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Charlie leaned over and pressed a kiss to Nick’s head, resting heavy on his shoulder, as the nature documentary they had been watching ended. Charlie was usually the one to fall asleep when they watched things, but Nick had had a brutal week at school and was exhausted.
Charlie turned off the telly and gently shook Nick’s arm to wake him.
“Hmmph?” Nick grumbled incoherently.
“Hey, baby, it’s time for bed,” Charlie whispered and kissed his head again.
“Guess I fell asleep?” Nick asked unnecessarily. "Sorry."
“No s-word, you need your rest. Why don’t you head up and I’ll come join you after I tidy up?” Charlie suggested.
Nick hummed in agreement before getting slowly to his feet. Charlie stood and gave him a gentle kiss before Nick rambled up the stairs to get ready for bed.
Charlie picked up the dishes and extra snack bags from the living room and put everything away in the kitchen. The front door locked and the lights turned out, he headed upstairs. By the time he had taken care of his bedtime routine, he found Nick sound asleep in bed, lightly snoring.
He didn’t feel particularly sleepy himself, so he decided to take advantage of the situation to do a little sneaky planning.
He powered up his laptop in the home office and opened his secret spreadsheet. In addition to password protection, he had titled it “Tao’s ranking of Cannes Film Festival winners 1990-2000” so that Nick would have no interest in ever opening it.
Charlie had always used lists and spreadsheets to organize his thoughts and weigh his options. He and Nick had shared one when Nick took a gap year and they were deciding on uni together. They’d had others before moving to each new home, to decide their budget and deal breaker criteria. They had a current one going, as they worked out when they could afford to buy their own home.
But this one…this one was special and for his eyes only. It was his “is it time to propose?” spreadsheet, which he’d started all the way back in uni.
They had talked about getting married plenty of times, but always in the abstract. They were four years out of uni now, with solid jobs and a decade of relationship experience. They were just as compatible as they ever were. It was probably a no-brainer that they were ready to be engaged by now, but Charlie couldn’t help himself from analyzing the data objectively. In his heart, he'd been married to Nick for years already.
He reviewed his rows and columns, calculating things like income, budget, relationship milestones, and the status of their plans for the future.
His favorite part, however, was the tracking on Nick’s level of sappiness. If he was going to get a jump on his soft, gooey cinnamon roll of a boyfriend, he couldn’t let Nick’s romantic sentimentality get out of hand! Charlie was sure that if Nick was planning to propose, he'd inevitably get extra sappy ahead of time. Nick couldn't hide anything from Charlie!
He made a few more data entries and notations that probably made no sense to anyone but him. He’d been on the edge for awhile now, but tonight, he finally felt himself settle.
It was time.
He opened the tab where he’d been researching rings and reviewed his ratings. He’d pretty much narrowed it down to two, which were tied in his rankings. He pulled up the photos and put them side by side on his monitor, staring back and forth. He really did like them both and he knew Nick would, too.
He closed his eyes and pictured the scene. They would be somewhere outside in the sunshine. He saw himself down on one knee, holding Nick’s hand while pulling the ring from his pocket with the other hand. When he held the ring out to imaginary Nick, he saw that it was the rose gold ring with etched leaves in his hand.
He turned it over in his mind for a few minutes, opened the link and clicked ‘Add to cart’.
🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂
Two weeks later, the ring having been secured from Tori, where he’d had it mailed, they were discussing what to do on the coming weekend. They threw out a few ideas until Charlie suggested the beach, being as nonchalant as he could manage. It wasn’t a rare outing for the couple and Daisy absolutely loved the beach. The weather was supposed to be nice, so they easily agreed.
A few days later, Daisy ran and jumped and barked at the waves as they laid out a blanket on the sand. They spent some time throwing the ball for their energetic pup and laughing at her silly antics. It was a beautiful day, in one of their favorite places, and their smiles were wide and constant.
Eventually, they settled on the blanket and started unpacking their picnic lunch. Although Nick liked to go overboard with this sort of thing on occasion, they had kept it simple today - sandwiches, cut fruit and cans of Fanta.
Charlie was getting everything laid out, including a dish of kibble for Daisy, when Nick cleared his throat.
“Charlie…” Nick said, his voice cracking slightly.
When Charlie looked up, he was stunned to see Nick on one bent knee in front of him, holding a small velvet box.
“Nick! What are you-” Charlie started to ask, but Nick interrupted him.
“We’ve been together a long time and there’s no doubt in my mind that we are for forever,” Nick started, his eyes already fully welled with tears. “I want to spend the rest of my life-”
“No! Nope, no, no, no,” Charlie said, shaking his head vigorously. “This is not how this is supposed to go! I even had a spreadsheet. You weren't extra sappy at all!”
