Sass and a Proposal

He's gonna get it now.

Sass and a Proposal

“Excuse me Mam. I’m sorry to say that we will be closing soon, so this will be your last chance to make an order.” The waitress looked at me with genuinely sympathetic eyes. She didn’t have to say anymore. I could practically read her thoughts.  “I’m sorry that your date didn’t show up. I hope that you can still enjoy your visit.”

I smiled and got up from my seat.  I looked at my phone.  Over an hour had passed.  My chest tightened.  Alex is the type of person who is a bit clumsy, but his text message earlier surely meant that he would have made his way here unless some ungodly force was keeping him from.  “That’s okay, I’ll be leaving.”  I said, with a bit of worry in my voice.  I couldn’t hide my concern for Alex’s well being.  Could he have gotten hurt?  There was no way he would have gotten lost.  We both grew up in Vancouver.  I quickly started making my way towards the doors umbrella ready and determined to find him.

As I was approaching the double doors, suddenly Alex, who was drenched from head to toe in rain burst in.  His hair was slick from the rain.  His pants and shoes were covered in mud. His blazer was an ugly coffee brown and was two sizes too big for him.  It was so weighed down in rain water, that I could see the unmistakable outline of a ring box in the breast pocket.  He was completely out of breath.  Worst of all, he was lacking his signature stupid smile.  My concern for his well being had immediately turned into a silent rage.

“I’m… Looking… for my… girlfriend...” He wheezed to the hostess.  I was a bit annoyed that he didn’t recognize me.

“Ahem…” The hostess awkwardly pointed at me.

“Hi!”  I was furious with him but I let my glare do the real talking.

His jaw dropped. Cartoonishly so. Wide-eyed he was tongue tied and still out of breath.  What came out could only be described as incoherent babbling.

I patted him on his soggy shoulder.  “I’ll give you two minutes to catch your breath, Buddy.”  I gave him a toxic grin as I left through the double doors and waited outside.

It hadn’t even been a minute before he came out behind me.  He was speaking a million words per minute. “I’m so sorry Em.  I didn’t mean to be this late.  I was supposed to bring something but I lost it, so I went home to go and find it.  I didn’t find it, so I tried to rush back here as quick as I could, but the bus that I was on got into an accident, so I ran the rest of the way as fast as I could, but I’m still this late I’m sor-.”  I stopped him by squeezing his hand and hushing him.

“It’s right here stupid.”  I reached into the left breast pocket breast pocket on the inside of his blazer and pulled out the ring box.

“H-how’d you know it was there?” He was taken aback most likely by his own stupidity at this point.

“I saw the outline of it on your blazer when you burst through the doors.  Now let me hear it.” I stood akimbo facing towards him.

“I’m so sor-”  I stopped him again before he could apologize.

“No, not that you idiot!  Let me hear what you came to say!”

“Happy twenty-first Birth-”  I pinched stupid his nose.  “Agh!”

“No, not that either!”  I was glaring straight into his eyes now. I released his nose.

“Will you marry me?”  He held the ring box with one hand and opened it with the other.  It wasn’t anything extraordinary, but it did have a diamond.

“Nope.”  I answered back casually.  My answer made Alex react as if he had the wind knocked out of him.  I gave him another smirk before saying.  “But I might reconsider if you say it again.  This time, say it like you mean it.”

I could see the beginnings of his smile. Then the whole stupid thing formed.

He was silent. He stared me right back in the eyes. He knew what I wanted.

“Atta boy.” I said and pulled him in close, by his stupid tie.