21
AN EPIC PROPOSAL
I always say, the thing about all good things is that they must come to
an end. What I’d never realised before is that the other thing about all
good things is that they must come from a start. I pondered this as we
saddled our horses for the long ride home from New York. Travelling
across America had been all kinds of fun except the well organised
kind, and I was sad it was over, but on the other hand my relationship
with Gabie was taking off like a soufflé in a wind tunnel.
As we headed back to London, Gabie was on her way home to
Korea, and I wasn’t sure how I would cope being even further away
from her. It sounds ridiculous to pine for someone when you’ve only
met them once, but the closest I’d been to her was about a foot
away, and we were about to be several million feet apart. There’s
something about being on different continents that just feels distant
somehow. But, as I looked at the sunrise each day, it was comforting
to know that she was looking at the very same sunrise, except
several hours earlier. All I had to get me through this tricky period was
my unwavering belief in fairy tales and romance movies, and my hope
that our auspicious meeting would work out as well for us as it had for
my parents. As my father always says, couples who witness a burning
swan together, stay together. I knew in my heart of hearts, and my
brain of brains, and even my foot of foots, that Gabie and I were
destined to be together. She was the Romeo to my Juliet, the Han
Solo to my Chewbacca, the peanut butter to my jam, spam and
clams. Gabie and I had started texting each other more often, and our
conversations moved from superficial chit-chat to more serious life
topics, like whether free will exists, and why you never see a baby
squirrel. BTS hadn’t shed any light on that subject. There was so
much I admired about Gabie, from her polymathic command of
languages, to the fact that she was so certain of her destiny in life.
While I had been wondering what to do after university, Gabie had