Epilogue #2
After they calmed down, they slowly collected their discarded clothes and brought them into the bedroom to throw them in the hamper. They weren’t too sweaty, so they skipped a shower in favor of some clean pajamas.
“Ugh, D!” Frankie whined as he cocked a hip against the dresser drawer he had just closed. “There was a whole plan!”
“I’m sure there was, love,” Diego said as he pulled a fresh t-shirt over his head.
“It was going to be amazing! There were going to be flowers, and Seth and Obie were going to be there, and Sofia was going to fly out—”
“Sofia?” Diego asked in surprise as he unhooked his watch and laid it flat on the nightstand.
“And I was going to invite Sham Pain, and maybe Pietro.”
“That’s… very inclusive of you,” Diego murmured as he plugged in his phone for the night.
“I was thinking I might do it at the cafe. Maybe on the stage, in the middle of a drag show.”
Diego froze. “Why… why would you do that? You know I hate making a scene.”
“Yeah, but it’s an engagement, D! It has to be special!”
Diego scowled down at his nightstand. Was Frankie being serious?
Had he actually been planning to propose to Diego in front of all those people?
Flying his cousin into town and making an entire spectacle of their relationship felt sort of backwards to Diego.
They’d worked so hard to keep their professional and personal lives separate as they built a solid foundation for both.
Why would he choose to make this into such a… a thing ?
“I mean… that definitely sounds like something. I bet that required a lot of planning, and coordinating and… I guess I sort of ruined it, didn’t I?”
Diego’s stomach sank and he squeezed his eyes. Had he done that? Ruined Frankie’s special moment? Their special moment?
“Hey D?” Frankie called and Diego crossed his arms over his chest and kept his eyes squeezed shut and his back to Frankie as his mind raced.
He could make it up to Frankie somehow. Maybe they could just invite a few close friends over for dinner and surprise them with an engagement.
Sort of how Penelope’s friend Maria had surprised her—
“Diegooooo,” Frankie called and there was laughter in his voice.
Diego sighed and released his arms. Okay, so Frankie wasn’t mad. That was good.
“Diego, for the love of god, will you please turn around?”
Diego opened his eyes, turned around, and both of his hands flew to his face.
Frankie was kneeling on the ground, a black velvet box in his hand, opened to reveal two beautiful rose gold bands.
“F…Franklin?” Diego whispered and Frankie gave him one of the most vulnerable smiles he’d ever seen.
“Hi, love,” Frankie murmured. His voice shook.
“You… you had a whole plan—”
“This was the plan, mon chéri .”
“But… but you’ve been running around with Obie and Seth and… Sham Pain and…”
Frankie gave him a puzzled look and then recognition flashed across his face, and he laughed. “I’ve been working with them to find a replacement MC for the drag brunch. Lopi is great, but she deserves to have her weekends back.”
That’s right. Penelope had taken over as their temporary MC after their last one had moved back home to get a master’s degree. Diego had it on his never-ending to-do list to find a replacement, but apparently Frankie had just taken charge and done it himself.
Even though it was really not the time nor place, Diego took a moment to appreciate how far they’d come.
Frankie had said it earlier; he’d met Diego as a bratty undergrad, and they’d grown into true friends, novice business partners, and finally boyfriends who ran an incredibly successful cafe together.
Throughout that time, Frankie had grown into his own, developing competencies in marketing, sales, and networking that Diego never could.
However, he still wasn’t the best at planning. “So… there was no engagement plan?”
Frankie gave him a lopsided grin from where he was still kneeling on the ground with his hand extended.
“I wasn’t joking about Obie, Seth, and Sofia.
I really do want her to come visit, and we can all go out for dinner or something small to celebrate…
well… us. So that’s mostly planned out. But…
this? I thought it would be best to do it when the time was right.
And… well, if you’re accidentally guessing that I was going to propose while we were having sex, I figured it’s about time, huh? ”
Diego shook his head in exasperation, but then quickly nodded to answer Frankie’s question.
He’d been starting to think about engagement and marriage too.
He thought maybe they should start by officially telling their staff, friends, and family that they were a couple, but…
he supposed if they were going to tell them anyways, they might as well have matching rings to go along with it.
“Did you at least plan out something to say?” Diego joked.
Frankie’s smile drooped a little. “Uh… well… most of it was actually kind of what I said on the couch. Tracing our history, and marveling at just how much we’ve been through together.
Um, I thought maybe I could mention how there were so many times where either one of us could have made a different decision, taken a different path, and not ended up here together, but…
in the end… we did. We’re here, and we’re so in love.
I wake up every morning and can’t believe how lucky I am to have someone who loves me the way you do.
