The limo took us on a long drive. A boring, long drive. I think if Dusty, my boyfriends brother, wasn’t here we could have a lot more fun in the limo. Nevertheless, with Cristal Champagne in my hand, it is heaven. My beautiful boyfriend, Grant, is sitting next to me with his nice Rolex watch catching my eye. Across from us is Dusty, giving me this look as if knows something. Grant asked Shawn, our driver, to give us a tour of the beautiful Pacific coast. I don’t think it’s any different from the view at our penthouse, but Grant says we need to get out more. Eventually, I get hungry and ask Grant if we could get dinner.

“Don’t worry” he says, “I’ve got reservations for an amazing restaurant.”

The Waterfront Depot. The nicest restaurant in Florence, but that’s not saying much. The food is mediocre but to these coastal people it’s amazing, so I try and appreciate the somewhat plain cheesecake. After dinner, Grant says we are going to go and watch the sunset. We get to the limo and my shin bumps the edge of the car as I get in. I sit down and grab onto my leg trying not to cry as my old bruise swells bigger. I catch Grant getting into the limo and I try and act normal but he sees something in my eyes. Does he notice my weakness?

“Are you okay Kate?” Dusty says.

“Yeah just taking in the interesting buildings, I don’t understand why people would choose to live here.” I say.
We start to drive south on Oregon Coast Highway towards the ocean. The view makes me understand why people would want to live out here. We start to speed up as we get to an elevation. I roll down the divider window and poke my head through. I see Shawn driving,

“why are we going so fast up the hill?” I say.

“Grant said that we need to get to our destination before the sun sets.” Shawn says as he gives me a faint smile.

I poke my head back into the limo and see that Grant was staring at my ass. I turn to him and he looks away but I know he’s not ashamed of doing that in front of his brother.

I say, “where are we going? It’s taking forever.”

Grants says “It’s a surprise but you’re going to love it.”

I sit back and look at him.

We drive to the top of the hill and Shawn pulls us to the side of the road. For a moment I thought we might have a flat tire, and then Grant grabs my hand and leads me out of the limo. We step out and the bold orange and pink colours smear across our faces. Grant pulls me out onto the grass and we start to walk towards the edge. My heels sink into the ground and they are completely ruined. I let out a high pitched squeal like a child when I see the damage that has been done to my $3,000 royal blue suede Gucci heels. Grant turns to me and gives me a look. His eyes are telling me to shut up, but I know he doesn’t want to say it out loud.

When we get to the edge we are just standing there staring out at the ocean with the rich colours warming my heart. I’ve never felt like this before. I feel like i’m being given a warm hug, and I don’t want it to end. Grant puts his arm around me and I flinch. I try and pull away so I can enjoy the view but he’s holding onto me so tightly. Then Grant loosens his grip and lets go of me. The tension in my shoulders begins to release and I feel like I can breathe again. But he immediately grabs onto my hands and pulls me so that I am facing him instead of the vibrant sunset.

He takes a deep breath and starts to bend down onto one knee. All of the tension that I have running down my spine has now turned into excitement making me want to jump up and down. He reaches into his back pocket and grabs a small velvet box with gold flowers painted on the top. I feel my throat tighten and tears start to form but I hold them back so I don’t ruin my makeup. He slowly opens the box and I see a 10 carat tanzanite jewel surrounded by 12 diamonds on a 14k gold band.

The sun bounces off the ring as I slip it onto my finger. Grant gets up off the his knee and kisses me. This was unlike any kiss we’ve had before. It felt so real and it made me forget about all of the issues we have had in the past. I needed to show my ring to someone, but the only person that hasn’t seen it is Shawn. I walk over to him and hold my hand out like the king asking someone to kiss his ring. He looks at me with a faint smile, but then his eyes widen and I see that he is looking behind me. I turn to see Grant and Dusty fighting each other.
Dusty has Grant in a headlock messing up his perfect hair. They fall on the ground and start rolling around. They are slowly rolling towards the edge so me and Shawn run over to them. They are so busy yelling at each other that they go over the edge. Shawn and I grab onto their arms but they are now hanging off the edge of a 1,000 foot cliff. They start to panic and beg us to get them up. We try and lift them up for a couple of minutes but we aren’t strong enough to do it on our own. Dusty starts to beg me to lift him up.

He says, “Please baby, I will give you anything you want just get help me up. Anything, I promise. Another Ferrari or a new yacht?”

I look towards Shawn for a minute. I turn back to Grant and I feel the tears from earlier start to come up.
“Shawn just let go of Dusty, and come help me up. No one will miss him”, Grant says.

I swing my head to Shawn and yell,

“No, you can’t do that.”

With tears covering my face I watch a blurry sun finish dropping over the ocean.

“I can’t do this anymore Grant. I can’t help you up” I say.

Grant panicking with a slight whine in his voice, “Yes you can baby, I know you can. You are the strongest woman I know.”

I close my eyes and take a deep breath,

“I refuse to live the way I have been for the past two years. I am done with your abuse.”

I release his body and watch it drop. I know the pain that he has caused me will die with him. I sit back for a moment and then look over and see that Shawn is still holding Dusty over the edge. Dusty pleads with us to pull him up, he says,

“Please Katy, I love you and always have. I just want to be with you, and that’s why I couldn’t let Grant marry you.”

“I’m sorry Dusty, but you just watched me murder your brother, I can’t live with knowing you are out there with my biggest secret.”

“But Shawn is a witness, he knows everything. You’re gonna let him live?”

Then Shawn lets go of Dusty, and he screams until he hits the concrete water. I turn to Shawn and kiss him,
“Yes” I say, “but I am in love with this witness.”