Chapter Text
If you asked me four years ago what I thought the person of my dreams might be like, never would I have guessed he'd be a rich pizzeria employee.
But here we are; living together with one month left until our three-year anniversary.
Three years.
Damn, that really went by fast.
I too often hear people say perfection is a myth when the embodiment of perfection kisses me awake every morning.
Weirdly enough, I've only recently been thinking about popping the question despite being madly in love with Elliot for so long.
Maybe it's because he distracts me from literally every thought I have that isn't about the moment when he's around.
Man, I'm a mess...
"Chance!"
I snap my head up towards one of my employees.
"There they are. Back from orbit."
"Oh. Uhhh... Got a two?" I ask the person next to me.
"Uhh..." they mumble awkwardly. "One, this is blackjack. Two, I'm not the house. Three, that's not how you play. You know this!"
"Oh. Uhh... Sorry." I mumble.
I hear five perfectly synchronized groans around me.
"What is it this time?" Somebody shouts, frustrated.
"What do you mean?" I counter. "Nothing! Just... Zoned out, is all."
"Hey, if I know anything about my boss, it's that he doesn't zone out while gambling..." They pause. Ohhhh gosh.
"Unless it's about Elliot!"
Everyones attention turns back to me, wondering what I could possibly be worrying about this time.
First it was just him in general. Then, it was asking him out. Then, it's holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, any important dates that include him. But none of those are coming up right now. I know I get like this when thinking too hard about him, so why did I decide to come down here instead of just pretending I have something better to do?!
"...Fine." I say. "It's... Not really anything I've... Completely planned out yet, though, so don't freak out."
I notice people leaning in, very much intrigued. Why they always get like this, I'm not sure.
"I've been... Uhh..." I look down at the floor awkwardly, avoiding any possible eye contact, and lower my voice. "Planning to... Like... Propose to Elliot." I mumble while shuffling my cards.
Cheers erupt from everybody in the (very big) room, which is stupidly frustrating this time because they're so fucking loud and Elliot lives here now... Which some of them seem to forget.
Speaking of Elliot...
"So! Who won this game?" I hear from the doorway, after all the applause has died out.
"Elli!" I laugh nervously, praying he didn't hear what I said.
"Hey, lucky. Just heading out for work." He walks toward me and kisses me goodbye. "Love ya."
"I love you too, pizza boy! Have a good day!" I say with a wink, placing my cards back down onto the table.
As soon as I'm sure he's out of hearing range, I look back to everyone else.
"Can you all be a tiny bit more mindful? He lives here, ya know."
Everyone nods with obviously no intention of stopping. Ugh, Telamon help me...
"Right. So. He's gone." Somebody says cheerfully. "Talk about it more. We could help... Possibly."
A bunch of nods and some words of agreement are made. Damn, these people are nosey.
"Uh. Okay, whatever. I just... Don't know where to start, y'know? I dunno if you guys know this, but I've never proposed to somebody, let alone Elliot, so I don't really... Um... Have the best clue."
"Just start where you always start when you go on dates." Somebody new barges in. "Dude, it's Elliot. You thinking he might say no is probably the wrongest thing you've ever thought."
"Wrongest isn't grammatically correct." I say, desperate for any kind of a defense.
"It counts," They say back, taking away the shot I had at being right at something. "and it's the right word for this situation."
They sit down and leave me lost again.
Y'know... They're probably right. Elliot's not going to say no...
I think.
Yeah, I shouldn't have much doubt in my mind.
But still... If he says no, it'll probably ruin our relationship.
And I don't want to lose him.
...No. No, he'll say yes. It's been a while. And, looking back, I realize he's brought it up before...
In a way I thought was jokes, but he was totally subtly asking me if we're going to be engaged, like, ever.
Man, I'm oblivious.
"Yeah... Yeah. He'll probably say yes. There's no way he'll say no... Right?"
...
"Right?"
Most of them start reassuring me while others look around awkwardly. Apparently, I'm somewhat predictable but unpredictable at the same time when it comes to things like this.
At least that's what I've been told.
Someone begins to give me tips before I hear more footsteps.
"...Hey, have any of you seen my visor? I totally almost left without it." Elliot says, now back.
Everything turns so quiet and awkward that I swear I hear crickets.
"What... What were you guys doing in here?" Elliot laughs nervously. "Did I... Like... Interrupt something super important?"
"Oh, no, Chance was just talking about-"
I whip my head back to see five different hands covering that dudes mouth.
Didn't know my employees had my back that much.
"About what?"
Nobody knows what to say, huh?
"Sorry about them, Elli." I stand up and begin to walk over to him. "Just a work thing. Some anonymous weirdo who's too scared to show their face to me."
"That's nothing new." Elliot laughs. "I think I'll check upstairs really quick if you don't have it."
Elliot runs away as if it's fucking rush hour. I can't believe I got away with that bullshit excuse.
I mean, I've had mafia affiliations before, the 'anonymous weirdo' story is believable enough compared to that.
"Dude!" I shout, spinning back around. "You can't go and tell Elliot my plans about him! What the heck?"
"My bad! My bad!" He shouts. "Kinda forgot it was him..."
The room erupts with different variations of sentences like "how could you forget that?"
They're taking this insanely seriously for a plan that hasn't been fully prepared yet. Guess I've hired some pretty committed people.
