“Ahem! I ACCEPT YOUR FEALTY! RISE MY HUSBAND!” She shouts, raising her right arm like she’s about to salute with hand to chest, and looking smug about something.

I do a double-take for a moment.

Eh. Close enough.

I stand up, take her left hand, and carefully nudge the ring up her ring finger. It fits.

Who would have thought the wonders of medical training to detect broken bones would have useful side effects when estimating ring sizes?

I honestly did think I should propose a bit more romantically; but from another perspective, I’m already way overdue and had to get it over with. Given that she had a bizarre reaction, I’m not sure a more romantic situation would have helped anyway.

Lapis has cocked her head, inspecting her new finger decoration; but she smiles quite contentedly, so I think I made a good choice.

“This is a Lapis-Lazuli!” She says excitedly, waving her hand around with more gusto now she recognises it.

“Of course. Your namesake. And a Peridot. I was born in August, so its my birthstone. Closest one, right?”

“S-so… t-this is us. Bound together?!?” She stutters, staring closely at the gems that are mounted in tandem.

“Yep, that’s right. A promise of our marriage.” I nod.

“T-This custom… I guess I don’t mind it…” She squirms in a pretty cute way, holding her own hands together. How tsundere of her.

“I’m glad. Now, uh, perhaps we should move out of the doorway to the Jewellers?” I scratch my cheek.

“AH! Oh no!” She jumps.

I don’t think they’ll mind though; I just gave them some awesome free advertising.

. . .

We walk through the moderate shopping crowds of a winter morning. She hangs back, slightly behind to my left.

She is still peeking down every so often at her left hand as we walk. Subtlety has never been her strong suit, has it? I want to see what happens if I take the other hand; but that would probably be bullying.

“So, I take it you have been to the shops around here, then, Lapis?” I ask.

“Huh? Oh yes, of course. I was at Scoopers yesterday, in fact, with my friends.”

Oh, that ice-cream and desserts place in the food court.

“Did you want to go there again now?”

“NO! I can’t!” She suddenly splutters.

“Uh. Okay.” I blink.

“Oh; it’s… this is embarrassing… but I ate six pancakes there yesterday. I can’t allow myself to do that again.”

She suddenly looks determined, but she makes a swallowing motion and her mouth is twitching slightly.

Well, I know to bring her there in future. Hahaha.

“Fair enough. Did you want to do some shopping? Or maybe hit the theatre or the cinema next, perhaps?” I query.

“Oh! Okay. I haven’t been to the theatre in… quite a while. Four months!? Yeah, it was. Jade dragged me along to see a musical. It sucked. I hate musicals. I prefer more normal plays. Or orchestra. I like orchestra!” She says, nodding along.

“Oh, that’s a surprise!” I grin. It really is. I have actually killed a date before by sharing the fact I’m not a musical fan. “I’m not fond of musicals either. Why does everything have to break out into a song?”

“I know right! It’s just so weird!” She starts laughing.

Whilst I can deal with stuff like ‘Moulin Blanc’ thanks to the cool cinematography; that’s about my limit.

“I’ll look up what’s on.” I say, searching on my phone.

“Oh, there’s a rendition of ‘The Tempest’ right now at the Kings. We can just about get there in time I think.”

“REALLY!?! I LOVE THAT!” She practically bounces.

I blink. More shocks for me. Teenage girls liking Shakespeare is quite a rarity… but I’m not arguing. I also don’t mention that I haven’t gone to the theatre in over a year. I like it, but it’s hard to get the guys to go; not very macho and all that. They’d rather watch cars exploding and superheroes and all that shizz.

“Mmm, might be kinda rubbish seats…” I mutter, looking at the heavily booked floorplan on the online booking. Such is the woe of booking barely an hour in advance.

“OH! Right! I can fix that! Can I have your phone?”

Uh. What? I raise my eyebrow, but hand it across, watching what she’s going to do. Magic?

She seems to tap outside the seat plan. One tap, two fast taps, and then a long tap. Suddenly a blank password box comes up. What?

“Mmm… it’ll be… Stocks4rocks16, right?” She mutters, rapidly typing that out.

The screen goes black with a spinning circle for loading, but then a green checkmark appears, along with the message:

[Your reservation of Box Seat #3 for x2 adults has been confirmed. Thank you for your patronage, Sir Myneris.]

“Done!” She hands it back, and sticks out her tongue.

Ah I see. The Magic of Money and Connections.

She used her dad’s VIP account? I can’t hold it in. I burst out laughing. She also starts giggling.

. . .

After walking to the taxi rank, we take a ride, and get out to the theatre in time. I’m honestly a little taken aback. The theatre is in the same place, but the one I recall was always a little… No… a lot more dilapidated. This is… well it can only be described as quite majestic, like a high-end hotel’s exterior. Many people are crowding around it.

As we walk inside, Lapis suddenly adopts a very strong looking stance, like I remember her doing in my doorway, the first time I saw her. She seems straighter, more imposing. I’m sure it’s fairly mundane presence training, but she does it with flair, like she is adopting a whole new persona.

“We have to go to the left-hand desk.” She states.

This appears to be the cloakroom?

“Ah, Young Lady Myneris.” The cloakroom attendant seems to immediately recognise her. I take a hint and stay quiet.

“That is Lady Corwin now, Isaac. This is my new husband, Jim Corwin. My father reserved the box for us.”

The man looks up to me; and I almost flinch. I feel like something is crawling over my grave. But then he nods.

“Quite so. Follow me then. Ellis, take up the desk whilst I escort the Lord and Lady Corwin.”

How cloak and dagger (ha!) that the cloakroom man is the one to take you to VIP seats. I wouldn’t have guessed.

. . .

Can’t say I’ve ever been in the box seat of a theatre before. I would have been in the sardine seats, and if I was lucky, there wouldn’t be a pillar in front of my view.

This has all the perks. A free bottle of 1996 vintage red wine, binoculars to look down at the stage, and a small buffet of grapes, crackers, and pâte. Crazy.

“This is really something!” I exclaim, sitting back on the leather sofa with Lapis, and she smiles sweetly at me in response. Who said marrying didn’t have its perks?

The lights start to dim, and the hum of conversation below starts to break up.

As everything goes silent; the curtains open to the blacked-out stage.

And then… a storm.

Real honest to goodness lightning arcs over the auditorium with a crash and a light mist of water catches me in the face from spinning raindrops. The proscenium arch seems to have become the ocean itself.

Oh. So that’s why the theatre is still so popular, and why Lapis probably loves it.

Why use CG and Dalby Surround, when you can have someone making real, yet safe storms?

How absolutely freaking fabulous!