A/N: So...difficult...keeping...them...apart...enjoy!

Day 27

"So when are you going to get back in the dating world?"

Stephanie nearly choked on her iced tea. "Excuse me?"

"The dating world," her friend, Julie, told her. "You know, where a guy meets a girl, they hit it off, they go out, then sex. When are you getting back to that?"

"How can you even ask me that?" Stephanie told her, giving her an incredulous look. "Chris and I haven't even been apart a month, and you are already putting me back into the dating scene. Do you not see anything wrong with this picture?"

"Stephanie, you need to get out there. I'm not going to have you sitting around wasting the rest of your life away because you aren't ready or whatever bullshit you want to spout at me," Julie told her. Stephanie loved her friend dearly, but Julie was far more outgoing than Stephanie was. Plus, her friend had never had a committed relationship.

"I'm not wasting my life away."

"Yes, you are. You wasted nine years of your life on that loser—"

"Okay, stop it right there," Stephanie held her hand up. "We can do this without dragging Chris's name through the mud. That's not what I want, that will not make me happy, so can we cut it with the Chris insults, please?"

"Fine," Julie conceded, "but it's not like he doesn't deserve it. You gave him the best years of your life, and now he goes away just to do his music. That's such crap, Stephanie. I mean, come on, you were always there for him. Remember when his mother died, and you were the one who took care of all the arrangements."

Stephanie shook her head, "Jules, even if we weren't together and we were just friends, I would have done that anyways. That's not a good example."

"Still, you stayed with him for nine years, and he never even not once proposed to you, what's with that? It's like, what, she's not good enough for you, you dillweed."

Stephanie laughed, "That's not true though. He did propose to me, once, a long time ago."

"He what!"

"Do you ever think about marriage?" Chris mused as they sat on the couch catching up on their television shows from the week. He glanced a peek at Stephanie, but she was still staring up at the television.

"I guess, but not specifically I guess you could say."

"What do you mean not specifically?" he asked her.

"I mean, I don't go around picturing our wedding. I mean, I've thought about it, sometimes I'll pass by a wedding gown place, and I'll think, oh, that dress is beautiful, but I guess I never actually picture myself in a wedding gown."

"What would you wear to our wedding?" Chris asked her.

"To our what?" Stephanie chuckled. "Are you really asking what I'd wear to our wedding?"

"Yeah, sure," he nodded. "I mean, would you want traditional, non-traditional, a nudist wedding. I mean, I'm pretty much up for anything at this point, it's really up to you what you want to do."

"Wait, is this a proposal?" Stephanie asked.

"Well, I mean, it's not not a proposal if that's what you mean," he told her. She looked up at him and he was biting his lip. He looked actually serious. They'd been dating for three years, and marriage had come up a couple times, but really, here, now, like this?

"So you are proposing to me?" Stephanie asked.

"I mean, if you want to get married to me, I wouldn't oppose it," he told her, "I just, I mean, we've been together a while and…it seems like the natural progression…"

"Wait, hold up," Stephanie held a hand up, "the natural progression? Chris, nobody said we ever had to get married. There's no law that dictates it. If we want to get married, we will, but not because either of us felt like it was something we had to do. And if it's not something we ever want to do, that's okay too. I think, with something as big as marriage, we both have to be on the same page."

"Wait, you guys were together for nine years, so you were never on the same page, not enough to get married?" Julie asked. "Don't you think that tells you something about your relationship? If neither of you saw marriage then you're definitely ready to date."

"No, it wasn't like that, when we hit the six year mark, it was like everything kind of changed between us," Stephanie told her friend. "I mean, I know that's around the time when were telling people we just didn't feel like getting married, but it's not like that didn't come without a lot of really frank discussion."

"Hey," Stephanie said, flopping down onto the couch face first, her hair falling around her.

"Rough day at the office, honey?" Chris walked in from the kitchen, wiping his hands on a towel.

"With work, no, with family, yes," Stephanie turned over so she could look up at Chris. She groaned, and he lifted his legs so he could sit down. He put her legs on his lap and took off her shoes, rubbing her feet a little bit.

"What did your family do now?"

"Not all of them, just my mother," Stephanie said, "I love her to death, I really do, but if she pressures me into marrying you anymore, I will disown her, and then I will move far, far away, change my name, maybe my gender, who knows."

"What did she say this time?"

"You've been with him for six years," Stephanie imitated her mother's voice. "Don't you think it's time you do the right thing and settle down? God forbid you ever have a child, wouldn't that complicate things?"

"Don't listen to her."

"I normally wouldn't, but she keeps doing this," Stephanie told him. "I just…I don't want the hassle."

"The hassle of…"

"A wedding, marriage, declaring it all to people, paperwork, I like what we are. I don't see why we have to change. I don't see why everyone is trying to force us into something when what we have works, you know?"

