Prologue Lea

Friday, October 11, 2024

S ighing heavily, I tuck my tall frame behind what feels like the hundredth overgrown bush, holly berries threatening to poke my eye out. "Goddamnit, hurry up ," I whine under my breath while waiting for Grant, my best friend's long-time boyfriend, to finally get down on one knee and propose. I’ve been following them along this trail for nearly an hour. The sun is setting, the bugs are swarming, and my ankles are itchy as shit.

My neck feels stiff, and I’m overheated despite the familiar New York autumn chill. If he doesn’t hurry the hell up, I’m going to lose the golden hour glow, and that might piss me off even more than the giant rash I’m bound to be applying ointments and lotions to all week.

My heart leaps when I see him finally drop to his knee in the perfect location. The sun is setting in the background, and I have a perfect view of the small, secluded waterfall behind them to their right. It looks like something out of a movie, and god, I’m so damn excited for them.

Mona is busy pointing ahead, chatting enthusiastically about a plant that’s in bloom today and how exciting it is getting to see it because it has to be at just the right time of day. Mona loves horticulture, and suddenly, I realize exactly why he waited until this moment. Just the right time.

“Mona,” he calls to her when she still hasn’t stopped talking long enough to realize he’s no longer beside her.

Her long black waves swish across her back as she twirls to find where his voice came from.

Grant’s lips part, and a soft expression crosses his face when she finally sees him down on one knee. I angle my camera toward them, immediately snapping photos, not wanting to miss a single second of this special moment. He sucks in a breath and starts speaking. “Mona Ayad…”

I capture the moment her hand smacks over her mouth in surprise. The moment she drops her hand and her whole face lights up with a brilliant smile. The moment she falls into his arms.

She grabs his cheeks in her hands, squeezing them together as she kisses him over and over, her response nothing but a garbled stream of consciousness.

My heart flies high as I take countless photos of one of the most life-changing events in my best friend’s life.