by H. T. Night
“You do? You think you can take on an MMA fighter who has forgotten more about mixed martial arts than you will ever know?”
“Quit your bluffing. What’s the big secret?” Josiah asked.
“You little shit, now I don’t even want to tell you.” Josiah was like an annoying little brother to me, always getting my goat. He was close to spoiling the moment.
“I’m sorry, big guy. Now, you called me ‘little’ three times.” Josiah smiled. “Did I hurt Mr. Sensitive’s feelings?”
“Look, no one’s feelings are hurt.” I paused and then sighed. I smiled at Josiah and spilled it: “I’m going to ask your sister to marry me.”
“Marry you… marry you?” Josiah asked. He seemed excited. “Wow. That’s pretty intense. That will make us brothers-in-law.”
“Thanks for cracking the case,” I said, joking. “But yes, that would make us brothers of a sort.”
Josiah looked at me with a big goofy grin. “That’s pretty damn cool if you ask me.”
I grinned. I liked Josiah a lot and I was pleased that he wanted me as a brother-in-law.
“Is that it? You just wanted to tell me that you plan on marrying my sister? I was hoping I’d at least get an ice cream cone.”
“Oh. You will get ice cream. My dear, sweet young future brother-in-law… you are going to help me pick out a ring.”
“What makes you think I know anything about engagement rings? Hell, I have never given a ring or worn one in my entire life.”
“The girl wears the engagement ring, not the boy.”
He grinned at me. “I knew that. I was just giving you a hard time.”
I laughed and shook my head. “You see. Neither have I ever given a girl a ring. Both of us have to be able to figure out the right ring. I mean, we’re not idiots. How hard can it be? We walk into a jewelry store and pick a ring that Maya will absolutely love!”
“So, you know her ring size?” Josiah asked.
My mouth dropped open. “Oops.”
“Oh, great. I suppose that the jewelry store can help you with that part, but, as to taste, you want a fall guy,” Josiah said. “Just in case you pick out some God-awful ring. You want to be able to not have to take all the blame. If she hates the ring and thinks it looks tacky, you just point to me and say, ‘Josiah, what were you thinking?’”
“Exactly!” I laughed. I started the engine and we headed off to the local mall. I figured we’d start there.
Chapter Seven
Josiah was a good kid and didn’t take shit from anybody. At the same time, he was able to conduct himself in a manner that was extremely gentlemanly when the occasion demanded it. It was a rare quality and I was envious of it. I could seriously take Josiah anywhere and he adapted himself to whatever the situation called for. Josiah was a kid who made his parents, and me, proud of who he was. His confidence came off as mature. My confidence came across as immensely cocky whenever I showed it in public—it must have been my eyes.
I’d been told they were a little squinty. I guess if they were casting a Western in my area of town, I’d play the villain who could out-squint Clint.
But Josiah looked like such a nice guy, with almost an altar boy-looking cherubic face so people misinterpreted how tough he was. If a guy stood in front of Josiah’s face spoiling for a fight, they’d get one. Any dude who tried to bully the innocent-looking Josiah learned the hard way not to ever mess with him again. I don’t think Josiah had ever lost a street fight. At least, if he had, he didn’t admit to it.
But I had to admit that the thing I loved most about him was his great sense of humor. He understood my jokes. Every one. We often just cracked each other up, and we could go on for hours, making each other laugh like hell. It was never too high-brow of humor but it was cool to meet a guy who had a similar sense of humor to mine. It made spending time together a lot more fun. And it made training fun, too.
Enough about who was tough and who was funny. It was time to pick out an engagement ring. In the history of the world, there we were, probably the two guys least suited to do so. I was going to have to cross my fingers and hope I hit it out of the park with my selection.
We must have gone into ten jewelry stores. I swear, each engagement ring looked the same and was way overpriced. I thought my budget was going to be three thousand. Luckily, I still had a lot of savings left because this ring was going to cost me a pretty penny.
