A Promise Kept
El took Mike to a teller, and after some explanation of why they were there, she led them to the rear offices of the bank.
"Ah Miss Hopper, I've been waiting for you and Mr. Wheeler," the bank manager said.
She was about to walk into his office with Mike when the manager stopped and said, "um, excuse me but only Mr. Wheeler's wife or his mother would be allowed in this meeting. Unless you are no longer 'Miss'"
El looked down head and shook it. "I'll wait out here. It's ok Mike."
The manager glanced between the two of them and smiled.
Mike was in the manager's office for most of an hour before he finally emerged.
El could see he was pale, "everything ok?"
Mike nodded, gave her a smile.
"If you don't want to go to the Snowball Mike, it's ok, we can spend some quiet time in a place where no one can find us."
"Not a chance. I'm keeping my promise to you El."
El smiled and took his hand and led him out of the bank.
Just outside the bank doors, he said, "El?"
She turned to him and he leaned forward to kiss her, El got up on her toes to meet him. "I'm not kissing you enough," he said.
"No you aren't," she giggled. "Ok, let's go back to your parent's place and change for the Snowball."
"That's hours away El."
"You may have noticed that I'm a girl and 'hours away' is the panic signal that I need to get started."
Nancy was helping with El's makeup and hair upstairs. They left Mike by himself to shoehorn into a suit that Lucas had lent to him. Mike was a fair bit more muscular than Lucas was. El figured it would be a bit of a tight fit.
"I'll keep going with the make-up, you tell me when to stop. It won't matter at all to my brother, but he's not a girl, so…"
Nancy fussed around El for a long time. Finally she emerged from the upstairs bathroom. "You sure you want to wear that dress? It may have been in fashion back in the mid eighties, but it's certainly not now."
"I want to look like what Mike would have seen me in during that Snowball. It may not be important to Mike, but it's important to me." El looked down.
"It's ok El, but I think you forgot these" Nancy turned red.
"I didn't forget them." El gave Nancy a sly smile.
Nancy put up her hands smiling and backed away, "I don't need to know anymore El."
El walked downstairs to the basement, she could see Mike's knee bouncing up and down and old habit she'd last seen in the gym when she had her head on his shoulder. He was nervous. She smiled to herself. Mike had probably experienced enough to fill several lifetimes but he was nervous about taking his girlfriend out on their first date.
When he looked up at her, her knees felt wobbly, she put her hand to her heart and leaned against the wall, smiling weakly at him.
"The way you look at me Mike…" she trailed off.
"You look beautiful."
He came over to her and put his arms on her shoulders and kissed her forehead. "You ready to go?" His voice sounded unsure.
"I hope we don't look too silly out on the dance floor. I don't know how."
"Neither do I... want to figure it out?" She looked into his eyes and nodded.
When they went up to Mr. Clarke to ask about tickets, he just waved them towards the entrance.
"We can minimize our embarrassment by only dancing to slow tunes." Mike said. El giggled.
The lights dimmed as if on cue. The music started and then the lyrics… "..Every breath you take…"
El put her arms around Mike's neck and they swayed to the music.
Mysteriously Mike pulled back, and the dancing couples pulled away from them. El felt a little panicked and she heard a few of the blue and white balloons pop.
"I made you a promise that I'd take you to the Snowball... I made myself a promise that if I ever did…" Mike put his hand in his pocket and then got down on one knee. He looked up at her.
"El, if you could find it in your heart to be my wife…"
Her hands flew to her face and she started nodding yes vigorously. She couldn't help crying. The entire gym full of kids starting clapping and hooting. All the lights flickered briefly.
"...you belong to me…" The timing could haven't been more perfect.
Mike stood up and took her hand. "This is my Paladin from the game. I had it melted down and formed into a wring. And inscribed." She read "I promise" on the outside of the ring.
"On the inside, it says "Mike + El forever." He slipped it on her finger.
"Um, El, one more thing?"
She looked up at this perfect guy. She saw another question in his eyes.
"Would you marry me tonight? Right now?"
"Mike, we can't legally marry until we register, sign paperwork at the county clerk office. But we can first thing tomorrow morning."
"We've signed all the paperwork El, that's what took us so long yesterday. I took a gamble and pulled some strings I didn't know I had. The clerks were sneaking but very professional."
"I will Mike, I'll marry you tonight if we can find a Minister." As soon as she said that, and man of the cloth walked up to them.
"Are we ready?"
Mike nodded. "I am."
She was wide-eyed looking at Mike. Tears streaked down her cheeks. "I'm ready. Right now Mike, I want to marry you right now. I've waited almost twenty years for you to ask me."
The ceremony was quick, the song still played, and the entire gym full of kids were solemn, until it was over, then they cheered and the area around them started to fill in with dancing couples.
El moved in closer to put her head on Mike's shoulder.
"Um, El. I should tell you that I don't really want to work. I don't want to spend anymore time away from you."
She pulled back to look at him, "Mike, I can't support both of us on what I make, and we'd be apart anyway, during the day."
"I don't want you to work either. My dad invested a lot of his money into a few companies IBM, Apple, and a new company called Google.. He left it to the rest of the family. I found out today how much my share was...
"...I told you your dad did that. You aren't penniless Mike, but it's not enough for us to stop working."
"About eleven million dollars, El. Neither of us are working again... and..., um, I don't know a lot about how to handle money, so I put it all in your name. All I really want is you."
El's eyes went wide once again. She kept the tears from falling, amazed at what Mike had given up just to be with her. She put her head on his shoulder again, and they continued dancing.
"Uh, El… it took you something like three or four hours to get ready."
"I wanted to be perfect for you Mike."
"Ok, um, uh, well you seemed to have forgotten to put on your underwear."
She pulled back to look at him a glint in her eye. "I didn't forget Mike, it's only me under this dress. I have the perfect place for us to go."
She took his hand and led him out of the gym.
Mike didn't know it yet, but they were headed for the cabin, so they could be alone.
Together. Forever.