Eventually Elliot finds his visor and we go back to our blackjack game again. Shit. That was close. He catches onto me sometimes, I really hope he doesn't now.
Eventually our game is over. And, before you ask, yes, I did do amazing.
Now I've gotta sit down and think.
Think. What's a good place?
First date location for old memories? Nah, wouldn't work. We kind of just walked around the city and went to some random ass diner and I don't like the idea of proposing to Elliot in public. Might be awkward.
At home seems too casual for someone so awesome... And also still kind of public unless it's late at night.
Oh!
I got it! Our first date after becoming official, we went to a beautiful field near the water. Peaceful and quiet.
We've gone up there many times over the years ever since that day. It's pretty much ours.
It's the perfect place!
And it's even better that it's a place we've been so much, so he won't suspect anything!
People seem to be leaving the room now, so, I guess I'd better tidy up.
I don't want Elli coming home to see all this bullshit and clean it without telling me... Again.
I've gathered from living with him that it's his default setting to just clean things up, especially when he's in uniform.
Okay... What'd that guy say? What I usually do?
Yeah, I think that's a good idea. I'll dress up, get him flowers, and a gift.
...Except, you know, it's a pretty big deal, so I'll go all out.
...Yeah. Yeah, I can do this. It's not like I'm going to make myself look like an idiot by tripping over myself or something 'cause of how good he looks all the time.
Surely not.
I grab a pen and a small notebook and sit back down, hunched over the table.
...Okay. So. His favourite flowers are tulips and roses represent love. That's a good combo... Right? Fuck, I'm starting to overthink this. I get him roses and tulips all the time, it needs to be better!
I scratch out the written roses and tulips combo idea at the top and move down on the lined paper.
Okay. The ring. I've already got his ring size, so that's not an issue. But what should it look like?
I draw a few diagrams, write down a few ideas. Like the gem. Something of one of his favourite colours? A diamond?
I move on from that too, I'll decide on the gemstone later.
What about what I'm going to say? Should I write it down or something?
I begin to write words, but no. No, that'd sound stupid, because it wouldn't be coming from a genuine place in the moment.
Fuck! I'm not this much of an idiot, am I?!
I flip the small notebook over to another side of the paper, giving up on the previous one.
I end up taking a while to scribble down ideas for all of those questions and more, when I hear footsteps.
"Hey... Whatchya doin'?"
"Oh. Hey, pizza boy!" I say, closing the notebook. "Just uhh... Writing."
"Oh, writing? Writing what?"
Shit.
"Sorry, it's, like, not finished. Maybe later."
"Oh. Is it for me?" He teases.
I don't enjoy when he's correct about something I'm planning for him because it ruins the surprise, but, I guess I don't need to tell him exactly what it is.
"Hm... There's a possibility." I tease back.
"Mkay... Well, I'm gonna go change. I don't wanna be in this uniform a second longer."
"Rough day?"
"Hot day, I felt like it'd never end. A few customers were frustrated. Took it out on us. Not fun."
"Almost as hot as you?"
"Pfft. Don't play games with me. How do you not die in that tuxedo?" He laughs, kisses me goodbye and then leaves me alone again to go change.
I'm getting away with so many things today, suspiciously enough. Elliot's very observant, I don't know how he hasn't caught on that it's a big thing.
I need to get this all done and planned quickly so I can do it before he catches on, because if I take long enough, he definitely will.
...Alright. I've not got a big idea on what exactly the ring should look like.
I think something more colourful would be nice for him.
It's either that or diamonds.
Hey. Yellow, orange, and red are all colours he likes. Red and orange diamonds are both way too rare, so I can rule that out.
I could totally get yellow diamond, though.
I know. I know. It'll be expensive.
But, if you were rich and madly in love, you'd one hundred percent be spending this much money.
...
Next day. Elliot has just left for work.
This is my chance.
As soon as I'm sure he's gone, I hop in my own car and drive.
There's multiple jewelers around the city... I can find what I want.
...
Well, turns out that the few closest to me don't have it.
I've been to four different places, walking into the fifth. This one's not too small, hopefully they've got it... But I'd better ask to avoid looking for something not there.
Well, I sure am in luck, this time at least. They do!
A silver ring with good sized yellow diamond in a round shape right in the middle, with tinier, more white diamonds around it and a few on the ring itself.
In short; it's exactly what I've been looking for.
Took a pretty long time. I mean, I guess usually when you think of a diamond ring you think of the white blue-ish one so that's what's usually there.
Also, that was like, a little over two million bux...
Hope Elli doesn't ask how much it was.
I sit back down in my car, clutching onto the box that holds the ring as if it's going to run away from me.
Think.
I've already deducted that red tulips and roses will be a bullshit choice because I give him those so often.
Hey, maybe I could get ones with more colours?
Yeah! Yeah, roses and tulips come in all different colours. It's just that red flowers represent love so that's what people usually get for their partners.
I decide on just a few colours. Red, pink, white, orange, and purple roses.
The tulips are gonna be red, orange, and yellow.
Give me a break, okay? They look good together.
Before I start the car, my phone dings.
Shit.
"Hey lucky! I get off work in like an hour. Wanna do smthn after?"
Oh nevermind, this is perfect.
"Sure! Maybe we could go to that field we like going to"
"Great <3"
"Love ya pizza boy. Don't get distracted tho"
"You know I'm too focused for that babe"
I put the phone down and start the car.
Hope everything goes smoothly.