We finally both agreed on a ring. I thought that Josiah was going to be a goofball in the jewelry stores, but he wasn’t. He took his job as ring advisor very seriously, and he seemed to know his sister’s taste very well. And surprise, surprise, he even coughed up her ring size.
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“Maya and I used to go to the mall together when I was too young to go by myself. I remember that she drove us, so she must have been the age I am now. We went into Spencer’s and Maya bought herself a mood ring. I remember the size and it was that finger, too.”
“Cool,” I said. What a memory on that kid!
The lady at the sales counter assured us that my soon-to-be fiancée would love it. She called it ‘classic,’ which was a word that I interpreted as ‘tasteful.’
Josiah and I both liked the same engagement ring for Maya. So, I think this was our safest bet. It wasn’t double my budget, but it was damn close. I was going to have to be pretty careful with money for a while after the purchase of this ring.
But I loved Maya, and she was worth every cent. If this ring symbolized how much I loved her, I would pay any price to have her as my future bride.
Josiah gulped when I handed over the cash and put the ring box in my pocket.
“Damn, Tommy,” he said.
I just laughed. “It’s not how much it cost. It’s whether she loves it.”
“If you say so, bro,” Josiah said. Suddenly, I think he realized how serious I was about marrying his sister.
I had promised Josiah ice cream and we went and grabbed ourselves a couple of cones. He ordered a triple scoop of rocky road, rainbow sherbet and mint’n’chip. The combination made me nauseous, but Josiah swore by how great it tasted together. I was still on a diet, with about 12 more pounds to lose to get to my best fighting weight, but I was also not going to deny myself a treat. This was a momentous day. The ring in my pocket proved it. I decided on a single scoop of vanilla.
“I think this is the first time I’ve seen you and my mom have something in common. You both are single-scoop daisy-dippers.” Josiah laughed at my sad excuse for an ice cream cone, compared to the monster treat he was enjoying.
“You know I’m training and I shouldn’t even be eating this.” I looked at Josiah and his cone was a giant mess. He was dripping all over the parking lot as we walked back to my Mustang.
“The California Commission is going to make me fight four fights in the next six months. I think it’s their way of getting me back for taking some time off. As long as I get paid, I don’t care how much they make me fight. But I need to lose twelve pounds. Seriously.”
“When is your first fight?” Josiah asked.
“Two weeks.” I squirmed.
“Who’s your opponent?”
“I fight Anthony Wheeler.”
“Anthony Wheeler is 44 years old!” Josiah laughed. “They are going to wheel him out in a wheelchair and take him back on a stretcher.”
“Hey, I’m just going to fight the best fight I can. I know I’ll be rusty.”
“Not as rusty as Anthony Wheeler’s bones.”
“Hey. Age means very little in MMA. You know Anthony Wheeler has had twenty-four knockouts,” I said.
“When he was in his twenties and thirties. Has he beaten anyone in the last five years?”
I looked at Josiah and smiled. “You sure know your MMA. All I know is that it’s a good tune-up fight.”
“Just promise me the guy won’t pee blood for the rest of his life.”
“I plan on knocking him out fast. It’ll
be over before he knows what hit him.”
“What does Maya think?” Josiah asked.
“Thanks to your little talk with her, she agreed to let me go back to fighting. So, thanks for that, Josiah.”
He grinned. “She knows she can’t keep a tiger in a cage. Eventually, that tiger needs to come out and kick some serious ass.”
I smiled at Josiah and thought, You are half right. Except, I’m no tiger. I’m a fucking werewolf.
Chapter Eight
Now that I had the engagement ring, as far as I was concerned, that was half the battle already won. Now it was time to do the gentlemanly thing and ask her father for her hand in marriage. I knew that was a pretty old-school move. Maya’s parents were pretty old school. They were an Eddie Haskell short of being Leave It to Beaver.
