Elliot

Taking the small blue box from my palm, I slide it across the table to sit front and center in front of Charlotte.

This is the second time I’m making a proposal. I’ve brought Charlotte back to the restaurant lanai where we can be alone again, but I’m much more nervous about this proposal than the first.

Charlotte keeps her hands in her lap as she peeps down at the box like it might pop open, surprise her, and force a scream.

“I promise,” I laugh, adjusting my glasses over the bridge of my nose, “there are no bugs in there.”

She purses her lips and cocks a brow. “Is it a ring? Because this looks like the kind of box that holds engagement rings. Honestly, Elliot, although we’ve known each other our whole lives, we did have over a decade of hardly knowing one another and—”

“Will you open the box, Charlotte?” I sneer. “If I was going to ask you to marry me, I’d have added a little something extra to the moment other than just hand you a box.”

Charlotte bites her lower lip with a smile. She’s slow to move. Her hesitation is killing me. She finally lifts the lid to find the keys. Two keys. She raises them and inspects them. They are two different sets of keys.

“Are these the keys to your apartment?” she asks batting her eyes.

“One is,” I smile. “I want you to move in with me.”

She drops her head.

“Ooor we can keep living in your hotel room as we’ve done for the last thirty days. Whatever you want.” Of course, I am willing to give her whatever she wants, but it would be nice to have a kitchen.

“Whatever I want?” she asks. “I’d much rather live in a house.”

My cheeks flush. “Do you now?”

“Oh yes, Mr. Crowe,” she verbalizes sarcastically then holds up the other key. “How about this one? What’s this key for?’

I lean back in my chair. “That’s the one for your parents’ home—the one I plan to build them on their old property, but only if you move in with me.”

 “That’s rather cruel, don’t you think?” she huffs and continues, “Hanging my parents’ home over my head to get me to do what you want.”

“No, not really,” I smirk. “I’ve already spoken with your mother about my proposal. She wanted me to tell you she hopes you make the right choice, which is to marry me.”

Charlotte snarls. “My mother always liked you better than she liked me.”

“That’s not true. Your mother loves you and she knows I do, too. She knows that of all the guys you’ve had in your life, I’m the only one that truly admires and loves you.” I cough. “I think you love me, too.”

Charlotte puts the keys in the box, puts the cover on, then slides it away from her.

“Why do you fight me?” I ask. “Did I not turn out to be good enough for you? Is the geek next door still the only thing you see when you look at me?”

She rubs her forehead and peeps between her fingers to look at me. “Elliot, the truth is I always liked you chasing after me. I liked to tease you from the window like you were some really stupid idiot, but then you saved me! If I’d known you’d turn into a superhero, I might not have been so cruel myself. When I look at you, I realize what a jerk I was. I can’t move in with you because I don’t want to be constantly reminded of what a stupid human being I was—I am. Sometimes, I wish I could just escape these feelings of inadequacy. It’s like I finally know what it must’ve felt like for you to be ridiculed in high school.”

“You can escape these feelings,” I announce and reach in my right pant pocket to pull out the Bang. I shake the small pill box to hear it banging around and I put the pill container on the table. “This is what I created the Bang for. If I take this pill, only those feelings of love and—” I cough again, “lust will come to the surface. You won’t have to feel inadequate ever again when you’re with me.”

She laughs. “So, are you going to take that pill every day? Do you even know if there are any long-term side effects? I’m well aware, Elliot, the drug you’ve created hasn’t even been through human trials, that you and Nick are the only ones who have taken it. Do you think I want to see you get sick or hurt because of me? I already can’t live with myself.”

“There is another option,” I mention.

Charlotte squints as I slide my ass down in the chair to reach in my left pant pocket and sit up to pull out a 4-carat solitaire diamond engagement ring in platinum and place it on the table, right next to the Bang. “You could marry me and we could work on these feelings together over the long term.”

Charlotte’s eyes are welling up. “I’m sure that will make my mother very happy.”

“Charlotte, I only want to make you happy.”

She gulps and bats her eyes. “Do you now?” she asks with a low gruff voice. She looks cocky. Confident.

I laugh. “Why are you trying to talk like me?”

“I’m trying to sound smart. I want to make the right choice here. Do I sound smart? As smart as you?”

I look at the ring and the Bang on the table and sigh. “Charlotte, when it comes to you, I’m a dumb fool. Will you just stop teasing me and pick me or put me out of my misery?”

“Yes,” she says confidently and I’m glad to see her old self returning, but it’s me who is unsure of himself.

“Yes, what? Which is going to be?”

“For an extremely bright man, you certainly don’t know how to ask the right questions.”

My cheeks warm as I lean forward to pick up the ring with one hand. I put my other hand out and signal with my fingers for Charlotte to give me her hand, which she does.

“Will you marry me?” I ask and slip the ring onto her finger. I’m not waiting for an answer. She’s already said yes and I’m not giving her any other opportunities to answer except the one time.

“Hmm,” she sighs.

“What’s the matter?"

“Elliot, you mentioned earlier that if you were going to ask me to marry you, you would’ve added a little something extra than just hand me a box.”

“Well yeah, sweetheart!” I exclaim and scoot my chair back to stand up. I check for my Jag keys in my suit pocket and walk around the table. Bending down, I give Charlotte a kiss thrusting my tongue into her mouth. I let my tongue dance around with hers as I slyly reach for the pillbox on the table and pop the top.

Charlotte gasps as I quickly lean my head back ready to drop the pill under my tongue.

“Elliot! You don’t need that,” she cries, gripping my arm. “You should already know that I... I...”

“Love me?” I ask.

“Uh-huh,” she pants.

“For just one night, Charlotte, I don’t want to chase you. I don’t want to be teased. I want to be sure this engagement really means something to you, that it’s something you’re truly celebrating inside, that you’re really into me and trust me to make you happy, to take care of you.”

Charlotte lowers my hand and peeks into the pillbox at the little white pill. “You can be sure, Elliot,” she affirms, “and to show you how much I love you, I’m going to let you take this, this one time, so you know just how much I trust that big sexy brain filled with shameful, dirty thoughts you’re hiding behind those geeky glasses of yours.”

 I watch Charlotte reach with her thumb and her forefinger to pick up the pill. She opens my mouth with a finger of her other hand then slips the pill under my tongue and kisses me.

Charlotte’s back arches and I see her knees spread open in her seat. Her mouth gets hot and her chest is heaving. She’s steaming up my glasses!

I glide my fingers up Charlotte’s inner thigh towards her center where she stops my hand and resists. It worries me, but I’m relieved to hear her speak of more feelings she’s been hiding.

“Take me home, Elliot Crowe. I’ve always wanted to go over to your place to play. Let’s celebrate this night with a Bang, shall we?”

End of Book 1 unless...

You wanna visit the Bank?

 

Or fall in love again and get