Who: Alexandrakis Smith and Graciela Cervantes
What: Engagement :]]
Where: Her flat!
Alex was feeling overly nervous. The kind of nervous that twisted your stomach into a thousand knots and made you want to vomit type of nervous. He didn't know why, it wasn't like he couldn't handle hearing the word 'no' but he was really going out on a limb on this one. He loved Gracie and he wanted this. Needed this, even. If she told him no well… Fuck, he couldn't even think of how he'd act if she said no. He felt a lump building in his throat as he stood outside of her apartment door, his hand raised and ready to knock but he was completely unable to push it forward and do so. He stood there in that position for about ten minutes or so, before lowering his hand and just opening the door instead. They were too close for announcing they were at each others homes, weren't they? It would just look weird if he knocked for the first time in weeks.
"Gracie?" He peeked inside before stepping in, shoving his hands into his pockets. "You here, love?"
Cats did not like water. Graciela wished she’d known this before she tried to give Debbie a bath, but it was more than a few scratches too late for whining, and she just let the cat dash out of the bathroom soaking wet instead of daring to towel dry her. She hadn’t even gotten to shampoo her and---ergh. She was attempting to dry herself off when she heard Alex call out and threw her towel down into the sink and slid her feet down the hall as she was in socks and pajamas and definitely not the ideal attire to be meeting up with her boyfriend, but she was grumpy and was not going to bother with…okay, Graciela would tie up her hair, it was the least she could do.
“Our cat is channeling the devil,” she said as she entered the living room, tying her hair up in one last twist before reaching Alex and giving him a soft kiss in greeting. Graciela grinned and poked his chest lightly. “Olá.”
He couldn't help but grin when he saw the scratches and heard her statement, leaning down some to kiss her. Linking his hands into hers, he shrugged gently, and gave her a slight smirk.
"Most cats do. That's why they hate water, you know. It burns." He teased her gently, tracing one of the scratches on her arm before he placed a kiss onto it. After a few seconds, he pulled his hands from her own and went over to the kitchen, pulling her fridge open and grabbing something to drink.
"So I had some time during my break today to look at some flats," he said almost out of the blue. He took a long sip from the drink he'd grabbed, walking back over to her, and tilting his head. Digging into his pocket, he pulled out a few pamphlets, handing them to her. "They all had these stupid things lying around and I figured I'd grab them so you could look. I marked the ones I liked." Ones being one, of course. He'd actually hated a good portion of the apartments he'd seen and spent a lot of it wrinkling his nose and shaking his head. He was pretty sure he was every realtors nightmare.
"I wanted you to see them so you could choose which ones we can go back to. You know, amongst the others we can find, but… Options are nifty, right?" It was the first time he'd actually shown he was completely serious about something, especially a relationship. It was new. Nice. He was happy - minus the small voice in the back of his head that was yelling at him for not telling Kostos he was moving out yet. He really ought to get on that. Maybe after they picked a place and it was set in stone. Yeah. That would work.
She pulled a face at his teasing; next time he could give Debbie a bath, but Graciela didn’t dwell, his appearance was a good surprise. They both worked so much that most of their time together was popping into the other’s bedroom and passing out. Which Graciela didn’t mind too much, because she liked sleeping, and sleeping with Alex was even better. There was actually a package in her bedroom for him that she was going to send to the Prophet as a surprise tomorrow, full of candies and sweets (a new shipment meant new items and Graciela liked having the first picks), because it was almost like they were living in different countries, with the way their schedules worked. Getting a flat would be a very good thing, Graciela thought as she slid down into a chair at the table.
