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It’s been a long day full of sick patients and paperwork, but Caitlin Snow dedicated her life to her career. Ever since she interned at the nurse’s office at her high school, she’s figured out what she wants out of life and stuck with it. It helped that she had an aptitude for science and soon enough, she became the youngest partner at her physician’s office; and she wouldn’t have it any other way. It meant long nights, long hours, but it was all worth it.
The days ran by together and she didn’t really check calendars unless it was for the appointments for the next day–and that was only to check out what day of the week it was. Saturdays and Sundays were her safe haven days, but she would still be on call for her female patients if they needed her at the hospital to deliver children.
That’s what happens when she decided to go into gynecology and obstetrics instead of just the broad range of medicine.
But she sighs as she walks up the steps leading up to her townhome, glad that she’s out of the office to watch the sunset. Maybe she’ll catch up on a few shows that she missed out on during the last few days–and lord knows she’s way behind on her rewatch of Smallville that she promised one of her best friends, Barry, that she’d do with him. They’re supposed to meet that Monday night for dinner after he comes home from his visit with his girlfriend, Thea, in the city.
A Friday night in was exactly what she needed, except that wasn’t when she let out a scream at a sudden yell of “Surprise!” in her face.
“Ronnie”, she yelled out as she dropped her keys and briefcase down in her foyer, bringing up a hand to her heart as the slightly older male laughed at her reaction. Dr. Ronnie Raymond (though his is a phD instead of an MD which she likes to tease him in) has been one of her best friends ever since they were in diapers. Their mothers took the same prenatal yoga class and parents have been the greatest friends ever since–even when Ronnie’s mother ran out on their family and when Caitlin’s father lost the fight to depression when they were both in their freshman year of high school. “God, you scared the living daylights out of me.”
“Okay, Grandma. It’s just me”, he starts out before handing her balloon and a bottle of wine. “Happy Birthday.”
But she looks at him warily before she brings out her phone, checking the date before her eyes widened. “Oh, please tell me you didn’t forget your own birthday, Cait.”
There’s a scrunch of her nose as she looks up to him, and he returns her look with one of his own. “Okay, I won’t tell you I forgot my birthday.”
She’s kicking herself for it, because it’s the biggest one of all. Maybe in her subconscious mind, she pushed it away because it’s the big one, the milestone she didn’t want to hit.
Not that turning thirty years old was bad; but she thought she’d be more accomplished at thirty years old. Her parents were married at twenty-two; and sure it might not have ended well for them both, but at least they had her at twenty-five and well established careers at twenty-three.
Ronnie’s giving her a knowing look and she shoots him one of annoyance in return. His hands are already taking the stuff she dropped and placing them where she likes them to be, and that’s when she relents and looks down at her presents. “Thank you”, she tells him quietly and he just shrugs it off. “Now we’re both thirty and since you didn’t let me spend my thirtieth alone last month like I wanted, you’re stuck with me.”
“Oh”, she speaks out after him, her tone of voice teasing to match his own while her head gives off that nod. “So what’s the plan for tonight, Ronnie? Dinner and wine?”
“No”, he tells her seriously and she lets out a confused expression. “You’re allowed just drinks. Tomorrow, you can be thirty. Tonight, we’re going to pretend we’re both twenty-nine and party by ourselves one last time before our bodies can’t handle it anymore.”
There’s nothing much to say, but a grateful side hug was given out by her while they retired to her kitchen to get glasses.
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One bottle of wine had turned into several and soon they were reminiscing about their childhood. Ronnie’s laughing at something she said, and she has to join in. While Caitlin had been busy throwing herself into science and mathematics, Ronnie did do the same, but he had been more well-rounded out of the group. He had the aptitude for sports, and all she ever could do was cheer for her varsity cheerleading squad while he excelled in football, lacrosse, and soccer. “Remember that time you dated Kimberly Schumaker for a year and she had you running around like you were her errand boy”, she whispered out and laid back on her couch, looking up towards her ceiling as she spoke.