Nick looked shocked, not in a good way, and very confused. A tear fell down his cheek and Charlie almost died at how heartbroken he looked.
“Oh god! Nick, baby, that came out so wrong!” Charlie quickly said, grabbing Nick’s hand that wasn’t holding the ring box. “Just, gimme a sec–”
Charlie desperately dug in his pocket until he found the small velvet drawstring bag he’d slipped in his pocket that morning.
Charlie slid the ring out of the pouch out of his palm and held it out for Nick to see.
“I was going to propose to you after we finished eating!” he cried.
Nick’s jaw dropped, still trembling a little.
“I’m so sorry for how that sounded, you just surprised me and threw me off by jumping in ahead of me!” Charlie apologized.
Nick took a deep breath and sighed, saying “Oh, OK. You scared the fuck out of me!”
They looked deeply into each other’s eyes, then Nick’s lips started twitching. He pulled them together tightly, trying not to laugh, but the giggle was unstoppable. Once Nick started laughing, so did Charlie, who toppled over into Nick, taking them both down in a happy heap.
Daisy thought they were having a happy cuddle pile without her. She barked and jumped on top of them, spraying sand all over their lunch.
That made them laugh even more and they rolled around together, full of joy, for several minutes.
Eventually, they calmed down and lay side by side, grinning at each other.
“Can I finish what I was trying to say and then you can have your turn?” Nick asked.
Charlie just nodded, smiling too big to even talk. He sat up and Nick resumed his kneeling position.
“As I was saying,” Nick teased, “I want to spend the rest of my life with you, falling asleep together and waking up in your arms every single day. My life is so much better because I met you, my love. Will you marry me?”
Charlie grinned at the callback to the early days of their relationship, the day in the Truham hallway that changed everything.
“Of course, I will, baby!” was Charlie’s enthusiastic response, as Nick beamed and slid the ring on his finger. It was a dark metal with a groove of silver through the middle. It was beautiful and suited him so well.
Nick kissed him firmly, then indicated it was Charlie’s turn as he sat. Charlie got up on one knee and took one of Nick's hands.
“Nick, I am the luckiest man alive to have you as my partner for the last decade.” Charlie had to pause to sniffle a little. “Meeting you was the best thing that has ever happened or will ever happen to me. I am thankful every single day for your love and companionship and support. I adore everything about you.”
Now Nick was sniffling. Charlie reached over and wiped the tears from his cheeks.
“Will you be my husband and make me the happiest man in the world?” Charlie finished.
“Of course I will!” Nick exclaimed and his hand was shaking so much, Charlie had to hold it steady to get the ring on his finger. Nick examined the ring with a dreamy, besotted look on his face.
"I just want it on the record that I proposed first," Nick stated.
"I was going to propose too!" Charlie objected, "you just beat me to it by a few minutes.
"Hey, you suggested we kiss and said "I love you" first," Nick replied. "At least let me have this one!"
"Fine," Charlie grumbled playfully. "I guess I can't win every time."
Nick grinned and without another word, he stood and pulled Charlie up with him. Before Charlie could object, Nick lifted him up in a bridal carry and ran down towards the ocean.
Charlie knew what he was about to do and yelled, “Stop right there, mister!”
Nick did and looked at Charlie with with his head cocked to the side, like the golden retriever he was.
Charlie giggled and said, “You can yell to the ocean that we’re fiancees, if you must, but please don’t get your shoes wet again!”
Nick burst out laughing and had to set Charlie down before he dropped him. Charlie was laughing too, and now Daisy was barking and trying to jump up on them in turns.
“Thank you for the reminder, darling,” Nick said, and kissed him through his continued laughter. “That was a very romantic gesture back then, but it sure made for an uncomfortable ride home on the train.”
They hugged tightly, giggles subsiding, and they swayed back and forth held in each other’s arms, soaking in the love.
“I love you so much, Char,” Nick murmured into Charlie’s ear.
“I love you, too, baby,” Charlie returned, laying a gentle kiss on his beloved’s neck. “You know what this means, right?”
“What? That we’re going to get married?” Nick brow was furrowed as he stated the obvious.
“No!” Charlie said in glee. “Well, yes, but we'll need a wedding planning spreadsheet!”
Nick just shook his head fondly, grabbed Charlie’s hand and headed back to their (sandy) abandoned picnic. He expected nothing less from his beloved gay nerd.
"So tell me about this spreadsheet you had about proposing," Nick asked with a knowing smile. "What did you mean about my sappiness level, anyway?"