We were going to have dinner with her parents and Josiah at a local restaurant in San Bernardino. Her parents were always saying they didn’t see Maya enough. So, we tried to do at least one meal a week with her family. Either we ate out or went over to her parents’ house. I always enjoyed these times more than everyone probably realized. I didn’t have much of a family growing up. I was going to have a real serious talk with Daniel, Maya’s father, and I needed for us to be eating at somewhat of a decent-enough place to pop the question to her dad.
We went to this restaurant called The Biscuit Room. There was a nice pond out front, complete with ducks and fish. The place had a fantastic ambiance. I told everyone that it was my treat.
I asked Maya and her family to get whatever they wanted. I noticed, however, that each of them, including Maya, ordered the cheapest things on the menu. They were courteous that way. But, I was paying and I wanted to have a full meal. I bought a New York steak with mashed potatoes. My diet could go by the wayside for one night.
Josiah looked at my huge meal and grinned. He knew it was an excessive amount of food. I decided to just eat half of it and bring the rest home.
We all talked and laughed and had as good of a time as I could ever remember. We already felt like family. The night was going perfectly for me to have a man-to-man talk with Daniel. I was psyched for it, in fact.
After dinner, I asked Daniel if he and I could take a walk. He seemed surprised to have me ask such a direct question. So, he just smiled and said, “Sure.”
The waitress came over and asked if anyone wanted dessert. Maya and her mom said ‘no’ but not Josiah. He ordered the biggest sundae they had. I swear that kid is going to have to fight heavyweight when and if he goes pro.
I excused myself and winked at Maya. Maya’s mom seemed more interested to go than Daniel did. Josiah was devouring his chocolate deluxe sundae and had no clue that his dad and I had left the table. I was pretty sure he’d figure out what I was doing, once he realized that we’d left.
Daniel was one inch taller than me and built a lot stockier. I was respectful of him, but not intimidated by the fact that he was my girlfriend’s father. I thought he was an excellent dad and I hoped that I could someday call him that as well.
There was a bench in front of the pond right outside the restaurant. The night sky was blanketed in stars. There were lanterns that surrounded the pond to illuminate the walking path. I guess they didn’t want people falling into the pond at night.
“So, Tommy,” Daniel said, “what’s the word?”
I was nervous. I know I needed to get this part out of the way. So, I said, “Sir, I would like to ask your permission to propose to Maya. This is my formal request to you for her hand in marriage. Would that be okay with you?”
“Marriage?” Daniel asked, surprised. “That’s very respectful of you to ask for that.” Then he took a deep breath and smiled. “Josiah mentioned you’re fighting MMA again. Is that how you plan on supporting my daughter?”
“It’s what I know best, sir. What I’m good at. You have my word that I will always provide well for her. And, I will always protect her, respect her, and love her.”
As soon as the words left my mouth, Daniel put out his hand and shook mine firmly and said, “You have both her mother and my blessing. We actually talk about it all the time.”
I smiled. “You do? That’s great.” I didn’t know why having this conversation was stressing me out all day. I guess I needed confirmation that Maya’s parents accepted me as I was. Not too many people over my life have accepted the raw me. I felt a sense of family with them. I almost wanted to hug Daniel, but that would have been too weird.
“When do you plan on proposing to my daughter?” Daniel asked.
“Now that I have your blessing, I was thinking about asking Maya tomorrow night,” I answered.
“Oh, my goodness. Can I tell my wife?”
“You tell me. Can Margaret keep this a secret?”
“She’ll only have to keep it for one day. I think she can handle it. I’ll watch her like a hawk.”
“Then I say, we trust her.” We both laughed. We made our way back, and Josiah looked up at us as we came back to the table. “Where did you two go?”
“We were discussing if you should quit this idea of trying out for football,” I said, ribbing Josiah about wanting to be a football player.
“You won’t have to worry about that,” Josiah said. “I’m going to focus on mixed martial arts. I’m going to be 18 soon. Then it’s the pros for me.”
“You still have a few months. Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Margaret reminded him.
“Well, I’m going to do whatever it takes to be like Tommy and be a professional.”
