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“Rafe, if you’re not ready in twenty minutes, the car is leaving without you,” Rose calls from downstairs. You just roll your eyes at the warning from your boyfriend’s stepmother, as you put on your dress in Rafe’s closet.
Trying to distract your already stressed boyfriend from the extra pressure Rose was putting on the situation, you call out to him. “Babe, could you get the zipper?”
Rafe nods from his en suite bathroom, even though you can’t see the movement. “In a second,” he shouts, hoping you wouldn’t hear the crack in his voice.
Looking in the mirror above the sink, Rafe splashes cold water on his face, hoping to clear his head for the night ahead of him. The young Cameron heir has been dreading this night for weeks. Though he’d been preparing for a while now—and in truth, perhaps he’d been preparing for this moment his entire life—he just couldn’t shake the nerves. What would have been just an ordinary fundraiser was really a turning point in Rafe’s life, where he’d been tasked with giving the keynote speech about what exactly they were raising money for. Most years, Ward gave the speech with Rose right by his side, but this year Rafe knew his father was testing him. Though Ward phrased the opportunity as a question, Rafe knew saying no wasn’t a possibility. If he wanted to finally prove himself to his father and to the community, he’d have to start tonight. It didn’t matter that he’d been clean for a year, or that he’d been doing quite well at Cameron Development; the wealthiest families of Figure Eight still thought of him as the aimless, addicted Cameron heir who’d never live up to his father’s expectations.
His only saving grace of the night was knowing that you’d be there, standing by his side (although not literally, because Ward said that was unprofessional). As his girlfriend of nearly two years now and as childhood friends before that, you’d seen him crash and burn, and you were there to pick up the pieces. You’d seen him grow both personally and professionally, but you know that until he got through this speech, he would have a hard time thinking the same of himself.
When he doesn’t come out of the bathroom, you decide to just make your way over to him anyways. You exit Rafe’s closet and knock at his bathroom door, even though it’s slightly open.
“Uh, come in,” he says quickly, and you ignore the quiet shake in his voice.
Holding up the side of your dress, you look at the man you love leaning over the sink—face dripping with what you hope is water and not sweat—with his hands holding onto the edges, almost red from how hard he’s clenching. “Babe, can you get the zipper?” you repeat, hoping to draw him out of whatever’s going on in his mind.
Rafe shakes his head and turns to you, finally making eye contact with the woman he thinks—no, knows—he’s gonna marry one day. “Uh, you look…” he stutters, his words escaping him.
You give him a curious look in return, and when he registers your confused expression, he shakes his head again. “You look gorgeous, Y/N. But then again, you always do.”
And even though you’ve been hearing him say things like that for longer than a year at this point, you can’t help the giddiness on your face, the shyness that his words still manage to bring out in you. Walking over to him, you cradle his face with your hands, leaning up to press a light peck on his lips. “You look so handsome,” you whisper into his lips, and you can’t help but grin at the fact that you’ve finally managed to pull a bit of a smile from the stressed man before you.
Rafe presses his hands against your waist, and you shiver from the coldness. “You are the only good thing about tonight,” Rafe states, and you frown.
“Don’t say that, babe. Kelce thinks he’ll finally get Topper’s mom to dance with him tonight, and I just know you want to see the look on Top’s face if that happens.”
Rafe chuckles, always pleased at the way you can dissipate his nerves so easily. They haven’t entirely gone away, of course, but your presence always makes them more manageable. Not quite knowing how to express his gratitude in words, he presses another kiss to your lips, this one more passionate than the one before it. But it’s not heated and there’s no tongue, because he knows that you’ll be pissed if he messes us the makeup you just spent forty-five minutes on perfecting (it would have been twenty minutes, but Sarah decided to barge in, claiming she needed your opinion on all eight of the dresses she was considering wearing tonight). His hand moves to the back of your dress, gently tugging the zipper up, just as his lips leave yours. Punctuating the action with one more peck, he slowly removes his hands, missing your warmth but knowing the both of you need to get a move on.
“Just let me put my shoes on, and we can head out,” you reply, and he nods, following you out of the bathroom. Sitting on the edge of Rafe’s bed, you pick up the heels from the floor, sliding them onto your feet and fastening the ankle straps. You stand up straight and turn around, expecting to see your boyfriend behind you, but he’s disappeared again. “Rafe?” you call out, confused (and maybe a little bit worried).
“I’m here,” he shouts from the closet, before exiting with his hands hidden behind his back. His hands come forward to present you with a black rectangular velvet case. “I got this for you a month ago, but with work and my dad I forgot to give it to you. Thought it might look nice with your dress, though.”
You look up at his eyes, wide and almost hesitant. “Rafe, you didn’t have to get me anything–”
“I know I didn’t, but I got the idea and I know you don’t love super flashy jewelry but I remembered that one necklace you love broke and I… I’m rambling here, yeah, just open it. If you don’t like it, then we can return it, or maybe swap it out for a different metal.” If the way his voice quiets wasn’t so adorable, you might make a quick joke about it, but instead, you figure that he’s gonna have to deal with enough teasing tonight, so you accept the present happily. Opening the box, your breath is taken away as you admire the simple gold chain, with a lowercase “r” pendant, small but proud.
“Oh, Rafe… it’s beautiful. It’s perfect…”
“Really?” he asks, with that adorable hesitant voice only you ever get to hear.
“Yes, I love it. I love you. Would you…” you ask, gesturing to the clasp. He nods, and the two of you walk over towards his full-length mirror. He removes the necklace from the box, and you hold your freshly-done hair up above your neck. Not trying to get distracted, Rafe pretends not to notice the goosebumps he leaves as he lays the necklace on your skin, before closing the clasp. He lets his hands rest on your shoulders for a second, as the two of you stare into each other’s eyes through the mirror. His hands slowly move around your waist, and he pecks your cheek.
You giggle at the gesture, and Rafe kisses you once more. “As much as I’d love an extra ten minutes up here with you, I’m 99% certain that Rose will leave without us if we’re not downstairs in thirty seconds.”
You chuckle and he grabs your hands, the two of you making your way down the grand staircase of the Cameron residence. When Rafe sees no one in the foyer, he checks his watch, and sends you a smirk. “And it looks like we have a minute to spare,” he adds, before leaning in to kiss you. But before your lips can make contact, Rose barges into the foyer.
“No time for that, we’ll be taking pictures for the family Christmas card at tonight’s event, and I can’t have you covered in glittery lip gloss when it’s time to pose.”
Rafe just rolls his eyes, tugging your hand after him. You chuckle at Rose’s words, standing next to him as Sarah and Wheezie make their way downstairs. You lean up to his ear and whisper, “for what it’s worth, I think my lip gloss looks great on you.”
But apparently you didn’t speak quietly enough because you hear a gagging noise coming from behind you. You turn around, facing the somewhat annoying but extremely sweet youngest Cameron sibling. “When you have a boyfriend one day, I promise you’ll understand.”
“Don’t give her any ideas,” Rafe says a bit too seriously, and that just makes you hold back a giggle.
Whispering to Wheezie, you say, “don’t worry, I didn’t tell him about Jake from Social Studies.”
“I heard that!”