Chapter 164: Is this a marriage proposal?
Olive’s POV:
“Aaron… What are you doing?”
There was a gloomy atmosphere permeating our bedroom, the floor was covered in a mess of broken glass and other random objects, and the man I loved was standing stock-still in the middle of the debris.
His tall body was slightly hunched as he stood by the dresser with his back facing me. His knuckles were white against the corners of the dresser, the veins in his arms bulging out like an angry bull about to charge.
When he heard my voice, he visibly stiffened, and I felt a chill run through me. I scanned the room quickly, my instincts screaming that something was wrong. I was so unsettled, I almost turned on the spot and ran away.
But logic kept me from leaving. This was Aaron, after all. He was the person I loved most in the world. I pushed the door wider open and approached him slowly. “Aaron, what’s wrong?”
Aaron turned around suddenly. He stumbled toward me as if attracted by magnetism, grabbing me into his arms and holding me tightly. “Olive, don’t ever leave me again.”
His muscles were tense, and as I leaned into him, I could feel him trembling slightly. This version of Aaron was unfamiliar, and it scared me. What happened to him?
I hesitated before lifting my arms to gently stroke Aaron’s back, giving him a few comforting pats. “Honey, I won’t leave you. But… What’s wrong with you? You’re worrying me.”
Dividing into pages now
that I couldn’t breathe.
Did Aaron have diabetes? I was a little confused, but before I could ask any questions, Aaron said, “Olive, where have you been? I’ve been looking for you for a long time.”
His voice was measured and tense, like it was taking him a lot of effort to stay calm. I pulled back from his arms and looked up at that handsome face.
Some of his hair was falling across his forehead, damp with sweat. His entire face was pale, his eyes were bloodshot, and his lips were drained of color. There was an unsettling sense of brokenness in his demeanor, striking a sharp contrast to the bright-eyed, tireless Aaron of last night.
I stood on tiptoe and kissed him softly on the lips. “I wanted to surprise you.”
I backed away and lifted my skirt to show him a tattoo on my ankle. It was a delicately traced series of numbers.
The string of numbers seemed random, but it was actually his name, encrypted with the date when Aaron and I met. I’d had the idea for this tattoo back on the day when I saw the tattoo store while shopping with Aaron.
When Aaron told me about his insecurity last night, I made up my mind to get this tattoo. After he made himself vulnerable by telling me how he felt, I really wanted to do something to reassure him. I wanted him to know that our relationship wasn’t just a temporary fling, and that I truly loved and cherished him more than anyone else.
Aaron looked down at the numerical tattoo, unblinking, as if time had frozen around us. Gradually, the light returned to his eyes. His fingers trembled slightly, and his breathing caught as his eyes
slowly crept back up to my face.
Seeing Aaron’s reaction, I only felt more confident that I’d made the right decision.
After a long time, he crouched beside me, lifting my ankle and placing my foot on his knee to inspect. He looked at the tattoo for a long time, like it was a piece of rare art or gold jewelry.
He was looking at my ankle so intently that I was a little embarrassed, and I started to pull my foot away.
But Aaron held my calf lightly in place, and when he spoke, his voice was even more h*arse and ragged than before. “Baby, I still want to look.”