And Ronnie let out a groan at her words, leaning back to lay on the floor of her living room. “Please don’t remind me. It was during the time you dated Brandon Alderman and he broke up with you because you wouldn’t let him see your boobs.”
But Caitlin lets out a laugh within a scoff, leaning over to smack Ronnie’s chest lightly at this comment. It had been true. She had been thirteen and Brandon had been her first real foray into the high school dating pool. “He was a jerk”, she let out and took another sip of her wine glass.
“You still came over to my house and cried the day that he broke up with you.”
There’s a slight pause for a moment, they reliving their memories before Caitlin nods and runs a hand through Ronnie’s hair. They had always been close enough to do so, be as affectionate towards each other when they were inhibited, but nothing really came out of it because of mutual respect. Yet, there were times when Caitlin had wondered what if and she had always wanted to know if Ronnie thought the same–but again, out of mutual respect, she didn’t question it.
But Ronnie lets out a hum and turns his attention towards her now and a wide smile grows upon his lips. “Remember what we did that night? How we swore we’d be best friends forever and buried a time capsule in my back yard?”
And she nods while letting her hand go up to the bridge of her nose and pinching it slightly. “Oh god”, she told him. “That was because I didn’t have many friends that were girls and I begged you to do it with me, I remember.”
That’s when she drops her glass onto the side table near her and licks at her lips. She had been content on laying there for a moment, but when Ronnie shot up and offered out his hand, she had to look up in confusion once again. “We should go dig it up. I know Dad still lives at the house, but he’s on vacation and there’s a shovel in the shed. Come on. What better way to spend your thirtieth than digging up a time capsule you buried when you were thirteen?”
“You’re crazy”, Caitlin replies before shaking her head. “We are in no condition to drive and it’s late at night, people are going to think we’re robbing the place.”
“Well then”, Ronnie lets out, mischievousness to the tone of his voice. “I guess we’re going to have to wear all black and be ninjas about it, right?”
“Ronnie”, Caitlin trails off and he replies to her with a “Cait” the same way and wiggles his eyebrows in return.
But she relents and they set off to Ronnie’s childhood home.
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“Okay”, Ronnie starts out before handing Caitlin a flashlight he found in the shed along with a shovel. “We’re going to have to be very careful and figure out where we buried it. I think it was next to Mr. Ickle Dickle’s grave.”
“It’s Mr. Itty Bitty, and he was your cat”, Caitlin starts out, defending their childhood friend’s memory and he laughs gently, The backyard to Ronnie’s home hadn’t been that big to begin with, just enough for a small floral garden that was left unattended when Ronnie’s mom chose to abandon her family and a trampoline on the far side of the yard. It was easily enough finding the grave marker to the cat and the landmark that they put together to help them out with the time capsule should the time come.
There’s only a look exchanged between the both of them before Caitlin shines the light so that Ronnie would be able to dig up the box. It’s nothing more than a Nike shoe box, covered in dirt, but they both let out a triumphant yelp of surprise before they take it inside Ronnie’s childhood home to open it.
Inside there were a bunch of various knickknacks and pictures of their middle school years and toys and Caitlin had to let out a small smile when she finally realized that this was where she left her game boy advance and wondered if it still worked. “If only Brandon Alderman realized you were a gamer nerd and not just a honor roll nerd”, Ronnie teased her and she stuck out her tongue.
“What else is in here”, she asks of him before she sets down the gaming system and loots through the box; but it’s only when she stops at a black velvet box that she lets out a sad half smile. “Is that your mother’s ring”, she asks before she hands it to him. He only nods and takes it in his hands.
“Mom threw this at Dad the day she left. I haven’t seen her since”, he confesses, but she lets out a hand to rub his back, letting him know that she was there for them, but it’s only when brown eyes connected to blue that she cleared her throat and broke their contact. “There’s a piece of paper right next to it, though”, she tells him before taking it in her hands.
