Page 82 of Ace My Heart

“Jess, will you marry me?” the guy asked. Jess’s knees wobbled and she held out a shaking left hand, her ring finger extended.

“Oh my God, yes!” she squealed and he slipped the ring on her finger. And then he was on his feet and they were canoodling harder than ever.

“Oh,” I sighed, turning back to the barrier and the city far below me.

“Would you class that as a pretty romantic gesture then, Stink?” Joel whispered beside me. There was something odd in his tone.

I turned to him with an incredulous expression. “Yes, wouldn’t you?”

He smiled at me, his teeth glinting pearly white in the night. “It’s up there.” His voice took on a different tone. He sounded almost … nervous.

“Mel, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you for a while now.” He stared at me intently. I wanted to look away, but I found that I couldn’t.

“What, Joel?” I breathed.

“Well, we’ve been spending a lot of time together lately, and, well, I thought that maybe, you and I … this isn’t coming out the way I’d hoped.” Joel sounded flustered – heneversounded flustered. I couldn’t breathe.

“Okay, I’m just going to come straight out and ask you.” His hand went into his jacket pocket and he started fishing around. My own hand went to my heart, which felt like it was about to take flight out of my chest. Joel had something hidden in his hand. He started to lower himself down onto one knee.

“Joel, what are you doing?” I asked breathlessly. He couldn’t be … no he definitely wasn’t.

Except he was.

“Melanie Black, will you …” he paused for effect. I clapped my fingers over my mouth.

He reached his clasped hand up towards mine and turned it, so his fingers were facing upwards. His hand started to open.

“… share this Caramello Koala with me?” he finished, his palm flat, revealing a single wrapped piece of my favourite chocolate in the world. I let out the breath I’d been holding in a giant gust. Joel’s laughter burst from him. I slapped his shoulder.

“Get up and stop making a fool out of both of us!” I hissed. He got to his feet, still chuckling. I stomped away.

When you’re on the observation deck of the Eiffel Tower, there’s really nowhere to go except back down again. I wasn’t ready to do that – we’d paid enough money to be here, I wasn’t cutting my experience short.

So, Joel caught up with me quite quickly.

“Oh, come on, Stinky, it was a bit funny, admit it.”

I leaned against the railing and shook my head emphatically.

“Seriously, Mel, you didn’tactuallythink that I was proposing, did you?” Joel didn’t sound so teasing now.

I managed to turn and glare at him. “Of course I didn’t! I hadnoidea what you were doing.” I turned away, back towards the city below. A breeze gusted through and I shivered. Joel put an arm around me.

“I told you it would get cool tonight.” He picked up my hand and turned it over, putting the Caramello Koala into it.

“You don’t have to share it if you don’t want to, Stink.”

I looked down at the chocolate. “Good, I won’t!”

I unwrapped it, taking a bite from the feet first. In my head I replayed the look on Joel’s face as he’d gotten down to present me with the little chocolatey piece of heaven that I was devouring now. I felt my lips starting to twitch. Itwasactually quite funny, now that I’d gotten over the shock of it. I didn’t want it to be funny, but it was. I wanted to be mad at Joel, butbeing mad at him was such hard work lately. It never used to be.

All I had left of the chocolate was the head, and I was all too aware of Joel’s arm still around me, his hand rubbing my arm, keeping me warm. I looked at the last little bit of deliciousness and I sighed, holding it out to him.

“Okay, I’ll share.”

“Really? The head’s your favourite part!” he replied, humbled. I took his hand and opened his palm the way he had done to me and popped the bit of chocolate into it.

“Yes, really. But how did you know the head is my favourite?” I asked, not daring to look into his eyes. He put the piece in his mouth.

---