“Be like Tommy?” I laughed under my breath. “I think that is the first time someone ever uttered the words, ‘I want to be like Tommy.’ I’ve heard, ‘Don’t be anything like Tommy’ or ‘Whatever you see Tommy do, do the opposite.’”
Everyone at the table laughed. I was being self-deprecating and was having fun with Josiah’s zealous admiration of me. It was a good feeling to have him as my bro, not by blood, but by our friendship.
Maya seemed extremely interested in why I would pull her dad away for a private talk. She whispered under her breath, “Tommy, what was that all about?”
“I wanted to know if he was okay with me fighting MMA again.” It was sort of a lie, but one she would soon know the truth about.
“What did he say?”
“He said he was okay with it, as long as I put you first.”
Maya absolutely beamed. Oh my God, I wanted to take her home right then and ask her to marry me. But I waited.
Chapter Nine
The next day, I had the jitters. Big time.
So, this was going to be the big day. I was more excited than nervous. I wanted this proposal to be very special for Maya. As the kindest, most sincere person I knew, loving her had been the easiest thing I had ever done. I chose tonight to propose because I was going to have to take off to Northern California in about four days. Also, the full moon was coming and as the days drew closer to it, I had noticed lately that I itched a lot and my body temperature rose. I had to sleep with two fans blowing in my face and I tried not to scratch my manly parts in front of her. Maya was a good sport about it. Luckily, we both liked white noise, so the fans didn’t bother us, as far as noise was concerned.
Today, and especially tonight, would be all about Maya. I wanted her to know how much I desired her and loved her. Adored her.
Since Josiah knew about the proposal, I decided to give him a few bucks to help me out. By a few bucks, the wise-ass actually negotiated with me. I wanted to give him thirty dollars and he wanted seventy-five bucks. We settled on fifty smackeroos. Then he pulled a Pretty Woman move, and said he would have done it for forty dollars. He was quite a character, and truth be told, he was one of my closest friends, even with the age difference. If not the closest. In five years, we would be the same chronological age, assuming that I was not aging as a werewolf, but who knew? I certainly didn’t have much info on that yet. Maybe that would be when I told him about my werewolf secret.
Havin
g Josiah help me was very beneficial to me, and I probably was getting his services on this special project at a bargain price. I needed another set of eyes, hands, and ears to get this night right. Even though sometimes Josiah acted like a clown, he was a pretty sincere and serious guy. He knew that this would be a special night for his sister. To give the young man credit, he took his role extremely seriously. Also, he had his driver’s license and that was a plus.
I called Josiah and made sure that the kid had his head on straight for all of the night’s details. This was going to be the biggest night of my life, and only four people knew it. Josiah, his parents, and me.
So, I needed to know if my little ball of energy, Josiah, was on the same page as me. I decided to call his cell phone.
“What’s up, brother?” I said. I called everybody close to me brother, but Josiah was actually going to be my brother very soon. And I thought that was pretty cool.
“You’re really doing this?” Josiah snickered. “Getting married?”
“What’s wrong with getting married?”
“Nothing. I think it’s a great institution,” Josiah said. “When two people are meant to be, I think there is nothing in this life more beautiful or powerful.” Sometimes, he said things that were far beyond his years. Not only was the kid tough as nails, he was also pretty damn smart, and dare I say it, empathetic and sensitive.
“You’ve thought this through,” Josiah continued. He was being serious. He cared about Maya and he didn’t want some two-bit idiot taking her away from her family, and making a fool of her by cheating on her. I had been extremely faithful and planned to continue doing that for the rest of our lives.
“Josiah,” I said. “I will be faithful to your sister.” I took a moment and then said, “You have my word.”
Josiah was silent and then said in a clear, stern voice, “You better be. That’s all I’m going to say.” This seventeen-year-old soon-to-be eighteen-year-old senior was doing the older-brother-you-better-not-hurt-my-sister-routine.
“Josiah, you have nothing to worry about. I love your sister and your family. I will never do anything that would hurt Maya, nor embarrass your family.”