I ironed my outfit, combed my hair, then snapped a picture in front of the mirror for Lilith. #Cleansupnicely I wrote in the message, then shoved my phone in my pocket and ran downstairs.
I sat in the backseat while Franklin and Rory drove me across the neighborhood, the car bouncing up and down the hilly streets. Rory was considering organizing a film series at the college, and I had been helping him figure out which of the old movies he’d shown me would be most exciting for his students.
“Ben Hur,” I said. “For sure, that shit is classic.”
“This shit is classic,” Franklin repeated, sweeping his hand through the air. “Put it on the poster!”
Franklin and I teased each other and joked around as Rory drove. We got to the spot, a little Italian joint I’d never been to before. Like they said, it was nothing fancy, but for some reason, I was getting a feeling that this was more than a regular date.
I rushed ahead to hold the door open for them, earning an approving nod from Rory that sent tingles through my gut. The waiter led us inside, setting us up with a little booth along the back wall and a bottle of red wine. Franklin and Rory kept exchanging glances. It took me a second, but finally, I was able to read between the lines.
“Oh hey!” I said. “Is this the restaurant where you went on your first real date?”
Franklin nodded, dropping his napkin to his lap. “I still insist that watching The Matrix was our first date, but you’re right.”
Rory shrugged. “I’m a bit more traditional, I suppose. I think you have to leave the apartment for it be a date.”
“Well, I did leave my apartment…” Franklin pointed out.
I laughed, then leaned back in my chair. “It’s cute. But why’d you want to take me here now?”
They exchanged another glance, then turned back. “We were going to save this until after dinner…”
I leaned forward, then arched an eyebrow. All of a sudden, the illusion that this was a normal date night disappeared, and my heart pounded with the recognition that something more was about to happen.
“Here,” Franklin said, rummaging in his pocket and then holding out a fist.
“And here,” Rory added, doing the same.
I stared at their two hands, clenched into fists and hovering over the table. They each wore matching silver rings. Dark hair grew on the backs of Rory’s knuckles, and Franklin’s thumb rubbed a nervous circle against his finger.
“What’s this?”
“Two gifts,” Rory said.
“You get both,” Franklin clarified. “You just get to pick first.”
My eyes got wide as I glanced between their hands, and a low moan came from deep in my chest. “Two gifts?” I muttered. “How’d I get to be so lucky?”
Without debating it any longer in my head, I thrust my finger at Franklin’s hand. “This one!”
“Excellent choice,” Franklin said. He turned his hand slowly, then uncurled his fingers, one at a time. When his palm was exposed, I sucked in a sharp breath.
“Keys?”
“House keys,” Rory confirmed.
My mind shot back to the morning and the questions Ava had asked me over sugar coffee. Of course she had started poking. The guys must have made this decision with her, so she already knew what was coming, and Ava was as bad at keeping secrets as Franklin was, we’d all learned.
“You want me to move in?”
“If sharing one big room is too cramped,” Franklin said quickly, “we have some other ideas, too.”
“I could clean out the office,” Rory said with a nod. “I have plenty of space on campus.”
“Or you’re welcome with us, naturally,” Franklin said. “Considering you sleep there most nights anyway.”
“House keys,” I said again, my heart singing.
Franklin shrugged. “Might as well make it easier for our boy to come home,” he said with a smile.
I grinned. “Guys, that sounds amazing.”
“We know you wanted to make it on your own first…” Rory added.
I shook my head. “I’ve proven what I need to prove to myself. Anyway, none of us are alone. We’re a family, right?”
“Exactly,” Rory said with a confident nod.
I took in a deep breath, then blew it out slowly, shaking my head with a smile. “Hell yeah. Let’s move me in!”
The guys laughed, and Rory poured everyone a splash of wine for a toast. We raised our glasses, but I held my hand out when I realized something.
“What about the other gift?” I asked.
“That,” Franklin answered, “is for after desert.”
“I can’t believe you blindfolded me for this part,” I said as they led me forward on wobbly footsteps. I heard them whispering to someone else, and then something dinged before the floor started to shift beneath me.
I grunted and realized we were probably in an elevator.
“Believe it,” Franklin said, then leaned close to my ear for a whisper. “Although it’s hardly the first time we’ve blindfolded you.”
The floor buzzed under my feet, and Rory and Franklin each grabbed one of my hands, steadying me. I kept grinning like a fool, different ideas for where we might be going flashing through my mind, including one that I was scared to believe.
When the sound dinged above our heads again, they led me forward. I heard wind and the sound of voices, like there was a crowd around us. And then I felt a hand at the back of my head, and the blindfold fell away.
I blinked as I looked on Seattle and Lake Washington, spreading in the distance beneath us. The sky was dark, and the city shone with a million lights, from the cars passing below and the towering skyscrapers to the small boats, dotting the water.
“Space Needle,” I said with a grin. “I knew it.”
Rory turned my head to face him and captured me in his stare. His brown eyes were warm and clear, and the rest of the world disappeared around me as he squeezed my hand and Franklin stroked the back of my head.
“You’re so good to us, Asher,” Rory said. “You’re nothing like what we’ve ever looked for or ever expected in this life, but you are exactly who we needed.”
“These past two years have been amazing,” Franklin said. “And we want to show you that our commitment is serious.”
“That it’s real,” Rory added.
I gasped. If I wasn’t being held by them so carefully, I might have fallen over, suddenly so dizzy I almost forgot where I was.
Rory held out his fist, and when I tapped it, he and Franklin both dropped to one knee. Rory opened his hand and offered me a silver ring.
“Will you marry us, Asher?” Franklin asked.
“Be ours forever?” Rory added.
Tears burned at the corners of my eyes. I sucked in a ragged breath. “Yes, anything,” I said. “Yes.”
Some people started clapping around us, and Rory and Franklin stood. Rory placed the ring on my finger, then both pulled me in for a kiss. I felt their hands all over my body as I whispered into their mouths, against their ears, and into their beards. “I love you, thank you. I love you.
“I’m yours,” I said. “I’ll always be yours.”