"I don't think I could eat anything else," Hudson said, placing his hand on his flat stomach.
"No. No more food, please," Ariana added with a laugh.
All around them streetlights flicked on as the sun dipped below the horizon. The hanging paper lamps around the stage bobbed in the breeze. Ariana felt as if the laughter and conversation and music had softened along with the heat. A pleasant, content feeling overcame her just as Hudson's hand slipped into hers yet again. It was a feeling Ariana relished--so rare for her normally intense self.
Teo turned to Briana Leigh and Ariana noticed the serious expression on his face even before his girlfriend did. Something was up. She glanced at Hudson and he raised an eyebrow. He had seen it too.
"Well, since you asked, I do have an idea of what to do next... if you're up for it, Briana Leigh," Teo said.
Briana Leigh stopped looking around at all the people and frivolity. Her eyes widened as Teo got down on one knee, right there in the middle of the jostling crowd.
"Oh my God," Briana Leigh breathed.
"Oh my God," Ariana said as Teo whipped out a black double-hinged ring box.
"This just got way interesting," Hudson put in.
"Briana Leigh, I don't want you to have to worry while I'm away in Ibiza," Teo said, swallowing hard. He was clearly nervous but determined
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as well. His gaze was firm as he looked up at Briana Leigh's face and opened the box. "You're the only girl for me, now and forever. Briana Leigh Covington, will you marry me?"
Dozens of people stopped to stare. Ariana gaped at the ring. It was a perfect cushion-cut diamond with three baguettes on either side in an antique-style platinum setting. At least someone in this relationship had good taste.
"Are you kidding? Yes!" Briana Leigh cried.
Teo grinned as he stood up and Briana Leigh launched herself into his arms, wrapping her legs around his back. Ariana was surprised. She would have thought that Briana Leigh was the type to get that diamond on her finger ASAP, but she didn't even seem to realize the ring was there. She was too busy crying and kissing her new fiance.
As the people around them applauded, Ariana looked at Hudson. He gave her a sort of nonplussed glance.
"Well, I don't have a ring," he said finally. "But I can offer you an iced coffee...."
He tilted his head toward a Coffee Carma kiosk and grinned at her like he was offering a brand-new yacht. Ariana laughed.
"Come on. Let's leave these two alone for a little while," Hudson suggested.
"Definitely," Ariana said.
Hand in hand, they left the happy couple to their moment.
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THE DREAM
Stars. Ariana had missed the stars. When she was a little girl in Georgia and her grandmother was still alive, she and her mother and her gran used to sit out in cushioned lawn chairs for hours, just waiting for that elusive shooting star. As Hudson settled in on the blanket
next to her that night, Georgia and her family seemed so very far away. So far that they could have been on some remote planet circling one of the very stars she was now watching."Beautiful, huh?" Hudson said.
"Absolutely," Ariana replied with a sigh.
The moment the foursome had returned from Taste of Dallas, Briana Leigh had dragged Teo up to her room to thank him in God knew what way for asking her to marry him. Ariana had wanted to get as far away from the second floor as possible, so she had suggested the stargazing. After stealing a huge, cushy plaid blanket from an upstairs linen closet, she and Hudson had snuck out back and set up on the
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lawn near the shimmering outdoor pool, which, Ariana noted, was even bigger than the indoor one.
"It's so peaceful out here," Ariana mused.