“Hey.” Todd cocked his head to the side. “What’re you smiling about?”
Here we go.
“I wanted to ask you something, actually…” Ramin swallowed and looked into Todd’s eyes. They were crinkled up a bit, giving him that little divot between his eyebrows that he kept wanting to Botox away. But Ramin loved that little divot. He loved those crinkles. “I’ve been thinking a lot about us lately, and our future, and… well…”
His hand shook as he pulled out the box and opened it. The noise of the restaurant seemed to die away around him, until they were in a perfect little bubble.
“I was wondering if… you’d want to get married?”
Okay, that came out super weird. Todd’s divot turned into a full-on furrow.
Ramin cleared his throat, fought the flush rising up his neck, and pulled his foot out of his mouth to do this properly.
“What I meant is: Will you marry me, Todd?”
Todd stared at the ring in the box, a plain gold band, because gold always looked good against Todd’s skin. It wasn’t so favorable against Ramin’s, but he had a matching one tucked away anyway. That way everyone would know they were a pair.
Ramin studied Todd’s face. He wanted to remember this moment forever. Except…
Todd’s eyebrows were still furrowed. Ramin waited for them to rise, for Todd’s face to break into a beaming smile, for him to laugh and lean closer and tell Raminyes.
Instead, that furrow softened into something more like…
Oh God.
Pity.
“I… I’m sorry, Ramin. But no.”
No?
Ramin’s brain did a hard reset.
“All right, gents, let me just open this for you…” The pop of the cork sounded like a cannonball, shattering all his dreams for the future. Ramin started in his chair. He hadn’t even noticed their server returning.
Todd gave a tight-lipped White People Smile as their server poured the champagne. Ramin couldn’t even muster that. His eyes were burning, and he told himself it was the smoke from the grill and not the urge to cry.
All at once he remembered the part inLegally Blondewhere Warner dumped Elle instead of proposing, also in the middle of a restaurant, and for a second he wanted to laugh, because he loved that movie, but he’d never thought of himself as an Elle.
Their server finally retreated. Ramin didn’t touch his champagne; neither did Todd.
“No?” The word felt like sand in Ramin’s throat.
Todd shook his head. “Look. I’ve been feeling this for a while, but…”
He pursed his lips. “Things have become stale between us. Don’t you think this has kind of… run its course?”
“Run its course?” Ramin croaked. Shit, now there were tears, and Ramin’s nose always ran when he cried, so this was about to get ugly. “But I love you.”
Todd sighed. “I love you too, Ramin, but…”
Todd bit his lower lip. Ramin always liked to nibble on it when they kissed. Liked how he could feel it curl into a smile, because that meant Todd liked it, too.
“I want more out of life than just… moving in together and getting married, date nights every Tuesday, dinner with your friends every Thursday. Lately things have just been so…”
Ramin loved date night. He loved dinner with his friends.
He loved his life with Todd. And now Todd was throwing it all away?
