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“Ding ding”
Patrick steps out of the back room to see Stevie standing in the middle of the empty store, looking around.
“Thought you said you were busy.”
“It was?”
“Sure... Well here’s your lunch.”
Stevie drops the container with his lunch on the counter and starts to leave.
“Stevie, wait.” She turned to face him. “You’ve got your lunch there, wanna eat with me? If you, uh, don’t need to go back to the motel. You don’t have to, just thought-“
“Why are you being so weird?”
“What? Can’t a friend ask another friend to have lunch?”
Stevie narrows her eyes at him, then walks behind the counter into the back room.
“I’ll stay, but you’re still acting strange,” she says over her shoulder.
After several false starts, sitting and eating with Stevie in awkward silence while she gives him pointed looks, Patrick tries again.
“So … uh … when Mrs Rose said that you should move like an Indonesian scarf dancing in the wind, what exactly do you think she meant?”
“Why are we talking about your mother-in-law Patrick, that’s clearly not what you want to be talking about. You’re being weird. Weirder. Than usual.” She fixes him with a stare.
Patrick startled at her words. “She’s not my mother-in-law.”
Stevie rolled her eyes.
“I should have done this with booze.”
“I never say no to booze.”
“Wait here.”
Patrick walks out to the store and returns with a bottle of wine. He crosses the room to pick up two glasses, then sits down.
“Now we’re talking, but I assume you paid for that?” Stevie smirks at him.
“I’ll damage it out later,” he mutters while pouring the wine into their glasses.
Patrick downs half his glass in one gulp and Stevie lets out a low whistle.
“Whoa, Brewer! Whatever’s going on has really got you worked up! Not that I’m complaining about this wine, you chose my favourite,” she raised the glass at him before taking a sip.
“I know it is,” he says with a small smile.
“So …”
Patrick takes a breath then exhales slowly.
“Stevie, I- you know that- uh…” he rubs the back of his neck, staring at the floor, then stands to shove his hands deep into his pockets.
“Patrick, what’s going on? Not gonna lie, you’re starting to scare me. You’re not gonna say you’re dying or something, are you?”
He chokes out a laugh.
“No, it’s nothing like that. Promise. It’s just that … ugh, this really shouldn’t be this hard.” He drinks the rest of his wine and then continues “I know how important you are to David, even if he doesn’t exactly say it. And you’re important to me too, to both of us…”
“Oh god, I am not drunk enough for this level of sincerity from you. Or those eyes.”
“Please just listen for once, Stevie. This is important.” She nods, once. “You’ve seen my feelings for David from the start, before he did. Probably before even I worked out what they were. I know all the ways you nudged David towards me and I’ll forever be grateful for that.”
“Oh my god. I need more wine.”
“Stevie.”
“What?! Just spit it out, whatever you’re going to ask me. It must be big if you’re saying things that make me want to vomit.”
He sits again, resting his elbows on his knees and looks Stevie in the eyes.
“David is the love of my life and I want to marry him.”
“Well duh,” she rolled her eyes at him again, but she was smiling.
“What?”
“Anyone who has eyes can see how gross you two are together. I’m not surprised you want to do the forever thing with him.”
“Huh,” he raises his eyebrows and shrugs.
“Stevie, the reason I’m saying all of this is because I want your blessing to propose to David,” he says in a rush.
“Why are you asking me?”
“You loved him first. No, not like that-“ he laughs at Stevie’s screwed up face. “But you did. You saw him for who he was before anyone else did and I know how much you mean to him. So it’s important to me to have your blessing to ask him to marry me.”
“And what if I say no?”
A few beats pass in silence before Stevie cackles with laughter.
“Oh my god your fucking face! You idiot. Of course you have my blessing. I’ll be glad to officially hand over responsibility for his sorry ass to you.”
“Thanks Stevie. Really, thank you.”
“Okay, enough, this really is far too much sincerity for one day. I’ve gotta get back to the motel and I’m taking the rest of this wine.”
She grabbed the wine bottle and swung her bag over her shoulder.
“I’ll see you at rehearsal tonight,” she says, bumping him with her shoulder.
“Yep, see you then … Stevie? You won’t say anything to David, right?”
Stevie just winked at him as she walked through the door.