Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Chad
Why the fuck am I nervous?
No, nervous doesn’t even begin to cover it. I’m shitting my fucking pants.
“Bro, you’re shitting your fucking pants.”
I send a quick glare Robbie’s way. “Thanks for that, asshole. I think I already know that. I’m about two seconds from calling this whole thing off.”
“But why though?”
“Because … because …” I swipe at my sweaty forehead. “This is a big deal.”
“It’s Bailey.”
“I know.”
“You’re going to marry him.”
That’s always been the plan. “I know.”
“Then get this fucking proposal out of the way so you can make it happen. You’re not worried he’s going to say no, so what the hell are you worried about?”
“I just …” I’m sitting on the slatted bench next to one of my oldest friends and throw a glance at the swanky restaurant behind me. “I hope this is enough.”
“Enough?”
“Yeah. Like when people ask him how I proposed, I want him to have a story, you know?”
“A story?”
While Robbie always tries to understand where I’m coming from, it’s hard.
I know it is. He and Brandon are so similar in so many ways.
Yeah, Brando’s forever trying to stop him from accidentally setting something on fire, but they’re the same.
Bailey … his world is not our world. I’ve become a lot more comfortable about that now that I’m happy in my job, and we’re on the right track with our relationship, but this?
Yeah, I’m feeling the pressure. The pressure to make it special.
Right. The kind of proposal all his colleagues would have to talk about.
The thought of getting down on one knee in the type of restaurant where I had to book months in advance is terrifying.
It’s not how I ever thought I’d propose to someone, but here we are.
“What are you doing, Dooms?”
I glance over at his earnest blue eyes. “What do you mean?”
“Look, it’s a nice place and all. Probably serves itty-bitty food and everything. It’s just … it’s not screaming Chad and Bailey to me.”
“I should hope not. It’s a fancy establishment.”
He rolls his eyes. “You know what I mean. This is where you want to do it? Really?”
“It’s impressive.”
“Cool, so that doesn’t answer my question.” Robbie turns to me fully. “If Bailey proposed to you, where would you want him to do it?”
“Anywhere. I wouldn’t give a fuck where it was.”
“Then where would your ideal place be?”
That’s a good question. I haven’t given myself space to think about that because in my head, I’ve always wanted to make him mine, so I was always going to propose. If we hadn’t gone so off the tracks after college, there’s every chance we would have been married already.
My lips slowly pull into a smile. “In a club.”
Robbie startles. “Okay, not what I was expecting, but continue.”
“The first time we were ever in the city together, Bailey kicked some guy’s ass in a club, and then we went back to a hotel together.”
“That’s fucking brilliant.”
I look at him like he’s grown an extra set of eyeballs. “Brilliant? Imagine him telling all his rich friends about how he was proposed to in a dive?”
Robbie stands. “Get up.”
“Why?”
“We’re leaving.”
I immediately step back. “What are you talking about? I’m waiting on Bailey.”
“No, you’re not. He’s not coming.”
My heart sinks. “What do you mean?”
“Relax, dipshit. Brandon said he got held up at work and will meet you back home.”
I pull out my phone. “He hasn’t texted me anything.”
“Well, obviously, he wouldn’t. He didn’t know he was meeting you because you wanted it to be a surprise. Brando will be here in a minute.”
My heart sinks further. Probably smatters down past my feet somewhere. “What do you mean he’s been caught up? I’ve had this place booked for months. I’m ready to do it, and if he doesn’t get his gorgeous butt down here now, they’re going to give our table away.”
A car slows in the traffic on the road and beeps at us as Robbie plants a hand on my shoulder and directs me that way. “Sorry, bro. Gotta go.”
I’m more on autopilot than anything as I cross into the street, sky darkening overhead, completely thrown at how all my careful plans have been derailed. On one hand, I’m relieved I didn’t have to make a spectacle of myself. On the other, fuck. I just want to be engaged to him already.