“Ooooh, let’s see, let’s see…” she said in a thoughtful tone, fanning them out across the table to look for the ones Alex circled…which was…one. Graciela looked up with her eyebrows raised before picking up the pamphlet and opening it. Her heart began to thud quite hard in her chest at the pictures of the flat in…New Castle, ooh, that was sort of close to Hogsmeade, wasn’t it? She couldn’t remember, but, “Ay, I love the backyard---Bernie will actually be able to run around, hmmm…”
"Backyards are good for kids too," he pointed out with a light smile. So he was actually getting pretty excited about being a dad. Strange as it was, he kind of liked the thought. Sitting down next to her, he placed his arm around her and basically recited the pamphlet information from memory. "It's spacious, it has this tiny garden area if you wanted to… you know, plant things. It's got enough bedrooms for the three of us and it's in an area that has a lot of other children. Lots of new families so there all be able to grow up with her. It'll be great, I think." Clearing his throat, he shrugged, trying to act like his normal nonchalant attitude as this… whole… happy thing was so out of character. "I mean, you know, it'll be… as great as anything else we could pick. Of course."
Very smooth, Alex.
Rubbing his hands together, he leaned forward, biting at his lip. They were talking about serious things, now would be a good time, yeah? Yeah. Perfect time. He bit his lip roughly, rubbing it between his teeth and wondering how to say what he wanted to. It was hard to put anything into words, let alone something this big, and well… well, fuck, he couldn't even start. He didn't know how to tell her he loved her in more than just three words and it was awkward for him to have to. Dammit, dammit, da-
Or, maybe he didn't have to. It would be very typical of him. Romance wasn't his thing and if she wanted to be with him, she had to deal with that, right? RIGHT! So without anymore thought about it, he pulled the ring from his pocket and tossed it out in front of her with a small clink.
He was definitely smooth.
Her eyes had been following along with the words Alex memorized (well, not perfectly, but she was impressed) and she had to say, her boyfriend had good taste (well of course, she was his girlfriend, ha haaaaa). The flat was just big enough to be livable for three (threeeee) and pets, the backyard was good, really good. See! Alex thought about these things, Psyke did not know what she was talking about. It looked like it was in their price range, based on their own wages, not the money from Santiago or his family, which was a plus, it meant that they could do this on their own, but still had support. There were nice neighbors, they’d have to check schools of course and she heard the clink of something hitting the table, but Graciela’s eyes were glued to the pamphlet, her head tilting to lean on Alex’s shoulder while she finished reading what it had to say.
“I think you did a very good job,” she said happily, twisting to kiss his neck lightly. Graciela turned back to the table, putting her hands on the edge to push herself up so she could stir up tea or something and that’s when she spotted the ring. She sat down abruptly and swore she stopped breathing. Not only stopped breathing, Graciela was positive she was moving in slow motion as she let out a short gasp and---and---
That was a ring. Not just—not just any ring; that was a very shiny, very engagement like---engagement ring. It---it had to be, Alex was not dumb, he knew what diamond rings meant to a girl, he---this---could not be a----but they---they had not even talked about---she thought---Her hand shot to her chest as she continued to stare at the ring, because what she was feeling was the equivalent to everything on earth being flipped upside down. It had been so hard to force herself to be fine with not getting married, and even though she’d come to terms with it, all the thinking and learning to get along with the idea had taken a lot of effort, so---so getting engaged had literally been the last thing on her mind these past few weeks. So---so---so---Alex really had just completely and utterly surprised and amazed her.
Ay—oh, oh. He wanted to marry her. And---and it wasn’t just because of the baby, because he knew that---she was fine with---he wanted---he wanted her and---oh, ay deus it---What a silly boy, tossing around a ring like that and Graciela couldn’t hold herself back any longer and she reached out to pick up the ring delicately, clutching it to her chest as she turned to Alex, pulling her legs up underneath her and tears in her eyes.
But, oh, was she smiling.
