The proposal was sudden and quite frankly not even much of one because Edward wasn't asking.
He never asked. He saw what he wanted and he took it without a second guess. For obvious reasons, the idea of Edward demanding her as a partner made her insides turn to mush.
There were so many butterflies in her stomach Amy thought they'd come out her mouth.
She finally allowed herself to look at him and when she read what his eyes said, her answer was inevitable.
"Yes."
Because he hadn't been expecting a positive reply, Edward was poised to go into the epistle he'd prepared in his head to convince his personal secretary that they could have a relationship outside the office.
He was going to tell her how good he'd be for both her and her brother; how he would protect them.
He really wanted to make this work and now that she had said yes, Edward was convinced she wanted that as well.
"So, you'd be my girlfriend?"
"Generally when someone says yes to a proposal, that's what it means. Except sarcasm is at play."
"Is sarcasm at play?" It had better not be.
"If it were, what would you do?" Amy was baiting Edward and he was completely clueless.
"I'd give you the long speech I'd prepared just to win you over."
"You don't need a speech to win me over Edward," even as she spoke, Amy lowered her face so that her lips hovered over Edward's, "I was yours before you knocked down my door." And then she sealed the confession with a kiss.
***********
If not for the knock that came on the door, the two would have kept up with their lip act till the next day. Gu Zhou was awake.
"Sister, are you awake? I'm going to be late for school."
His voice sounded groggy which told Amy that he had just woke up. She sprung away from Edward as though he'd pricked her lip with a needle.
"I'm coming." She yelled back while giving Edward a look of panic which he didn't reflect in any way.
"Okay"
Amy waited till she heard the door to the bathroom which stood between their rooms open and close before she made any movements.
"Gu Zhou's awake," she announced to Edward as she scrambled off the bed to search for her clothes he'd discarded last night.
"I figured," Edward replied dryly. Resting above his hair on the headboard was his arms crossed in a way that accentuated his muscles. His mouth was set in a grim line and he looked a little bit annoyed.
Amy paused her frantic search for something that was proving to be missing and looked at the man splayed in all his n.a.k.e.d glory on her bed.
"Gu Zhou's my brother." She would have yelled that big detail if not that the walls separating her room from the bathroom were paper thin and would certainly give her brother an inkling to a second party in her room.
Edward didn't seem to understand anything she was saying, or he just didn't care and that irked her.
"I don't think you understand Edward. You have to leave, now before he comes out of the bathroom."
His hands dropped onto his l.a.p and he sat up straighter, leaning away from the headboard. "I don't have to do anything Amy.
You're chasing me out for no reason. I want to meet your brother."
Her head was half way between the bed and floor but when Edward spoke, it met with the harder surface. "Ow!"
Edward quickly rolled to the edge and grabbed her up. "Sorry. Where did you hit?"
"My head!" Amy shrieked rubbing the spot on her left temple. "And apparently you hit yours too."
Edward rolled his eyes upward as if trying to remember a time when he'd hit his head against something.
"No," he said after no memory came back, "My head's fine."
Amy rolled her eyes and returned her face back under the bed to continue her search.
"You can't meet my brother Edward, especially not like this."
"Like how? We have met before remember? I just want proper introductions this time, especially now that I am something more to you." Was that really too much to ask for? He wondered.
"You will be properly introduced Edward, I promise. Just not today, please."
She finally found the negligee somewhere close to the foot of her bed hidden amongst the loose folds of the sheets that had rolled off the bed during their time on the bed.
As Amy struggled to put it on, she searched for Edward's clothes so he could put them on and leave the room with her.
Hopefully they'd make it to the front door before Gu Zhou came downstairs. She did not want to know how it would play out if her brother saw her boss in their home this early, especially given that Amy wasn't sick or anything.
Gu was smart, he would immediately figure he had spent the night and everyone knew what happened whenever a man spent the night together with the 'opposite gender'.
"I don't understand, why you making a big deal out of this?"
Amy paused with one hand holding the tie of her robe while the other tried to fix the mess that had become her hair.
She released a sigh, "I'm not making a big deal out of anything. It's just..." there was another sigh, "I am not prepared for you to meet with any of my family members."
"But this isn't just any of your family member. This is your brother who is literally just next door and probably already knows I'm here."
Amy paused again after tying the robe to really think on what Edward had just said.
"How do you know that?"
He relaxed back again, his face taking on a brighter look now that the conversation was going to go in his favour, or so he thought. "We are men. We know these things."