I climb into Brandon’s back seat and pull the door closed behind me, forehead thunking against the glass.
“You good?” Brandon asks as Robbie reaches over and squeezes his thigh.
“Uh-huh. No celebrations tonight though.”
“Eh, we’re in the city. Lots of other things we can do.”
I can’t even answer him I’m so disappointed.
Bailey always used to get mad at me for working late, and now he’s gone and done it on the night I’m supposed to be proposing to him.
The worst part is that I can’t even get mad at him for it because then he’ll want to know what the big deal is, and I’ll ruin the surprise.
Fuck me.
I’m stewing in the thoughts glumping through my brain when we pull away from the stop-start traffic and take a turn down a random back alley until we reach a parking lot.
“Where are we?”
“Thought we’d grab a quick drink,” Brandon says, turning off the car and climbing out.
Robbie follows him, but it takes me a second because this is … weird.
When I climb out, they’re both waiting for me. “I thought you were taking me home.”
“I don’t recall saying that. Do you recall saying that?” Brandon asks Robbie.
“I don’t recall that at all.”
“What the fuck’s going on?”
Robbie throws a giant arm around my shoulders. “Like I said, bro. Relax. Just come with us.”
“If this is another situation where you ask to see my dick, we’re going to have issues.”
He grunts in offense. “That was one time.”
“Some would say one too many,” Brandon points out. “Some, but not me, apparently.”
“How could you resist this hunk of man?”
They go back and forth the whole way to the building we’re approaching, and it’s starting to look familiar.
Really familiar.
Like, a bar I was literally just talking about familiar.
“Robbie … is this—”
He snorts and shoves me through the front door.
Immediately, I know where I am … even though it looks nothing like it did that night. Years and years and years ago.
I follow the back hallway, lined with candles and flowers and graffiti scratched into the black walls until I reach the main area. There, completely alone and lit up by the room lights in shades of purple and blue, is Bailey.
The sight of him has my heart beating a little harder than before.
“Bails?”
He grins and holds a hand out to me. It takes way too fucking long to cross the room to get to him.
Fuck. He looks incredible.
His pale skin is almost magical under the lights, twists of dust mites dancing around us, his freckles standing out against the blueish-gray tinge to his cheeks. His sly, snarky eyes meet mine, and I can’t stop from dipping my head to kiss him.
Bailey laughs. “Give it a second.”
“A second for what?”
I know it’s coming, but when he pulls out a ring, I’m hit with this strong moment of overwhelm. This fractured second of standing on a dance floor in an empty, seedy club and realizing that Bailey knows literally everything there is to know about me.
And he wants to marry me anyway.
“Chad … I know you’re not into the cheesy one-liners and the romantic soliloquies.
I know you’re a simple man at heart, and I’ve thrown you into a life that’s less than simple.
But I also know when you say you love me, you mean it.
That when you say you’ll fight for us, you’ll fight forever.
And from that first moment, sitting next to your piss, looking up at the most beautifully ridiculous man I’ve ever seen, I was a goner.
There was no way to know in that moment that this was fate.
That I was going to fall madly in love with every little part of you and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
And I’m glad. I’m glad you didn’t give me a choice.
I’m glad you didn’t hold back your goodness, that you were completely honest about your feelings, and that you were a way braver man than I could ever be.
Because if you weren’t, we probably wouldn’t have ended up here.
So, here I am, begging and hoping and fucking praying to the universe that you’ll say yes. Pee-wee Herman, will you marry me?”
My laughter comes from me in a burst. “And you think I’m ridiculous.
” This time, I don’t let him get away from kissing me.
My heart might fucking explode. “I love you so much, Princess. If you think you can put up with me for the next seventy years, I’m all yours.
” I pull out the ring I bought for him. “But you already knew that, didn’t you? ”
“Of course. You can’t keep a secret to save yourself.” He slides my ring onto my finger. “I don’t need grand, romantic stories. I just need you.”