My Heart Is Yours

Surprisingly enough, we wound up at a pretty nice restaurant. That was a total lie, but that didn’t matter much. It was nicer than Subway and that’s all that mattered. We didn’t have to go that far from where the bus was parked to find it, either. Which was good. It was this little diner place appropriately named “Denver Diner.” Creative kids here in Denver, weren’t they?

But hey, Wednesday had pretty much grown up here in Denver and look at how she turned out? She was amazing.

We managed to hit the diner up at a time that not many people were there, so we managed to get a table away from everyone else. And I was kind of glad that none of the waitresses or anyone in the place recognized me because this whole thing really needed to be a more…intimate thing…

Especially considering the reason I’d brought her out here in the first place…

My phone buzzed in my pocket and I sighed, pausing in looking down at the menu choices to pull my phone out and see that I got a text message from Craig.

Maxie-boy ;;
Dude!
Are you asking her tonight!?
Is that why both of you disappeared?
;; Craigafer

I sighed and looked up at Wendy nervously, who was completely immersed in the menu in front of her and trying to decide what she wanted to notice my nervous glances every few minutes.

Craig ;;
Yes, that would be why…
Shut up and leave me alone, man.
You’re making me more nervous
Than I was to begin with. ]:
;; Max

I stuffed my phone back into my pocket and looked back up at my girlfriend to find her nose still buried into the menu. I smirked and then looked down at the laminated pieces of paper in front of me. God…now to just stop thinking about how I was going to ask the love of my life the question that was either going to completely kill me or make me pretty much the luckiest and happiest human being in the fucking universe. I also kind of needed to figure out what I wanted to eat before the waitress came back to our table…

Right…

“What’re you thinking of getting, Maxie?” Wednesday’s sweet voice asked, making me pull my eyes up from the menu to meet hers. She smiled at me and her eyes sparkled again. God she was beautiful. And I was turning into lovey-dovey gush-filled…loser. Oh well. It was okay to be a lovey-dovey gush-filled loser when I was with my girlfriend. Right? Right.

I shrugged, not really sure what to say or if I wanted to find my voice anyway. She smiled back and then looked down at the menu in front of her again.

“I don’t know, either…” she mused, bringing her lower lip into her mouth and chewing on it lightly. I sighed, opening my mouth to say something - what I wasn’t sure. I realized that I had nothing to say because the entirety of my thoughts were encompassed on the question that I wanted to ask but was terrified to, so I shut my mouth pretty quickly.

With a sigh, I ran a hand through my hair and stared back down at the menu. A light clicking of heels on the tiled floor interrupted the silence between Wendy and I and I looked up to see our waitress - a middle-aged woman with short curled hair and square-framed glasses - walking towards us. I smiled briefly before I looked over at my girlfriend, nerves sparkling up pretty damn quickly for me.

I was kinda-sorta wishing that dinner would drag on forever so that I could think a little more. Then again, I wanted dinner to hurry up and be over with already so that I could just get it done already. Which, theoretically, I could do, but at the same time, it wasn’t what I wanted to do…

So I was pretty much in a lose-lose situation with that one there…

Damn my life…

Wendy and I both ordered. I just picked some random burger that sounded kind of good and went with it, having not paid enough attention on the menu to really give a damn about what I was getting to eat.

And half an hour later, Wendy and I were making our way back to the bus slowly and in silence. Mainly because I couldn’t think of anything good to say and I was still completely…blank for anything other than what was going to either happen tonight or in a week when we got back to Vegas. Which, I’d much rather it happen tonight…

“That was really nice, Max. Thanks for that. It was nice to have an actual “date” for once,” Wendy said, looking up at me from beneath the arm that I had wrapped around her shoulders. I grinned down at her and nodded, kissing her temple before I responded.

“It was nice. We’ll have to do it more often if we can.”

“Mhmm…” And then we fell into silence once again.

We were almost to where the bus had been parked when Wednesday stopped and moved to stand in front me, her hands lightly on my chest as she looked up at me with a slightly worried expression on her face. “Is everything okay, Max?” she asked, I nodded, smiling at her before wrapping my arms around her once more.

“Everything’s perfectly fine, Wednesday.”

“You promise?”

“I swear… I’ve got you, what could be better than this?” Well alright. So I could totally think of something that would be better than what I had right now. Having her forever and ever would make my life absolutely perfect, but whatever… I took a deep breath and stepped away, grabbing her left hand and bringing it up to my mouth to kiss her fingertips lightly.

Beneath the dim light that the moon and stars shed on her, combined with the far-off street lights, I could see a hint of a blush on her cheeks. I lowered her hand and then looked down at our hands clasped together. Like they always should have been and, I hoped, always would be. With a deep breath, I chanced a look up into her eyes. She was watching me quietly, probably wondering what I was thinking. I’d realized that she tended to do that a lot. Think about what I was thinking about. Or other people were thinking about, for that matter.

Another deep breath and I smiled at her softly. We were currently the only ones on this street, except for the rare car driving by every now and again. ‘Now or never, Maxwell…’ I told myself as I moved her left hand into my right hand and stuffed my left hand into my pocket.

Wednesday was looking at me suspiciously for a minute as I fumbled around to grab the damn box and clasp it firmly in my hand.

Now or never was right. I was probably never going to get another, more perfect chance than this one. Sure, we could have been in a much more romantic environment for this, but whatever. What was there to do about it now? Nothing at all.

Another deep breath later and I looked into Wendy’s pretty sage eyes. They held curiosity and all the love in the world in them. And that was all I needed to prompt me to swallow that bundle of nerves in my throat and take yet another deep breath before speaking again before she could get another word out.

“Look, Wendy… I don’t know how to do this… Um…” I looked into her eyes as I spoke and I almost started freaking out as I caught a spark of fear in them. Oh great. Way to go, Max. Pretty damn sure that I had just made her think I was breaking up with her, I began to stutter over words to make things right again and to keep her from crying or freaking out on me. “I…I mean, I’ve never had to do…this ever before and…well… Fuck.”

I sighed, getting frustrated with myself. Great. It would figure that the single most important moment in my life would end up with me turning into a complete and total awkward dumbass. Go me.

I sighed and looked down at the ground, furrowing my brow in frustration before I paused for a few seconds. I saw something wet hit the ground and, since it wasn’t raining, I figured that I had just made my girl cry. Awesome. This night was just going so perfectly right now, wasn’t it?

Alright. Now or never…

I sunk down onto my knees, kneeling in front of her with both knees on the ground, holding her left hand in my right, holding it in front of my face as I looked up at her. She looked confused for a moment. Until I pulled the box out of my pocket and she lifted her free hand up to cover her mouth, tears still falling over her cheeks softly.

“Please don’t cry, Wendy. Please? I just…I’m sorry I’m a jerk and I’m sorry I’ve fucked up a lot with you but… You’re the only person on the face of this damn planet that puts up with my shit. Other than Craig, but he doesn’t count. I don’t think I would be able to live a minute without you if I had to. You like…seriously saved me from fucking up my life more than I already had. I just…” Oh great. Now I was starting to tear up. This could not be happening. Maxwell Fucking Green did not cry.

“We have a gorgeous daughter together and I could not be happier right now and I just…I want to be the best dad to her ever, and…” I paused, taking a deep breath as I prepared to take the plunge into the abyss of no return. “I want to be the best husband to you ever.” I dropped her hand to hold the little box higher, opening it a little nervously and holding my breath. “Marry me?”