Victoria
They were still in a crowded bar, but somehow Darren managed to make this seem private. She’d barely even noticed this booth while she was working there, tucked into a corner of the room. It was hidden by the chaos of everything, but she could tell by the way Marcus shot them looks that it was visible if you knew it was there.
She slid onto one seat, and he quickly followed by sliding onto the seat across from her. He had a sly smile on his face, and his hand fell to one of the pockets in his jeans.
She cocked her head at him.
“What do you have in there?”
He winked at her. “You can go look in there and find it if you want.”
“I’d rather not,” she said. The truth was that she did want to. She hadn’t been with him in a while, and everything in her missed him. She just wanted to have one night with him, and to wake up after it amidst a bunch of cuddles. Not like the last time, when she woke up alone. Abandoned. “Besides, aren’t your hands kind of full right now?”
He was still juggling the beers in the hand that wasn’t playing at his pocket, and he put them on the table before pushing one to Victoria. He nodded at it, as if asking if she needed help with opening that, and she rolled her eyes to tell him she didn’t.
It was like he didn’t even know her, and it made her laugh. It was tenser, though, like one of them was about to pop the bubble that had grown from them both avoiding their feelings for each other. Placing her hand on top of the table, she reached for his, trying to bring it to her.
“Someone’s being clingy,” he argued.
She argued right back. “Someone’s pretending not to like it.”
“I’m not the one who went from telling me to fuck off to holding my hand in an open bar.” He winked at her, gripping her fingers tighter between his and bringing them closer. For a second they were just sitting there staring at each other.
Then his hand pulled away from hers, and he was opening a beer and then chugging the cool liquid. He brought his hand across the table and moved to make as if he was going to try opening her mouth.
She rolled her eyes at him, and brought her own beer to her lips. Before long, they were giggling, and she wasn’t sure exactly what was going on.
“Your laugh is ridiculous,” she said.
“Yours is ridiculous.”
She grabbed his beer bottle from him and tipped it on its side. Nothing came out of it, so she grabbed it by the neck and held it upside down. Still nothing.
She raised an eyebrow at him, mimicking his trademark move. “You drank all of this already?”
He grabbed her bottle and eyed the fact that it was still half-full. “You didn’t?”
Somehow he managed to get Marcus’s attention, throwing his fingers up to signal that he wanted two more beers brought over their way. He wasn’t telling him just what kind of beers he wanted, but he seemed to be happy with what he was getting – so it was either random and Darren just didn’t care since it was at least alcohol, or they already had an arrangement.
She took a sip of her drink. “He’s probably going to spit in those, you know.”
“He wouldn’t,” Darren laughed. “Besides, this is me we're talking about.”
“People hate you.”
“You don’t.”
She sipped her beer again and avoided answering the question, although she knew that they were going to have to talk about their feelings some time. It was going to be impossible to ignore.
They sat in silence for a while before Darren pulled a weird face, and Victoria burst out into laughter. He laughed at her, and neither of them were able to shut up.
Marcus showed up with the beers. He set them on the table, gave Victoria a look, and she and Darren both gave him a look back. He left.
Darren palmed the pocket he was looking through earlier, but he was careful to keep track of Victoria and of making sure she didn’t notice. She was intent on looking at him, though, and he felt like the ring was burning a hole in his pocket.
He always carried it with him, in the storage compartment of his bike. He’d moved it into his pocket before entering the bar. It was the ring his grandmother had given him years ago. Not that he’d thought he’d ever need it.
He looked to Victoria, looking beautiful even in the murky light of this bar.
He needed it now.
Lifting a finger, he pointed towards something at the other end of the bar. There was nothing there except for an old TV and a couch that no one was on, but from where Victoria was, she would have to tilt her head back and hunt for something, even if it wasn’t actually there. There was no way she would see what he wanted to do, and it would be a surprise. That was the goal.
“Look at that,” he tried to make himself sound as convincing as he possibly could. “That’s fucking ridiculous.”
She didn’t really believe what he was saying – the tone he was using was so unlike him. He was being kind of weird tonight in general. So she turned her head, and, looking for whatever he’d seen, missed Darren sticking the ring in her glass.
“You’re blind.”
“There was something there,” he shrugged.
“I don’t believe you,” she rolled her eyes at him – was she always going to do that? Probably. She made to grab her glass. She brought it to her lips, and trying to chug like Darren could, drank until she felt the metal of something hit her lips.
Crinkling her eyebrows together, she put her hand in and grabbed it. It was a ring – simple, but lovely in its easy-going elegance. She gazed at it for a moment, asking, “What’s this?”
“It’s an engagement ring.” He looked at her like that was the most obvious thing in the world, with an expectant look on his face.
“You have to ask first, you know.” She grinned. Her heart was beating in her chest and she felt feelings she didn’t know she could experience – nerves, excitement, adoration. Small hints of fear of the unknown.
“I know,” he grinned back. “So. Victoria.”
“Darren.”
“Will you marry me?”
“I think so.” She lifted the glass she’d found the ring in. Bringing it to him, they clinked their glasses against each other, eyes on the other all the while.
“Hey.” He reached for her hand again. “Want to leave this place?”
She nodded.