Dad was the only one of them that knew the whole story with Nell. There was no way I was telling Mum. I’d only get my ear chewed off about the correct way to treat a woman – being not to have casual sex with them. Didn’t matter that it was a mutual decision between two adults. It’d be my fault.
“Great,” I replied, trying to stop the aching grin I got when I spoke about her. Or even just thought about her. My colleagues must think I’d lost it the amount of smiling to myself I did.
“That’s good. Not thought about the next step yet? I knew your mum was the one after the first date and soon after got a ring on that finger.”
“Oh, did you?” I asked sarcastically. The amount of times I’d heard that story.
“You’re not too old to put over my knee.”
I’d heard that a lot too.
“Are you proposing to that girl or not?”
Mum and Nell chose that exact moment to walk in the room. My eyes widened. The last time she’d overheard one of my parents saying something stupid it ended badly. Mum looked as worried as I felt, but Nell sat beside me and placed her hand on my chest.
“I doubt he could afford the rock I’ve got my eye on,” Nell said to my dad.
Dad laughed and I felt like I was dreaming. There was no panic in her eyes; she spoke about our engagement so calmly. “What?” I said, looking at her stunned.
Nell smiled. “I’m only joking, I don’t expect a two hundred thousand pound ring.”
I would’ve choked if I wasn’t still so surprised that we were having this discussion. “Um...”
“You’re not freaking out on me, are you?” She asked, smirking.
What? “Have we switched places?”
“Looks like it,” she replied to me and then turned to my dad. “How are you?”
“Much better now there are two beautiful women in the house.”
I rolled my eyes. He was such a charmer, or so he thought.
Nell laughed and poked me in the chest with her thumb. “Uh oh, I think we broke him.”
Broken wasn’t right but I definitely felt…something. Nell even being able to joke about our future, cemented my belief that we could make this work. It eradicated every last niggling worry I had about her doing a runner.
“I’m not broken,” I grumbled.
“Are you scared about the proposal jokes?”
“The opposite.” Don’t propose to her when your parents are watching your every move like a hawk. If we were alone I would’ve blurted it out by now.
Mum made an excited squeaking sound and clenched her fists. She wanted me to get down on one knee, right here, right now. Nell deserved for it to at the very least be in private. God, I wished we weren’t here right now because I knew that she would say yes.
Silence stretched into minutes and Mum, finally accepting that I wasn’t doing it here, got up. “Tea everyone?”
“Coffee for me, please,” I said.
Nell kissed my cheek and stood up. “I’ll give you a hand.”
Dad looked over his shoulder as they walked out. “Look at that, she followed Mum into the kitchen rather than hightailing it out the door.”
“You’re hilarious, Dad.”
“Looks like the only person stopping you popping the question is you.”
“No, I think that was you and Mum. Anyway, there’s no rush, we’ve not been together long.”
Dad looked at me and cocked his head to the side. “Now who’re you fooling? From what you’ve told me you’ve been together a lot longer than that. If you’re sure you’ll make it, then what’re you waiting for? Whether you marry her now or in five years doesn’t change the fact that you’ll grow old and grey together.”
“Lance and Cara should be here to witness you giving good advice.”
“Nothing wrong with my advice, lad.”
If I’d have done half the things he said growing up I probably would’ve been arrested. He was the dad that told me to punch them back until they couldn’t get up and small lies on your tax returns weren’t illegal because the police didn’t have enough resources to arrest and charge everyone that did it.
“I need a ring.”
He cracked the biggest smile I’d seen since I passed my driving test. “That’s the spirit. But don’t ask me to re-mortgage the house to get her that 200k one.”
“Not much chance of that.” My job paid well but not that well. Besides, Nell wouldn’t really care what the thing cost. I was more likely to get shit for it being too expensive.
“You two need to learn to whisper,” Nell said, leaning against the doorframe.
“Shit!” I closed my eyes. There was no chance of this proposal being anything that even resembled romantic now.
She laughed and then bit her lip. I wanted to drag her off upstairs. My old room was still as I’d left it, minus the few boxes of junk that keep finding their way in there. She pushed off the frame and moved aside for mum to get through with the tray of drinks and biscuits.
“Don’t worry. I’ll pretend I know nothing.”
I felt like shit. She could not talk about it all she wanted but we both knew it was going to happen, we both wanted it, so it couldn’t be forgotten. I wouldn’t get to surprise her. It was like knowing what you had for Christmas before the day.
So I decided to do the one thing she wouldn’t now expect, I wasn’t going to ask her to marry me.
Nell