by David Horne
“Did I?”
“Totally.” Toby nudged him with a smile. “It was totally hot.”
“Did you just use the word hot?” Pete rolled his eyes. “Aren’t you supposed to be a writer?”
“Yeah, that’s why I used appropriate language.”
“Appropriate language? Is that what it’s called?”
“Yep.”
Pete rolled his eyes again. “Come on in. I’m almost done packing.”
“Sure.” Toby walked in and closed the door behind him.
Pete’s heart started to race. He was right about himself. He wasn’t going to be able to wait. He was going to have to ask right then. There would be no waiting.
He walked into the bedroom.
Toby didn’t follow him. He was in the living room fiddling with his bags instead. The man must have wanted to quickly repack something. That wasn’t unusual. It was one of the things about always being early, sometimes things got done in a hurry.
Pete pulled the package out of his bag and slipped it into his pocket then he quickly finished packing his bag and hurried back out.
Toby was just standing there.
Pete cleared his throat.
“Done?” Toby tilted his head.
“Yeah, I’m done. You?”
“I’m done.” Toby seemed nervous about something. Maybe he had figured out what Pete was planning on doing. Maybe his surprise was blown.
The gambler decided that it didn’t matter that much. He still wanted this whether or not it was a surprise. He wanted everything that Toby had to offer and they had been together for six months now. It was time to take the next step. They had been strong and undeniably strong in every aspect.
He moved to stand right in front of Pete. “You know I love you, right?”
“Yeah, of course, I do.” Toby frowned slightly.
Pete slipped down to one knee and pulled out the ring box.
Toby froze. “What?”
“What?” Pete responded. “You didn’t see this coming?”
Toby shook his head and reached into his pocket, pulling out a similar ring box.
“What?” Pete asked the question again, this time for a different reason. The ring box was identical. The rings had come from the same store, a small local jeweler with only one location.
“Are you asking what I think you’re asking?”
“Yeah.” Pete’s breath caught. “Are you?”
“Yeah.” Toby nodded.
“I guess we both had the same idea.”
“We kind of did. I was gonna wait though.” Toby smiled. “If I could wait.”
“It was really hard to wait. I didn’t plan on waiting because I didn’t know if I could.”
Pete opened his box at the same time that Toby opened his. The rings were identical. They both had picked out the same ring. The only thing different about them was the sizes. The one that Toby had bought was slightly bigger than the one that Pete had bought because Pete had slightly bigger hands than his lover.
He blinked as he saw that.
Toby started to laugh.
“What?” Pete kept asking that. It was odd to see this kind of situation come into being. It felt so unreal.
“We both had the same idea at the same time.” Toby was grinning as he laughed.
“I noticed.”
“It has to be a good sign.”
“Are you so sure about that?” Pete was starting to smile though.
“What else would it be? You’re the superstitious gambler. Tell me what you think of it.”
“I think it just means that we’re both amazing lovers with a knowledge of each other that goes deeper than most couples.”
“Exactly. Are you sure that you’re not the writer here?”
“Last I checked it was you, but I have learned a thing or two over our time together.” Pete shrugged. He couldn’t get the smile off of his face. Not that it was any sort of surprise.
Toby pulled him into a kiss. It was deep and pure and loving. Pete couldn’t resist the passion that they shared. They loved each other. This was perfection incarnate, the kind of special moment that they couldn’t resist or stop.
The kiss lasted long enough to almost make them late. The rideshare driver was buzzing his phone until they laughed and managed to drag themselves out from the moment. The magic would have to wait until they arrived at their destination.