“Really?” she asked, biting her tongue to try and keep the grin off her face. “Because---porque---yes. If. You really. Sim. Yes. Oh, just---"
Alex had stayed very stiff and very quiet after he had thrown the ring on the table. He had bitten down on his lip, even, and not even really reacted to the kiss (as enjoyable as it was to feel her lips just about anywhere) and was too busy waiting for a reaction. Scratch that, he was just waiting for her to say no. She hadn't even noticed the ring yet and ugh, he should have thought of a better way to go about this, but it was too late now and he closed his eyes when she finally spotted it just sitting on the table, waiting for her to put it on or toss it in his face. The latter would really hurt, considering just how sharp diamonds tended to be. Closing his eyes tightly, he waited and…
She was saying yes. Sim, even! That meant it was a real yes and that she wanted to marry him and - oh thank GOD. He cracked open an eye to look at her for a moment before letting out a relieved sigh and opening both of them fully. Oh… Oh man. This wasn't actually entirely expected. They hadn't talked about it much and he was almost sure she didn't want to rush into a marriage because they were having a baby - but he didn't want to rush. He didn't. He bit his lip, wracking through his brain, trying to find that one phrase that he'd memorized and it was just… just on the tip of his tongue. He'd listened to it three thousand times on the little translator and he had to get it right. Botching this would just look totally fucking stupid.
"Er… V… Você c… ca… casar-me-á?" Yes, that was it! He'd sounded horrid saying it out loud, but hell, he had given it a shot. He knew she wanted him to learn her native languages and he tried really, really hard to and it had to work, right? It had to look like he meant it and was taking this seriously. Clearing his throat, he took her hands, pulling the ring from them and holding her left one, shrugging a bit. "I figured it's not official until you say yes to the question and not just the ring, right?" He offered her a light smile, clearing his throat soon after out of nerves, and looking at her hands.
Oh, man, his stomach was doing that knots thing again.
Graciela let out a laugh even though it was one of those choking sounding laughs because---ayyyyy, deus miosito, he asked her in Portuguese and that was so wonderful of Alex, that was so thoughtful and so kind and she was just nodding over and over and over because she was getting proposed to by Alexandrakis Smith. There was no other way to describe how she felt besides---besides---there was no word. Because she was shocked and happy and elated and feeling brilliant and kind of sick but that was because she was pregnant and there was just so many things swirling through her brain.
They had not even been dating for six months. Six months. That was ridiculous on all levels of the word, but Graciela was the happiest she’d ever been in her life. Sometimes---they did say things about love at first sight, and, and it certainly felt like that. Their first date, her birthday, how could she have spent the day any better? Alex had literally woken up a million wonderful things inside of her; she was braver, she was stronger, she was sexier, she was a writer, she was a woman now and Graciela was sure she’d never have been this happy with herself if she hadn’t bumped into Alex in January.
Or, correction, if he hadn’t hit on her. So smooth, he was.
Their children (because now----now there could be more) would laugh, they would laugh so much at their story, but it was a wonderful story, and it was theirs, it was all theirs and she didn’t care what anyone thought of them. That they were crazy, stupid, fool-hardy, babosos---it didn’t matter, all that mattered was that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her and she was willing to do the same and that was just perfecto.
“Yes, sim---yes I will, put it onnnnnn!”
Alex would have flailed if it were a more manly action. Instead, he quickly (shakily, too) placed the ring onto her left ring finger and stared. She was wearing an engagement ring. His engagement ring! He felt so light headed he was sure he was going to fall over and not be able to get back up. He was getting married. Alexandrakis Smith was getting married. It was crazy! Had you told him he was going to be sitting in a room with Graciela Cervantes, slipping a ring on her finger, and destined to be a dad in a few months back in his 7th year (which was only a year ago)? He would have laughed. He would've laughed really hard and then asked who the hell Gracie was. It was amazing to him that he had somehow missed her when he had dated so many other girls, and the one girl that was for him had been sitting right there and he had just walked on by.
God, he had been such a prat.
Grinning wider than he probably ever had grinned before, Alex leaned over to kiss her, his hand going behind her neck to hold her there for just a second. He pulled away after a moment, before standing up and tugging on her hands to get her to do the same.
"Come on, Mrs. Smith," he muttered, "Lets go celebrate like 99% of the soon-to-be-married world would."
