"It's been almost two months Moose. Are you sure that you are going to do it?" Luke sighed in the receiver wondering what was taken his friend so long. It was the same conversation they had been having for the last couple of weeks when Moose called him to tell him that he was finally going to propose to Cam he couldn't be happier for his friends. However, the next day when he called to congratulate the couple he was soon informed by his friend in a hushed tone that he hadn't popped the question yet.
Moose sighed for the hundredth time since the beginning of the conversation; he was well aware that everything Luke was saying wasn't mean spirited but he was tired of hearing his friend ask him about the same topic every time they talk. "I know how long it's been, but I need to ask her at the right time. Cam is not going to have a dumb story about my proposal ok? I've done enough dumb things in the past, so I want her to have a great story about this moment." Saying goodbye he hang up the phone and continue with his day trying to move on with his day.
The day he had called Luke to tell him about his decision to finally propose to Cam he had gone back home ready to get down on one knee and finally make her his fiancé. However, when he came into their apartment, he didn't hear any noise, instead of calling her name he walked towards their room and saw his girlfriend already asleep on their bed. Part of him realized that a sense of relief wash over him, although the reason wasn't clear for him at this point. Was it because he was happy that the fact that she was already sleeping didn't force him to honor his promise, although it was just to himself, to asked her to marry him or was he just happy to see her back at their home.
Moose stared at her for a moment a smile on his lips thinking of the activities that surely had made her girlfriend so tired that she didn't even manage to clean the room she was now sleeping in. With that last thought in mind, he started picking up things and soon enough the bedroom was clean, and he moved to the bathroom. A couple of hours later the apartment was spotless, and he was getting back from the laundromat with their clean clothes to find that Cam was still sleeping, so that gave him the idea of starting dinner and made it special with candles.
To his bad luck, his mind wasn't on what he was doing so in the middle of making a romantic meal for his future fiancé, loving the sound of that, he space out and the next thing he knew the fire alarm started sounding. It took him a couple of minutes to shut it down, and before he could even wonder if the noise had wakened Cam up the girl appeared with a concerned expression before him asking him if he was ok, and he felt better having her back with him. Moose and Cam clean the kitchen again and spend the rest of the night cuddling and talking about how awful they had felt when they were apart.
Each day he would plan something special he wanted to do for Cam but with every situation not going his way and sometimes not going as well or perfect as he wanted his mind started playing games with him. Dinners would burn so many times that Cam was starting to get mad at him for messing with their apartment, so he changed tactics and asked her to dinner out just to be stood up because of the amount of work she was having at this time. After the third time that happened, he decided that it wasn't a good idea because each night he would go back to the apartment and ignore Cam when she made it there. Sure she did call, and usually, she would tell him from the moment he invited her to the restaurant that she was not going to be able to make it, but he would just insist until she agreed to at least try, but the end of the night the same scene repeat itself taking it's toll on them.
"I told you I was not going to make it. I don't know why you keep trying to push this when you know I don't have time to go out right now. Of course, now you are mad at me because you had to wait in the restaurant until I called you but I told you in the morning that I was not going to be able to make it. " Cam told him when she arrived at their apartment later one night when once again she had to call him telling him she was not going to make it to the restaurant. She seemed tired and upset about the entire situation which was the common factor in their current argument. Cam went to bed that night telling him that she was sorry about not been able to make it to their dates lately but he was not making things easy for her, just before getting into bed, he saw her cleaning some unshed tears from her eyes.
Moose was mad but not at Cam but at himself; he was pushing the situation to the point that he was creating problems between them. When she had called him at the restaurant earlier that evening he had again told his plan to the waitress, the poor girl was now as invested as him in the proposal by now she knew her role by heart; he had told Cam that he could wait, but she told him no and hung up. The waitress came knowing by now that the proposal was a no-go and she gave him the ring back and told him that she was going to bring him a piece of chocolate cake. He had to smiled at her effort to make him feel better, and when she came back with the cake and some liquor informing him that it was on the house, he chuckled sadly thanking her for such kind gesture.
He spent some time at a restaurant trying to get himself together; he was overwhelmed but a mix of feelings that rank from mad to relief, Was he rushing the situation? The universe was trying to tell him that they were not ready or that he at least was not ready for what he was planning to do. So after that, Moose went back home took his suit off and put it on the back of the closet, so he didn't have to see it for a while. It was time to listen to the universe with that thought he went to the kitchen to drink something before going to bed but at the end he decided to stayed up and read something in the living room waiting for her. A couple of hours later Cam came announcing that once again he was making the situation worse for both of them and went straight to bed not giving him a chance to say anything, not that he had anything to say because she was right.