She recognizes the familiar scrawl that was her signature and the other was Ronnie’s; but the paper was typed up. Maybe to make it seem more professional than it really was.
“We, Caitlin Amanda Snow and Ronald Xavier Raymond”, she starts out reading the paper while Ronnie lets out a snort. She had to agree, they had sucky middle names. “hereby pledge that if we are not married by the time we are thirty years old, we promise, pinky swear, and best friend swear that we’ll marry each other.”
“Let me see that”, Ronnie says as he scoots closer to Caitlin to read it over her shoulder, amusement to his voice while his blue eyes scan over the pseudo contract at hand. “Did we really agree to this?”
Caitlin’s racking her brain, the wine buzz she had gotten earlier from their drinking almost gone and she recalls that moment, and the immense swearing they did afterwards. “Yeah”, she nods her answer. “Yeah, I think we did.”
There’s a pause, a slight moment of awkwardness while she drops the paper onto the coffee table. She’s already going back to look at the box at hand, finding her parents set of wedding rings underneath it with a soft smile. When her father committed suicide, her mother had given her the set to remember him by. There were also other pieces of memorabilia in there–even a scrapbook that they had made together the year before they buried the box. The quiet hadn’t been unnerving as she thought it’d be, but at least she was able to collect her thoughts.
And it wasn’t until Ronnie spoke out again that her eyes widened and she leaned back. “Cait, lets do it.”
“You’re drunk and joking”, she tells him while dismissing his comment and he shakes his head. “You’re not joking”, she starts out and he nods his answer to her question and she shakes her head. “Then you’re clearly drunk, Ronnie.”
“I’m not drunk, Cait. I’m serious.”
But there’s a sputter for a moment and she’s really confused to where this all came out. It’s their future he’s just throwing in right now, and how is it going to be plausible for them to work everything out? They hadn’t even been on a real date yet and he’s already proposing to her?
She stands up, needing an action to be able to express her confusion, and starts pacing in front of him, hands moving up and down in order to be able to let out what she can’t speak out. Yes, there were times when Caitlin thought of the what ifs, but she figured it might be just a date or two, a stolen kiss during the heat of the moment.
Not a marriage proposal that their thirteen year old selves came up with.
“Ronnie”, she starts; but it’s him that stands up and stops her from pacing. “Cait”, he whispers. “Haven’t you ever thought of us like that? You know, together?”
And she immediately lets out that yes, she has thought of them together and yes, she does wonder what would have happened if they crossed over that line between friends and something more, “But Ronnie, this is marriage we’re talking about. I thought about us dating, not–”
“What’s the point of dating when it’s just a way for people to get to know each other”, he interrupted and she had to pause. He had a point there. “We already know everything about each other and I have always wondered ever since we buried this box–”
Now it was her turn to interrupt. “Wait, what?”
“Cait, lets do it. Lets get married. We lived together before, we already know each other’s habits.” Ronnie cups her face then and she bites down on her bottom lip, not out of nervousness; but there’s this new energy that’s brewing between them, something she’s definitely felt before sure, but it’s surging rapidly within her.
And there’s just something about his pleading blue eyes at the moment that lets her know that he’s so serious about this, and her own heightened emotions are on edge to the point where she wants takes that leap that her whole body has been telling her but it’s Ronnie’s next words that get her to do so.
“Don’t you feel like we were on this path anyway?”
And she leans up, pressing her lips to Ronnie’s in a small kiss, but it’s him that deepens it. Her arms link around his neck and his go automatically to her waist, pulling her closer to him. They stay locked in that embrace, more for each moment but it’s when she breaks away for that basic human need for air that he lets out a soft whistle.
“I should have done that at seventeen like I wanted to”, he confesses to her and she laughs softly. “I know of a chapel a few miles away that can marry us with a witness”, Caitlin tells him. “Think our friends wanna go to a wedding tomorrow?”
He doesn’t answer her with words, but with more multiple kisses until the wee hours of the morning. It was the best birthday gift she could ever imagine.