"So let's not do it," Chris told her. She lifted her head from the couch and looked at him as if he'd grown another head. She'd always just assumed at some point they would get married. It was the natural progression after all, they just couldn't not get married, it was just…but then again, this was working for them. So why couldn't it work like this forever? "I'm serious."

"I can tell, but do you really think we can?"

"Yes, we can because it's our lives, not theirs," Chris said, "nobody can tell us what to do with our relationship. If we don't want to get married, nobody said we have to get married, and you're right, what we have right now, it's a good thing. I love you, you love me, right?"

"More than anyone," Stephanie answered immediately and without thought. The mere thought of not loving Chris for the rest of her life was not something she ever worried about. She knew Chris was it for her.

"Then what's wrong with what we have now?"

"I don't know, I mean, when you're in love, you get married, right?"

"Yeah, but you don't have to. What is it but a piece of paper binding us legally together, we're already bound together. We've been together for six years, we've lived together for four of those six years, our names are both on the deed to the house, we've built a life together, so what, we don't get married, for all intents and purposes we are. We don't need a ceremony to tell us what we already know."

"But our families?"

"Are not part of us," he told her slowly. "We can tell them we're not getting married, and it's our decision."

"You would do that for me?" Stephanie asked. "I mean, if this is what we both want, I don't feel like I need to marry you, you feel the same?"

"I do," he told her, and she laughed at the irony of those words. "I want to be with you, but we don't need all that in our lives. I just need you, that's it. Nothing else, just you. I could be the poorest man in the world, and if you were with me, I wouldn't feel it at all. That's it, Steph, you and me, that's all."

"What if we have kids?" she wondered. "How does that work?"

"Well, hopefully you'll allow them to have my name—"

"Without a doubt," she interjected.

"Then we raise a kid as a family," he shrugged. "Again, just because we aren't married doesn't mean we wouldn't make great parents."

"Okay, so we're doing this?"

"Yeah, and this doesn't rule out marriage, it's just saying for now and the foreseeable future, we don't need it. It's what we both want," he told her, "now get up here."

Stephanie sat up and crawled into Chris's lap. He wrapped his arms around her and she kissed him, putting all her thanks into that kiss. She knew that he wanted to marry her, and maybe it had even been on the horizon, but he wanted her to be happy. She knew someday marriage would come, but for now, this was right for them. She just wanted her mother off her back. She wanted the time to really want this for herself.

"So why the hell did you guys break up then?" Julie asked. "Seriously, if it this was about his touring, why not just go with it, it's not like he was hurting anyone."

"It's complicated. The band thing was just…it was a thing, and he's gone so much, and it just didn't feel like we were moving forward anymore, it was like we were standing still, and it was frustrating feeling like I was competing with a band for his attention."

"So why didn't you go with him?"

"Um, I don't know, because I help run a company," Stephanie said sarcastically. "I can't just go away and leave my job."

"So you work on the road, you conference in. You know, you could've been their manager or tour manager, I mean, who is better at that kind of stuff than you are? You dealt with booking things for your dad's company, you could have done it with him."

"Why the sudden change in attitude? I thought I was supposed to get out in the dating world!"

"I didn't realize how you two were. I guess I always kind of saw him as the deadbeat in the relationship, like why didn't he put a ring on it, you know what I mean," Julie said, "I had no idea it was kind of on you."

"I told you!"

"I guess I didn't believe it," Julie shrugged. "I mean, you didn't tell me specifics or anything. But if this is really over, we need to get you back out there. No mourning periods. The only thing a mourning period does is make you have broken-up sex with him."

"You say that like that's a bad thing," Stephanie laughed. Chris was good in bed.

"It's not, it's just…when that happens, what happens afterwards, it never ends well. If you get back out there, then you won't fall back into patterns, and if you're serious about moving forward, then this is how you do it."

"So what do I do, do I go on a dating website, let you and my other friends set me up with guys, what do I do now? I don't know how to date. I don't know how to do anything that doesn't involve being with Chris."

"Well, you met Chris at work, look for someone else at work."

"What? Are you kidding me? There's nobody I want there."

"Have you looked?"

"I know I've never been attracted to anyone else," Stephanie said, "I've never even really looked at any other guys over there. I don't think I'm into anyone there."

"You never let yourself look before," Julie told her. "You were with Chris, you loved him so you didn't have reason. But now you do, let yourself look around, see if there's anything you like, you might be surprised, just look around."

Stephanie knew she had nothing to lose. She did need to move on, and it would be convenient. She didn't think she was ready to start dating yet, but it wouldn't hurt to flirt at least. She could definitely flirt. Flirting never hurt anyone and she and Chris both flirt when they were together. But what if her soulmate was there, right under her nose, and she never saw it. What would that make her relationship with Chris? Ultimately wrong? She was upset over that, but she couldn't live under a rock for the rest of her life. She was still young, and she still had a lot to offer.

"Okay, I'll look around."