lucky, do I even deserve you?" He asked, sounding so genuine that it broke my heart.
"Of course you do, you deserve me more than anyone baby," I cooed as I placed a hand on his lap. "And I definitely wouldn't want anyone but you." I continued and heard him hum in response.
"We have arrived." Paxton said as he parked the car in front of a very expensive-looking restaurant.
"Wow, it's gorgeous and very expensive looking. Pax, are you sure that we should be here, will you be able to afford it, in fact, how have you been able to afford everything that we've gotten so far?" I asked as I looked at him in confusion.
"Don't worry about that and no I didn't rob a bank or anything." He explained with a smirk making me hesitantly nod.
We walked to the entrance where a prim and proper hostess stood.
"Good evening Sir, good evening Madam, do you have a reservation?" She asked.
"Yes, table under Woods, please." Paxton responded, we watched as the hostess looked through her iPad and then she nodded and guided us to a table at the back.
"Your waiter will be with you shortly." She said with a small bow as she walked back to her post.
"Well, that was different." I mumbled just as our waiter approached us. He gave us our menus and then was off without a word.
"Everything here looks both expensive and delicious. I'm honestly a little intimated." I said looking through the menu.
"Don't look at the prices baby, if you like the dish then order it." He said as he looked at me with amusement.
"I can't help it, could you please order for me?" I asked not knowing what I wanted. "How did you find this place?" I asked as I closed my menu.
"Yesterday when I dropped you off at your mother's I went restaurant hunting. I drove around town until I found this place." He explained as he looked around.
"It's beautiful, thank you for bringing me here." I said as I grasped Paxton's hands in my own.
"You're more than welcome my love." He responded with a dazzling smile.
Paxton and I chatted about small things like our childhood memories and our favourite things to do when we had some free time. Turns out he preferred cats while I preferred dogs, their cats, and dogs are different though because they have wings going by the images that he had shown me.
"Roseanne, may I ask you something?" He asked seeming shy as I took a sip of my appetizer.
"Of course, ask away." I encouraged as I gave him all of my attention.
"Rosie, I know that we haven't known each other for very long but I love you with my whole heart. I know that I can't completely have you as mine in the sense of marriage just yet and I don't want you to rush into things with me, but I wanted to ask if you would be my girlfriend and if you would accept this promise ring for now. While I wait for you to be comfortable and to be ready to have me as yours for as long as we live, I would be the happiest man if you would grant me this. But don't feel pressured into it, we can go as slow as you want as long as I am with you I'm happy." He said as he looked at me with such authenticity.
"Paxton you are the best thing or more like person that has ever happened to me. You've been patient with me and here you are still as patient as ever. It would be an honour to be your girlfriend and to wear this promise ring." I said with a watery smile. This felt so surreal, I know that people go all out for proposals at times but this wasn't a proposal and yet here were in a beautiful restaurant just so that he could ask me to be his girlfriend. Never in a million years have I ever thought that I would someone this...amazing.
"I promise that I love and will continue to love you and you alone. I promise to be patient with you. I promise to be loyal to you and I promise to wait for you to be ready before I replace this ring with an engagement ring and then soon after with a wedding ring." He said as he took my right hand and placed the ring on the ring finger of that hand. I couldn't help, but stand up and walk to the other side of the table and pulled Paxton in for a heartwarming kiss.
"I promise to be loyal to you and to love you and you alone and then when I am ready we will officially tie the knot," I whispered against his lips with my eyes looking directly into his. "I almost forgot to tell you that I'm moving in with you. I hope you don't mind having to share your space with me." I added and watched as a smile spread across his lips.
"Nothing could make me happier." He said with a large contagious smile as he pulled me into a brief kiss. The people in the restaurant were all but forgotten.