I asked her to marry me.
This morning he looked at Charlotte over his coffee and said, "I knew you two were headed somewhere the minute I saw you at prom."
Charlotte laughed. "Good trouble?"
"The only kind worth having." He pointed at me. "This fool spent 20 years pretending he wasn't in love with you."
Charlotte looked at me then, smiling that same slow smile she wore at prom in 2006, and there were a thousand words in the silence between us.
Later, she slipped her hand into mine and said, "You kept those pictures all this time."
"Yeah."
"Why?"
"This fool spent 20 years pretending he wasn't in love with you."
I told her the plain truth.
"Because when the whole world made me feel invisible, you made me feel worthy."
She held my face in both hands and whispered, "Now it's my turn to spend the rest of my life making sure you never forget that."
