They ignored me and I really tried to fall back asleep.
“He doesn’t want that,” Ash said. “You’ll embarrass him.”
I groaned as their jostling forced me awake. Ash was half on top of me, leaning down over my face, staring at me, and Danica was pressing in on the other side.
“Matt?” she said softly, like I was still asleep or something.
“Hmm.” I shut my eyes.
“We got you something,” Ash said.
“Don’t just blurt it out,” she said.
“It’s a ring,” he blurted.
I opened my eyes.
Danica rolled her eyes a little, but she was smiling. She was glowing, actually. She held up a little ring box in my vision.
I blinked.
I knew this was coming, kind of. They’d mentioned it a few times, thinking they were being casual, slipping it into the conversation like I wouldn’t notice. Asking if it bothered me that I couldn’t marry them. And if I wanted a ring.
“Why are you guys arguing?” I said, finding my voice. I cleared my throat.
“Danica thinks we should get down on one knee.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “Both of you?”
Her cheeks flushed a little. “Is that weird?”
“No, babe,” I said, choking up a bit. “It’s not weird.”
“I just wanna be on the level,” Ash said, smoothing my hair back from my forehead and looking in my eyes. “And look you in the eye when we ask you. Man to man. Will you be ours?”
I swallowed.
I didn’t even know how much I wanted this until it was actually happening. I fucking wanted it, bad. But I wasn’t even awake yet.
“Is this a dream?”
His expression grew serious. “I wish I could give you more,” he said, his voice rough. “More of us, Matty. I hate that I can’t give you more.”
I knew what he meant. We’d already discussed it at length. That the two of them were married, they were staying married, and in the eyes of the law I couldn’t actually join that marriage. They were never going to marry me. But I was okay with that. In the end, it wasn’t much more than a piece of paper.
A relationship was as important as the people in the relationship made it, and I knew how important I was to them.
“We want you to be part of us,” Danica said.
“I already am.”
“Yeah, but this makes it more official,” Ash said.
“For all of us,” she added. “We want you to have a ring. You’ll never have the same legal rights in this relationship as we do, and that’s such bullshit. It’s the least we can do.”
I smiled a little. It was kinda rare that Danica swore, so I knew she was irritated about this.
“In our hearts, Matt, you’re one third of what makes usus.”