I know I can be difficult, and that sometimes my version of romance after a long day at work is to suck you off while you eat dinner so we can get to bed sooner—”
Diego let out a startled laugh, cutting off Frankie’s rambling by reaching forward to take Frankie’s hand. Frankie smiled up at him, unshed tears sparkling in his gorgeous eyes.
“That’s my version of romance too, you know,” Diego murmured. “You and me, spending the day at our shared business, with the community we’ve created, and coming home to relax in this place we’ve made our home.”
Frankie gave a loud sniff and a single tear slid down his cheek. “I love you, Diego.
Te amo mas grande y tu eres todo de mi mundo .”
Diego had never imagined laughing this much while being proposed to, but he let out a startled laugh that managed to scare off some of his own tears.
“Um… I think, and really that was so bad and so clearly looked up on google translate, I can’t even be totally sure, but I think you were trying to say, ‘te amo mucho. Eres mi mundo entero.’ I love you so much. You are my entire world.”
Frankie smiled at him, and his heart skipped a beat. It was the same smile he’d given him the day their loan had been approved – like he could see their entire future playing in a reel in his mind, and he loved what he saw.
“Thanks, cabbage. That's so sweet of you to say.”
Diego dropped to his knees and pulled Frankie into his arms.
“D, I have to ask the question!”
“Then ask the damn question, Frankie. Because I want to fuck my fiancé and order pizza to celebrate.”
“Oooh, really pulling out all the stops tonight.”
“That’s it. I’ll just give you an answer since you refuse to ask. Yes. I will marry you, Franklin.”
Frankie laughed and turned his head, so their cheeks were pressed together. He brought the rings up in front of their faces.
“You’ll marry me?” he asked, laughter brightening the words until they seemed to shimmer like the beautiful rings he’d chosen for them.
“Yes, my love. Of course I will.”
“You want to be my cabbage forever?”
“I will be your eternal cabbage, yes,” Diego said, and he wondered if Frankie could feel how hard he was rolling his eyes from where their heads were connected.
“My ride or die, cruciferous companion?”
“Been thinking about that one for a while?” Diego teased, feeling so happy he was almost giddy, in a way he’d never felt before.
“Came up with it on the spot, actually,” Frankie joked right back as if he was feeling it too.
Diego held his hand up, probably a little too close to Frankie’s face. “You gonna put a ring on it?”
“Damn fucking right I am.”
They turned to face each other, and a moment of peace settled over them. They stared into each other's eyes as Frankie slid the ring onto Diego’s finger. It was a perfect fit. Frankie handed him the second ring and then held out his own hand.
“ Te amo , Franklin,” Diego murmured, sliding the ring into place.
“ Je t’aime , Diego,” Frankie whispered as he pulled Diego down with him onto the floor.
They lay there, curled around each other, for far too long, all thoughts of sex and sustenance set aside to give space to this moment that was just one of a series of moments they’d shared together over the past six years.
“That day I stole your seat in class… could you have ever imagined we’d be here?” Diego murmured and Frankie nuzzled his cheek against Diego’s head.
“No, I absolutely could not have imagined it. I think we needed to go through every stage of our relationship to get here. While the snuggles and sex are phenomenal and I wish we’d been doing that the whole time, and I also do sort of wish I’d gotten to go to a few drunken frat parties with you…
I think we needed every single step we took to get here. ”
Diego couldn’t help but agree. He laced his fingers with Frankie’s and marveled at the way their rings caught the dull light.
“I’m grateful for every single minute I’ve shared with you, my love. I wouldn’t trade a single second of it.”
They kissed. Eventually they had sex and ordered their favorite severely overpriced pizza. They ate it naked in bed, because that’s what fiancés got to do, or so Frankie claimed. Diego would reinstate the no food in bed rule when they weren’t celebrating their engagement.
He knew they had a long road ahead of them, and some of the immediate future was going to be filled with telling Frankie’s family, the rest of their friends, and probably their staff and customers, but for tonight Diego just wanted to enjoy this.
“I love you in every language, across two continents, and flavored with every coffee we sell, even the ones you love to hate,” Frankie whispered right as they were falling asleep.
“I love you on my good and my bad days, during every event we’ve hosted, and plan to host, and even when you’ve forgotten to put up the industrial sized dishwasher for the seventh time.”
Frankie laughed. “Hey, mister, you didn’t hear me say that I still love you even when you leave the dildos in our apartment dishwasher and Seth finds them when he goes looking for a mug.”
Diego rolled over on top of him and captured his mouth in a sleepy, messy kiss. “Thank you. For loving me the way you do, querido .”
Frankie smiled softly and wound his arms around Diego’s back. “Forever, Diego.”
“ Para siempre, Frankie.”
“ Pour toujours.”
The End
If you liked Frankie and Diego’s queer found family, check out Penelope’s story in An Epic Construct , Book 1 in the Not so Normative Series