Proposals
Written for my April Fic Challenge 2021, Prompt: Ring. Established relationship. Comments and kudos would be awesome. Enjoy!
Cooper is completely sober when he buys the ring.
But, that night, staring at the velvet box on the table before him, he is very much not.
He'd smoked to calm himself down before he'd even left their off campus apartment to meet up with Josh at the Lucky Peach – it had been where they'd had their first sort of date three years ago now, and tonight was thusly their sort of anniversary. He'd anxiously downed one beer while waiting for Josh to show up – Cooper knew that he'd get there first, Josh had an internship a few towns over in the afternoons. Then he'd had another when Josh was later than expected. A shot of whiskey had followed when another ten minutes passed by and still his boyfriend did not arrive. And then another. And another. And another.
And…
"Finally," Josh breathes, sitting down beside him at the bar. "Sorry about that, I got stuck behind this massive accident on the highway and-"
Oh, Cooper realizes, with a sudden feeling sinking in his stomach when he realizes just why Josh cut off mid-sentence like that, why Josh's eyes are blown wide at the sight of something on the bar. The ring box is still sitting in front of him.
"…What's that?"
Cooper flounders, desperately tries to mentally re-write everything he'd planned to say when this moment came. He'd had it all laid out in his head, but they've gone wildly off script here and there is far too much alcohol in his system to figure it all out again. There'd been cheesy, romantic lines and sweeping declarations of love that were downright poetic, but all that's gone. Now, all he manages is a frantic, "I love you. Marry me?"
Josh gapes at the unexpected turn this simple date had taken. Slowly, he manages a cautiously restrained, "Coop."
Oh, no, Cooper thinks. That's not a 'yes'. Why the hell would it be a 'yes' when it's literally the worst proposal he ever could have managed? Panic flares and Cooper pushes himself back from the bar, ready to bolt – where the hell he's going to run to, he doesn't know, but he'll run somewhere. Drop out of college – what a waste these three and a half years have been – move away, change his name, maybe. He'll do anything in the world to avoid hearing Josh reject him.
Admittedly, his building terror is not at all subtle, so Josh, unsurprisingly, picks up on it. He reaches out and catches hold of Cooper's arm to stop him from spiraling completely out of control. "Cooper, wait," he says, almost laughing as he pulls something out of his pocket. He sets it down on the bar beside the ring box. It's another ring box. "I was late because I got stuck in traffic after picking that up."
A desperate sigh of relief. A laugh. "Seriously?"
"I love you," Josh repeats, a dopey grin on his face. "Marry me?"
"I asked first," Cooper counters.
"Well, yes, obviously," Josh concedes, "But I wouldn't be asking you if my answer wasn't already 'yes,' would I?"
"In that case," Cooper answers, already moving to pull Josh into a passionate kiss, "yes," he says.
When the kiss ends – thanks to a pointed clearing of the throat from the very patient bartender, who subsequently mumbles something in congratulations – they trade the ring boxes. They each open and claim their rings, sliding them into place where they belong.