Santorini Sunsets by Anita Hughes

velvet jewelry box. She looked at Nathaniel and her hands started shaking.
    â€œI know people will say we’re too young but I want to experience everything with you.” Nathaniel drew out the jewelry box. “I want to see the bulls running in Pamplona and trek across the glaciers in Patagonia. I want to watch James Bond marathons on Netflix and share boxes of Thin Mints Girl Scout cookies. There’s no point waiting when there is no future without you.” He dropped to his knee. “Brigit Emily Palmer, will you marry me?”
    Brigit glanced at the pear-shaped sapphire surrounded by diamonds and gasped. She wanted to tell Nathaniel to wait; they had their whole lives ahead of them. But he had always been in a rush: insisting they apply early decision to Dartmouth, renting a loft in the East Village without meeting his roommates, accepting the first offer on his stories.
    Then she thought of her parents who’d married on her mother’s twenty-second birthday. She remembered her mother describing the formal ceremony at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and the elegant reception at the Algonquin and the honeymoon in Monte Carlo. She pictured her parents drinking Manhattans on the lawn at Summerhill or curled up in front of the fireplace in their study. She thought of the way her father knew exactly how her mother liked her eggs or that they both loved the style section in the Sunday New York Times.
    She remembered the summer when she was eight years old and she and Daisy and Nathaniel spent lazy afternoons on the lawn making daisy chains. She pictured the crooked chain Nathaniel had slipped on her finger. She remembered not removing it until the petals fell off and her skin turned green. Years later she found it pressed inside a copy of Little Women.
    If they got married, it didn’t mean they would stop spending weekends browsing in bookstores in East Hampton. They could still devote whole Sundays to working on the New York Times crossword puzzle or seeing Italian movies at the Roxy. She glanced at Nathaniel’s bright blue eyes and knew he was right, she couldn’t imagine a future without him.
    â€œYes, I’ll marry you.” She nodded.
    He slipped the sapphire-and-diamond ring onto her finger and took her in his arms. He kissed her slowly, tasting of roast beef and watermelon. He grabbed her hand and ran to the driveway.
    â€œWhere are we going?” she asked as he opened the door of his white BMW.
    â€œTo Manhattan to see your parents. They’re waiting at their town house with a bottle of French champagne and a platter of Russian caviar.”
    â€œI’m starting work tomorrow, I can’t go in with a hangover,” Brigit protested. “And I never understood how anyone could like fish eggs.”
    â€œI can hardly tell my future father-in-law I don’t approve of his choice of hors d’oeuvres. When our daughter gets married we’ll celebrate with fish tacos.” Nathaniel jumped into the driver’s seat. “If you douse caviar in salt and wash it down with enough champagne, it’s actually quite delicious.”
    Brigit smoothed her hair and suddenly felt a pit in her stomach. She turned to Nathaniel and frowned.
    â€œHow do my parents know we’re engaged before I do?”
    â€œYou’re from one of the oldest families in New York.” Nathaniel started the engine. “I couldn’t expect your parents to approve if I didn’t ask them first. Even if we lived across the lawn from each other since we were five years old, they’re giving up their most precious possession.”
    Brigit gazed at Nathaniel’s straight nose and tan cheeks and her shoulders relaxed. They were perfect for each other and Nathaniel understood everything about her.
    â€œWhat if I had said no?” she asked.
    Nathaniel put the car in gear and drove down the long gravel driveway. He stopped under a wide oak tree and kissed her