Page 29 of Whirlwind

Julio stood up abruptly and Taylor trailed off. Was he leaving? No he was… he was…

He was getting down on one knee. He was… no, that wasn’t possible.

Julio pulled Taylor’s larger hands into his. “Baby, I am talking about forever. And I’m sorry if I didn’t make that clear to you earlier. I have been waiting to make you mine since that first day on the school bus when you sat down next to me, all shy and adorable. You are my best friend and the love of my life.”

Taylor was stunned. This just couldn’t…. He had to be dreaming.

Julio reached one slender hand into his back pocket and came back with something shiny. “This was my grandmother’s wedding ring. My grandfather passed it on to me before he died.” That had been a few years after they met. Julio had been devastated.

“He actually… when he gave it to me, he made sure to say that I should give it to the right person. I kind of think he already knew that I wanted to give it to you. It won’t fit you until we resize it, but I didn't want to wait. So, for tonight, I got you a chain to wear it on, if you’ll accept it.”

“But, but… Julio, we’ve only been dating for two days. What if you change your mind?”

“My love, we have been together for ten years. You just wouldn’t acknowledge it until two days ago.

“We spend five evenings a week together after spending all day working together. We keep our clothes at each other’s houses, though I’m hoping to persuade you to move in with me so that we can spend all seven nights together.

“Believe me, if I were going to change my mind, I would have done it a long time ago.”

“I… really? You think we’ve been together all this time?”

Julio just raised an eyebrow. Well, when he put it that way it sort of made sense. Which was just… crazy. Magically, beautifully crazy.

Taylor’s mind reeled, trying to fly through ten years of memories and reimagine them with Julio in love with him.

So many little things made sense now, and his chest filled with a bursting joy.

Except if they’d been together all this time… “And it would just be you and me? Like, we’d be monogamous?”

“Yes, love. There is no one I would rather be with. You are it for me.”

Julio paused thoughtfully. “Though, if your kinks run that way, I could probably arrange some group scenes for us to participate in together…”

Taylor felt himself blushing. He wanted to say that it was gross or weird, and definitely not what you were supposed to say in the middle of a marriage proposal. But if Julio set it up and guided him through it…

He knew that he could say no, but he ended up giving Julio a little nod instead.

He was such a pervert, and somehow Julio wanted him for it.

The nod brought a smile to Julio’s lips. “Now, Taylor Christopher Evans, will you marry me?”

There was only one possible answer.

But he still needed to give Julio a hard time. “On one condition.”

Julio’s eyebrows drew in and a flash of fear crossed his face. Was he really that worried?

He didn’t hesitate in his response, though. “Anything.”

“Don’t you even want to know what the condition is?” Taylor teased.

Julio shook his head, looking deeply into Taylor’s eyes. He gave a little smile, but his shoulders were still tight.

“Don’t ever use Grindr again. That was really horrible.”

Julio threw back his head and their laughter rang out across the restaurant.