Never Say Never

"Stephy!"

What the Hell?

Stephanie woke up, her mind in a haze. Looking up she realised she was in her room. But, she found an extremely tall mofo jumping up and down, trying to wake her up.

"Jimmy!" she whined, "Give me more minutes to sleep!"

"Do you want me to come down there?"

Stephanie cursed. What the Hell did she get herself into befriending Jimmy? Then she smiled, and she wouldn't change their friendship for anything.

"Fine, I'm up! Now, what do you want?"

Jimmy shrugged and plopped down onto the bed. "I unno. I was pretty bored. No one wanted to play so some smart fucker told me to go to you. So I thought 'Yay! Stephanie is quality people!" and I went. But Lexi-poo was out and Momma D. was nowhere and you! Worse of all, you were sleeping. But I lurve you sooooooo much," And Jimmy spead his arms wide open to show just how much he loved her, "So i knew I had to wake you up! Plus, Jimmy's belly go arghhhh!"

Stephanie gave Jimmy a blank stare. Arghhh? She shouldn't be surprised. Really. Then she mentally shrugged.

"Alright child. Let's go make Jimmy belly go 'yum'! How that sound?"

Jimmy kissed Stephanie's cheek sloppily. "I knew there was a reason you were my favourite person!"

"So Steph, what's the keep back with making me an uncle?" Jimmy asked as he swallowed his scrambled eggs. "Just look at you, your kids would definitely be cute."

"Uh, thanks Jim." She rolled her eyes and began to stand.

A warm palm rested on her hand, preventing her from standing up. Stephanie's green eyes met Jimmy's dark ones. Sitting back down she waited for whatever Jimmy wanted to say.

"Stephanie, don't hold back. Marry him, have his children, be happy and live long. Don't wait because of some shit that makes no sense what so ever," Jimmy's voice shook with anger. Stephanie stared at him, shocked to the core Never had she ever seen him so serious, so pissed. "Life is so damned short, don't you understand that? Don't you get that you will only have one chance in this life? Why would you hesitate and give up these special moments with the only person you will ever love?

"There's no telling when you will die so fuck, cherish it! Damn sure there's going to be bad times but the satisfying thing is knowing that it'll all be better."

Life is so damned short, don't you understand that?

Stephanie felt like a fool. How could she be so stupid? She, who prided herself on being he smart one while Tiffany had the beauty. She wanted to hit herself so bad. She wanted to rewind the days she wasted. No, she couldn't.

But she could make it right. Hell, she had no choice.

So she drove to Brian's. Knocking on the door rapidly, she needed for him to answer. She needed him.

The door opened, revealing Brian holding Pinkly under his arm and a cup of cofee in the next. Brian set down Pinkly, and Stephanie watched as the little dog scurried away, embarassed at herself for not changing her clothes, or put on slippers at least. Her cheeks flushed and she mentally slapped herself.

Brian watched her patiently, his warm brown eyes softening at her pretty blush. Did she realise her effect on him? That her very presence uplifts his mood. That he'd do anything for her? He smiled slowly as Steph avoided eye contact, her gaze shifting to his feet. For some reason she was embarassed.

With his free hand, he laid his palm on her cheek and her eyes snapped to his face. Without any effort he pulled her closer to him and kissed her. Nipping her lower lip with his teeth, he ended the kiss and rested his chin on her head while wrapping his arm around her. "Good morning," he said softly, "Now, come, let's go inside."

Stephanie watched as Brian placed his cup on the table. Sitting down he asked, "So, as much as I love that you're here, why are you here so early?"

She was standing, and was pretty damned sure that her anxiety was evident. Clearing her throat, she began, "Well, I'm not sure what to do...and well, everything was played out perfectly in my mind..." Then she kneeled down, looking straight into those pair of brown eyes that she loved. "Brian Haner Jr., I know this isn't normal, but who the Hell cares, will you please marry me?"

Brian almost fell out of his chair. He was that shocked. On her knees before him was the woman he loved, asking him to do the one thing he ever wanted with her. Was he in his own afterlife?

"Wha?" Really and truly that was the only audible thing he could say right now, considering all he wanted to do was kiss his woman and shout to the world that he would be her husband.

A waqve of hurt passed through Stephanie. She knew she was wrong. Who could ever love her? All in all, she shouldn't be disappointed, she knew it would turn out this way. Standing back up she swallowed. "I'm sorry. I knew this was a bad idea. I'll just leav--"

"Don't!" Brian said immediately and pulled her to him. Her head his hands, he sighed. "I'm such a dumb fuck. I didn't mean to make you think I was rejecting you. I would never do that. I would never want you to leave me. Ever."

Tears welled in her eyes. What he was saying was so precious to her, she was hanging to his every word, knowing whatever he would say, can make or break her. And right now, feeling her heart pounding against her chest, she knew hope.

"So, you're saying..." she trailed off, not wanting to say anything for fear of jinxing everything.

Brian let loose a yell of frustration at the beautiful woman. He wanted to strangle her for not thinking herself worthy of this and yet he wanted to hold her close and tell her that she was the most beautiful woman his eyes would ever see.

"Didn't you realise it by now? The answer is yes! It has been yes since I saw you outside your mother's house."

"Really?" she asked.

"Of course you silly woman!"

"Oh..." she said. Her head lay on Brian's chest as he carried her upstairs into his room. "What are you doing?"

Brian growled as he put her on the bed. "I'm going to make love to my fiancee until we're both sore and unable to do anything more than lay on the bed together."

Well, didn't that make her wet.

Brian removed his clothes and jumped onto the bed. Stephanie pushed him away as he went to kiss her.

"Uh, just to clear it up, even though I proposed, you still have to buy me a ring you hear?"