I lean across the table and grab Darren's hand as it lays limp on the clean wooden surface.

"I am glad you are my fiancé." I smile and plant a soft kiss on the top of his warm knuckles.

"I am glad you are my fiancé too." Darren replies, taking a sip of his water. He wipes the beads of water off of the side of the glass and flicks them at me playfully.

"I wouldn't want anyone else." I squeeze his hand lovingly, making sure he knows how much I love having him in my life.

"Me either." He laughs and sets his glass down. "What is this about?"

"What?" I ask. "You don't want me to tell you how much I love you?"

"No, it's not that. Of course I want you to tell me that. It's just, it's almost like you are reminding me so I don't forget. I already know how much you love me." Darren explains. "But I do love hearing it."

I sigh. "I'm not reminding you. I guess I'm just reminding me." I hang my head in my hands.

"Why? What happened?" Darren asks. "Di- did you cheat on me Ciara?" He asks, a slight quiver in his voice.

"No no." I lift my head to look at him. "Of course not! I would never cheat on you!" I assure him. I could never do that to him. I would never.

"Then what? What are you reminding yourself for?" I can tell just by his voice that he is being very apprehensive towards me right now. He is scared of what I might have done.

"I- it's complicated." I try to think of a way to explain to him what happened.

"Just spit it out Ciara. You are scaring me." Darren pulls his hand away from mine.

"Okay, do you remember how when I was a teenager my dad did this crazy thing and basically brought three stray guys home to come live with us?" I ask, hoping he does. I have told the story at least a hundred times. He nods but he is really confused as to where this story is going. "Well I dated one of them for a while. He and I fell madly in love with each other."

"Please just tell me you two didn't hook up or do anything behind my back. Ciara please." Darren begs, hoping to not hear the words come out of my mouth.

"No. No." I reach for his hand again. "Of course not. This was way before I even met you. I was a teenager. I promise." I assure him. Darren nods. I can tell he is already feeling a little better about this. "Well one day, they left us to go get famous. He broke my heart. They all did."

"What's his name?" Darren asks. "I'll go break him." He cracks his knuckles to look intimidating.

"He's back in town so you actually could go break him I guess. Him and the band are here for some stupid music video or something." I laugh at his need to protect me. Darren grabs my hand and holds it between both of his. "And I saw him. We talked."

"What? Where?" Darren asks, anger returning to his face.

"At my dad's office. He called me up there to come meet with them. They showed up unexpectedly I guess." I explain my crazy, hectic morning.

"And you promise nothing happened?" He asks again, still uneasy with the current situation I have presented him with.

"If by nothing you mean I didn't let any of them within twenty feet of me for fear that I would lash out and massacre all of them and leave a bloody mess all over my dad's office, then yes. Nothing happened." I nod as Darren laughs hysterically.

"So let me get this straight. You need to remind yourself that you love me because a way-back-ex is in town?"

"He's not just an ex, Darren. He's a very famous ex." I remind him. "There's going to be paparazzi following him around everywhere and I didn't want you to hear about it on the news or something. I don't know. It's silly I guess."

Darren nods. "I get it. You are scared of the paparazzi seeing you two together and if I see it, it'll look like you cheated?" He takes a wild guess.

I nods. "That's a big part of it. It just sucks that he's back in town again. He hurt me so bad."

"Come here." Darren waves me over to him. He stands up and pulls me in for a hug. "I'm never going to let anyone hurt you."

AN: how are you guys liking the set up of the story? Do you like the point of view and the length and stuff?