“Time’s a funny thing, isn’t it?” They arrived at the car. With a push of the button on his key fob, Vincent unlocked the doors, then opened Mal’s for him. Mal didn’t sit right away—he stood on the interior side of the door, hands rested on the top frame, his eyes on Vincent while he continued to speak. “It stretches forever, and then in a second, it stretches too far and snaps, and all of a sudden a handful of years has passed and you’re blindsided by the whiplash. Some of the kids I looked after when I was your age are married now, having kids… I still can’t wrap my mind around it.”
The sun danced in Mal’s eyes, the light it cast balanced by the shadows it created. Vincent held Mal’s gaze, memorizing their pale color just like he memorized their sincerity.
“Time doesn’t let up,” Mal said. “As someone who can’t believe he’s the age he is… take my word for it. Nikki isn’t the only one who’s growing up at lightning speed. We are, too.”
It wasn’t a reality Vincent wanted to entertain, but it was the truth. He remained standing in place, listening to the chords the conversation had struck in his heart and analyzing the depths of their melody.
Time marched on, whether they wanted it to or not. There was no going back. Before he knew it, Nikki would be off to her first day of grade school, high school, graduating college…
And where would Vincent be? Lost in time, just like when he’d been languishing in his relationship with Melissa.
What was it that Mal had said? Comfortable, but unhappy?
Vincent didn’t want to feel that way ever again. Happiness was worth the risk.
“Let’s resume this conversation in the car.” Vincent stepped away from Mal’s door. “Get comfy, okay?”
Mal laughed. “I didn’t mean to make it this big philosophical conversation. I’m sorry.”
“No, this is good.” Vincent made his way around the front of the vehicle and opened the driver side door. “I promise.”
“If you say so.” Mal lifted a brow and settled in his seat, closing the door behind him. Vincent followed, and when his door was closed, Mal resumed the conversation. “So, what is it that you needed privacy to talk about? I’m assuming that’s why you wanted me in the car?”
“Right.” Vincent took a deep breath through his nostrils, his lungs tingling with the nervous anticipation that always hit before difficult conversations. “I think what I wanted to tell you was… you’re right. Everything you said just now is right. I hadn’t seen it that way until you pointed it out, but it’s… it’s true, isn’t it? That time goes by when you’re not looking. That it takes you by surprise. That’s where comfortable unhappiness comes from, isn’t it?”
Mal narrowed his eyes. The look on his face was suspiciously skeptical, like he was trying, and failing, to decipher the deeper meaning behind what Vincent was saying. “Yes?”
“Then I can’t wait anymore.” Time had surprised him, and one day, it would betray him. Nikki wasn’t the only one subjected to its will. Vincent would grow, age, and change. The years would steal the pigment from his hair and the collagen from his skin. It would creep into his bones and whittle away at their density, atrophy once-strong muscles. He’d learn to deal with the new aches and pains of his body, his new physical limitations, and the memory of who he’d once been compared to who he’d become.
While Vincent still had his youth, he wanted to enjoy it. Every opportunity he let slip away was one he might never get again.
When his heart was set, why wait? He’d made his decision months ago.
Happiness was always worth the risk.
“Can’t wait for what?” Mal asked, sounding every bit as suspicious as he looked. “Vincent?”
Vincent’s palms were damp from sweat. He ran them down his slacks, but it was a pointless practice when his heart hammered like it did. “To tell you how much I love you, Malakai Collins.”
Mal narrowed his eyes and pinched his lips together like Vincent was crazy. “Vincent?”
“And to ask you to marry me.”
Silence descended upon the car, filling it with its stifling intensity. The expression once on Mal’s face melted away, leaving behind shock and wide-eyed wonder, like he couldn’t believe what he’d heard.
“Vincent?” Mal tried again. This time, his voice was so soft, Vincent was barely sure he’d heard it.
“I don’t want to wait.” Vincent kept his tone level, but on the inside, he vibrated at an atomic level. “I don’t want more time to pass us by without you knowing how I feel..”
“Vincent.” This time, it was a mark of wonder squeaked in disbelief.
“I…” Vincent blinked tears from his eyes, uncertain of their emotional origin, but unwilling to do the introspection required to pinpoint their source. He opened the tiny compartment to the left of the steering wheel and watched the small black box inside tumble as the drawer fell open. He’d hid it from Mal and Nikki, knowing neither of them would ever have a reason to look there. “I’ve been thinking about it for a while. I’ve known that it was what I wanted for a while longer than that. But… I just never got around to it, because I thought there would be a perfect time. Once Nikki was gone to school, once the twins were born, once we went away on vacation, once, once once…”
He wet his lips and took the box from the compartment. The ring inside was practical—made of platinum and uncomplicated by design or gemstone. Between Nikki, the twins, and the odd jobs Mal took from time to time to pad his wallet, he needed something tough and durable, something that would survive children, or garden beds, or any other endeavor Mal found himself caught up in. Its simplicity made it no less beautiful. It gleamed like Mal’s eyes did when he looked at Nikki or spoke of the twins, and it shone with rare brilliance like Mal did when he smiled. Its platinum would endure the test of time and resist what obstacles came its way, like Mal had done, and like Mal did.
Like Vincent hoped they would do, together.
Vincent took the box from the compartment. He opened the hinged lid, exposing the band inside, as Mal sat stiffly beside him, his eyes as wide as they’d been when Vincent had first asked the question.
