You Should Know

“Ah, she decided to join us!” Gabe said sarcastically as Emily walked in and joined our group.

“I missed Diego, Nora and Michael, what can I say?” She teased as she took off her coat and sat down next to my mother.

“What are you getting?” I asked Gabe as I scanned my menu.

“I’m not getting anything different than usual,” He smiled at me.

“Eggplant parmesan. I think I’m gonna get that too,” I set my menu down. This was one of Gabe’s favorite restaurants and it was phenomenal and slowly becoming my favorite as well. We’ve probably had dinner or brunch here about four times since he’s been home.

“Good choice,” Gabe smiled and put his hand on my knee. I smiled back at him.

We ordered our food and I was so nervous. I wanted to know what he was up to. I didn’t want to assume anything, but I was really hoping that he was going to ask me to marry him. It’d be a little soon, for sure, but at the same time it wasn’t. I was in love with him and was really hopeful that that’s why everyone was here tonight.

“How’s everyone’s meal?” Gabe asked.

“Delicious!” My father said sipping his wine. My mother nodded furiously with a smile in response.

“Great, so now that we’re all together,” Gabe started and my heart raced. “I already talked to your family and got permission,” My parents smiled and nodded. “And my dad loves you and I of course love you,” He reached into his pocket and I knew there was this huge smile on my face, but I was ready. “I want you to move in with me,” He put a box in front of me and opened it. He had put my set of keys on a Tiffany’s key ring. I felt my heart drop.

“Oh wow,” I said trying to bring myself back up and not sound too disappointed. “I would love to,” I smiled and leaned in to give Gabe a kiss.

“Good, because I already rented out your apartment and they’re moving your stuff to my apartment as we speak,” He kissed me again.

“You rented out my apartment? What if I said ‘no,’ where would I have lived?” I laughed.

“It would have forced you to live with me, obviously,” He winked.

“Wow, congratulations!” Emily said with a look of confusion on her face.

“Thanks!” I said forced a smile.

“It’s a new start for us.”

“I’m ready for a new start with us,” I was feeling better at least it seemed as if we were moving in the right direction.

We finished up our meal and my parent’s and Gabe’s father decided to go to the hotel bar for a bit. Emily left to meet up with some friends. Gabe and I walked hand in hand back to his, our, apartment.

“I love you,” I said holding his hand tighter as we walked.

“I love you too. I’m glad you wanted to live with me.”

“Of course I’d want to live with you,” I laughed a bit.

“I want to make this work and I want to take the time on us,” Gabe let go of my hand and put his arm around my shoulders.

“I definitely want to make this work too,” I leaned into him as we got back to our place.

“Where’s all my stuff?” I asked as we walked into the place.

“Okay, so it’s here, but I had them move it downstairs into a storage unit while you were up here all day,” He shut the door behind us.

“You are very crafty, sir,” I said sarcastically and threw my coat in the closet and then threw myself on the couch.

“I try, gotta keep things exciting, you know?” He came over and jumped on top of me.

“Yummy, eggplant parm breath,” I teased as he got closer to kiss me.

“Don’t we cancel each other out?”

“I’ll have to see to find out,” I said waiting for him to kiss me.

“So?” He whispered.

“I think I need another to actually make a decision,” I kissed him again.

“Now?”

“I think you should take your shirt off, that’s really hindering my decision,” I laughed.

Gabe sat up and took my hand. He pulled me to the bedroom. I was excited about living with him, I guess that was the first step before an engagement. To see how we lived together, since we hadn’t before. We had barely been in the state when we were together. So, slow is good. It doesn’t mean I wasn’t disappointed that there was no proposal, but this was definitely a good step.