That night while he lay on the couch he decided that if the opportunity presented itself and he felt right with it at that moment , he would ask her but he was not going to pushed the situation like he had been doing. Now that did not mean that it was not going to be freaking awesome because hello he is Moose and she is Cam, and they were way too cool to have an average proposal. The next morning he woke up early, prepared a beautiful breakfast for her and proceed to put it in to-go containers for Cam to be able to take them to work. Moose proceeded to wake up his girlfriend with kisses all over her face making her smile, he apologized for making her feel bad, Cam tried to excuse herself for not making their dates, but he stopped her.
"Hey, you told me that you were not going to be able to make it and I insist, so it's on me ok? But I do appreciate that you are trying to share some of the responsibility. Now I give you a choice you can either wake up early, and I can walk you to work so you can have an extra hour before everyone shows up or you can stay in bed with me having some quality time." Moose said the last part in his best seductive voice while making little circles in her expose skin. Cam blushed a little and raised an eyebrow at him "Quality time you say? Well, how can I say no to that."
That day Cam made it to work half and hour late, but with a huge smile on her face a big appetite which helped her disappeared that beautiful breakfast Moose had packed for her that morning. The morning flew by, and she soon found herself in a meeting that led to another, and her brain started to feel tired, Cam found herself wishing that she could go back to her early morning when she was with Moose in their home, and everything was alright and nothing else existed. Suddenly, Cam wondered if maybe Moose was having a bad time at work and that was why he had been trying to make something special for them, and she felt so bad for not making more of an effort for him and her to have some time for them.
Quickly Cam made a mental note to plan something nice for them to do together and away from the city and their friends, they needed some time for themselves luckily with lots of repeats of the quality time they had that morning. The rest of the day, however, proof that to have time for something special with her boyfriend was not going to be easy. At eight o'clock she put some things away and was ready to go back to check some articles that were supposed to run on the next issue of the magazine when she caught a glimpse of a photo that was half buried in the mountain of papers that invaded her desk at all hours now. She paused and made a point to clear a corner to put the picture back up, and she soon was smiling back at a photo of Moose and her smiling from when they were celebrating their first month together.
Looking back at a number of papers on her desk Cam wished she could make them disappeared so she could go back to her home with Moose. With a defeated sighed she sat on her chair and started attacking one article at the time by the time she was half way in her eyes starting closing and soon she was asleep. Moose found her several hours later; he was so worried that something had happened to her when she didn't come home the night before and wasn't picking up her phone either. Founding her asleep on her desk with a little pool of drool coming out of her mouth was one of the best moments of his life, yes he took a picture because he needed evidence that his perfect girlfriend was human, that he wanted to cry of happiness. Cam was safe and that was all that matter to him for the moment.
For a second Moose wonder, if he should wake her up, he was dying to hug her and tell her how much he love her but it was obvious that she needed the rest. In the past, Cam had moments in her job when she was overwork, in those moments he had helped her proofread articles. It took him a moment to realize what she was going for, and also he decided that he should probably check the board they used to have a vision for each month. An hour later he had rearranged some things on the board; Cam used to hate when he did that, but most of the time she kept the changes because they made sense and he was always so happy that he didn't even tell her that "He told her so."
Cam woke up at seven the next morning or to be more accurate later that morning because Moose arrived at the office at 2 am, she was startle and confuse about where she was. The last thing on her mind was that her desk was full of papers and she had decided to take a little nap, now Cam was laying down on her couch with a blanket over herself, and her desk was clean. Two piles of papers were there on her done basket, and the rest was gone. A noise came from the conference room, and Cam stood and walked that way not sure about what or who she was going to find. When she was little, her brother would read fairy tales to her every night before she went to sleep and one of the stories were about magical elves that at night help a shoemaker doing his shoes for him and she wonder if she was either dreaming about elves that helped her with her work or that they actually existed.
However, once there Cam saw that her magical elf was her amazing boyfriend that was now putting things on the board while dancing to something that he must be listening with earphones because she couldn't hear anything. Her attention was shared by his moves and the board that now looked completely arranged like it was ready for the number to come out that same second, how did he manage to that? Making her way to him, she put one hand on his shoulders scaring the life out of him and her laugh could be heard in the entire office, not that there was anybody there, but still, he was happy to hear her laughing even if it was at him.
Soon Moose hugged Cam laughing with her making light of the fact that she had managed to scare him with such a simple act. Afterward, Cam asked how exactly did things had ended up like that and so he told her about how after hours of waiting and calling her he had decided that he couldn't wait anymore and went looking for her. Moose did mention the drool and Cam told him to delete the picture just for him to laugh and say no, although both of them knew that she was going to erase it and he would be ok with it because if it upset her Moose could live without it. Cam's attention went back to the board, and they talked for a while about the articles he had checked and the notes he had made for each and the changes to the board. Soon they could hear people beginning to make their way into the office, and for the first time, Cam realized that she was using the same clothes she had the day before and they were looking messy. Remembering that she had another outfit she ran back to her office to change, and Moose went out saying hello and goodbyes to the early birds that were glad to see him, everybody knew how much he love and took care of Cam. Before going away though he made a point of getting Cam some food and leave it with her assistance asking her to please give it to her as soon as possible.
Moose was laying on the couch that night pondering what his next move should be when an exhausted Cam came into the apartment and made a beeline towards him unceremoniously plopping herself on top of him announcing that she was too tired to stand. They laugh for a while until Moose offer to carried her to their bed and prepared some food for the both of them, but she decided that she rather stayed out there so she could see him cook while talking about their day.
"You know everybody thought that I did all the work even though I tried to tell them that it was all you. Of course, I read all the articles, but the notes were on point and to think that I could have asked you for help before really puts things in perspective." Moose started saying things like it was obvious that he was great in everything he does as he has proved to her every single time before. Cam was laughing and egging him on which brought back memories for both of them from the time when they were just friends and spend afternoons just passing the time between classes or going to some dance event with friends.
The food was ready, and they sat and continued to share moments from the past weeks that for the crazy amount of work Cam had been having they couldn't do before, Moose told Cam that it was a possibility for him to have a raise and a new position at his job. "You know if that happens we could move to another place or maybe we could start thinking about investing in our own place."
Cam didn't move at all for a couple of minutes, and Moose didn't know what to do with the silence, he tried to continue to eat, but it was awkward. Maybe Cam was doing the mannequin challenge as a prank to him? Nope, he had actually ruined the moment, but at the same time, he rather knew this now than when he asked her to marry him. "Cam? Should I call a doctor? Are you breathing?"
"Sorry is just. I love this place, I know we talked about moving to another place at some point, but this is the place where we started our life together, and I don't know if we are ready to move." At least, for Moose, there was something behind what she was saying, but it was his time to at least make himself clear about a subject.
Moose nod and stayed quiet for a while trying to put his thoughts in order because he needed to think about his next words carefully. "Look if you don't want to move is ok, but I think we are ready to move forward and this would be a good opportunity."
Cam was taken aback by his words, but she was happy to hear that for him their relationship needed to move forward. While she was making sense of everything Moose had already clear the plates and moved to sit on the couch looking a little absence which gave her the strength to do what she had wished to do for a while now. Moose stayed on the couch for an hour lost in his thoughts without noticing that the apartment started getting darker by the minute. Finally, he noticed that darkness surrounded him and a sigh escaped him, the freaking fuse must have blown out yet again, one more reason for him to want to move from this place.
Standing up he moved to the kitchen to search for a flashlight, and he noticed that a little light was coming from the room and he assumed that Cam had it with her. "Hey Cam can you give me the flashlight I need to.." the rest of the sentence die in his mouth when he looked at his girlfriend.
Little twinkle lights lighted the room giving it a vibe that it was a scene from Summer night dream and Cam was kneeling on the bed with a summery dress that he bought for her years ago, and suddenly everything clicked in his mind. Years ago on their first summer together they would look for cheap places to go and one of those places where a series of presentation of Shakespeare plays in parks on Sundays. Their favorite day of the summer ended with them sitting in the park watching Summer night dream, and Cam told him how much she loved that vibe of the play because it was so romantic and dreamy.
After that, they walked to their apartment hand in hand stopping by some vendors so Moose would grab something to eat, but at the end, Cam was the one eating the food until they finally made it to a pretzel stand and he went to town with them. Cam laughed while Moose would try to continue to say sweet things to her while chewing the food which results in food being spilled all over the place which would be gross but she found everything he did funny at that point. Sure now if he did something like that she would shriek at told him to either stop talking or stop eating, he probably would stop talking, though.
Once at their apartment Moose and Cam cuddle on the couch while watching Netflix and he told her how someday he would put twinkle lights at the apartment to make it more romantic and buy pretzels for them. Cam laughed at first but then she noticed how his eyes were focused on her trying to convey a meaning about a scenario that was more than just a nice gesture between a couple and although she had an idea for what occasion Cam needed him to say it. Moose continue to tell her how everything would be dark so the living room would be the focused of the place and when she appeared he would be looking fine in his best suit waiting for her with a ring in his hand. That night they promised each other that the moment would come that they would join their lives at some point in the future.
Back in the present Moose realize that he had just walked into that scene except Cam was the one that was waiting for him instead of the other way around. Cam stood from the bed and slowly made her way to Moose with both hands behind her back; she first presented him with a pretzel making the boy smile so big that he couldn't believe it was possible to be any happier. Now she was about to kneel, but Moose stopped her making her hesitate if she was doing the right thing and he took the little box containing his ring from his pocket showing it to Cam.
Smiling at each other, both of them kneel face to face and taking the rings they bought for the other they propose at the same time smiling and crying a little extremely excited that they were finally moving forward. And between I love yous they share a night to remember and share with their friends, some parts of it because some things are meant to be private.
Notes
Here it is the proposal or proposals. Hope you like it and please if you can leave a review. Thanks for reading!