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“You what?” Max blinks at his best friend, not fully comprehending what he’s just been told. So, like an idiot, he waits for the other man to explain again. Just to be sure.
Carlos frowns. “We broke up, it’s not too hard to understand, is it?”
There’s a playful glint in his eye as he says that, calm as you like, and Max really resents him for it. Especially since his jaw is somewhere near on the floor. It all comes down to a pact that they’d made as fifteen and sixteen year old, heartbroken boys. Something that in the year since seemed completely farcical:
‘If we’re not married by the time we’re thirty we’ll marry each other.’
It had only popped into his mind every once in a while, when he was licking his wounds after a particularly nasty break up; feeling like a reassurance, a safety blanket. But Max never thought about it for too long, not least because one or both of them had been in a relationship the majority of the time.
Now, however, it’s impossible not to think about it. Because if Carlos goes another two weeks without finding someone new, they’ll both be single come Max’s 30th birthday. And, well, that’s something he could have never anticipated. But it’s just a silly agreement, right?
“Sorry to hear that,” the younger man finally manages to get out, hopefully no longer looking like someone who was being spoken to in a language they didn’t speak.
Carlos merely shrugs, looking rather impassive, as he takes a handful of tortilla chips from the bowl on the coffee table. “It never really got serious so it’s not that much of a loss.”
“Still… are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Maxi,” the Spaniard flashes him a (dazzling) grin, “Besides, I’d much rather spend time with my best friend anyway.”
Max doesn’t reply. Instead, he takes a long sip of his beer and tries not to look like he’s having a heart attack.
*
Stepping outside onto the balcony of the hotel function room, Max sighs when the light breeze caresses his face, almost making the light sheen of perspiration from the heat inside seep back into his pores. Leaning his forearms against the steel bar, he stares out onto the river, quickly becoming entranced by the reflection of the moon on the deceptively calm surface. It reminds him somewhat of himself tonight.
A couple of minutes pass before he hears the tell-tale sound of the heavy door opening a couple of feet behind him, the too loud music momentarily bleeding out into the tranquillity of the outdoors before soon being silenced once again.
“Hey you.”
Max doesn’t look up until he hears the person speak (or maybe it’s this particular person who catches his attention). Turning his head, he can’t help but smile when his eyes fall on Carlos, looking all snazzy if dishevelled in his black slacks and black shirt, one too many buttons now undone. Though he can’t exactly blame him- it’s like forty degrees inside.
“Hey,” Max smiles back, pushing over so that there’s plenty of room for the both of them. It’s only when Carlos mirrors his stances that he realises that the sleeves of his shirt are also rolled up to just below his elbows, his usually warm caramel coloured skin now looking pale under the moonlight.
“You had the right idea coming out here. I feel like I’ve sweated off like five pounds since the party began.”
“Good, you could do with it.”
Jaw dropping dramatically, Carlos takes the opportunity to nudge the younger (if only by half a year) man. “Hey! I’ll have you know that I’m in the best shape of my life.”
Unable to disagree, Max gives ‘hmmm’. A moment of silence immediately follows that, until he sees Carlos shift a little awkwardly out of the corner of his eye. “Uh… I was going to give you your present but I don’t know if I should now since you’ve insulted me.” It should sound a lot more playful than it does and Max can’t help but frown a little at the subtle tension emanating from his best friend. He doesn’t acknowledge it though.
“Promise I’ll be good from now on.”
“Of course,” Carlos chuckles at the expression of pure innocence on the other man’s face, feeling himself relax a little. “Sorry I didn’t give it to you earlier, I just wanted to wait until we had a bit of space…”
He would usually wave that off but at the moment he can do no such thing, completely focused on Carlos’ movements as he picks up a small gift bag from where Max hadn’t even seen him deposit it on the ground between his feet. With a simple ‘happy birthday’ that appeared to hold a lot more meaning than it usually did, Carlos handed him the present, the tiniest flash of regret visible in his dark eyes as it changed hands.
Max tries to ignore that, smile tugging at the corners of his mouth as he peeks inside, handing the bag back to his best friend after he pulls out a rather unassuming silver box. It feels heavy, but only relative to its size. Max looks to Carlos for a moment, almost seeking permission, before slowly beginning to open it. He notices how the tiniest of creases has formed between the Spaniard’s brows, his face looking the tiniest big paler.
But he can’t wait another moment. Pulling off the lid completely, he finds a single large red velvet cupcake with cream cheese icing from that place that Max admits to having visited one too many times. He nearly drops it, but it’s not because of the weight…
It’s because of the delicate gold band that crowns it, not embedded in the icing but impressed enough for it to stay where it was intended to be.
He almost faints on the spot.
Mouth beginning to gape as if he were a fish, he stares the other man down, instantly feeling guilty when Carlos begins to visibly cringe. Rubbing the back of his neck, the Spaniard chews on his bottom lip.
“Nearly fifteen years ago we made a pact when we were sad teenagers that if we were both single by the time we reached 30 that we would marry each other. And I know neither of us probably really expected that to happen but I haven’t forgotten it for a moment. It was only as I got older that I stopped seeing it as a last resort and began to look at it as a blessing. You’re my best friend, Max, and there’s no one else I would want to share the rest of my life with more than you. So… will you marry me?”
Max continues to stare for a moment, but at least he eventually manages to find words this time. “You’ve been in a relationship practically the whole time!”
That could have discouraged him, but instead Carlos grins wickedly. “Couldn’t ruin the moment, could I?”
Wait, what? “Are you telling me that you’ve had feelings for me all these years but you didn’t act on them because you already had this moment planned?”
“Well, when you put it like that…”
Without saying another word, Max’s free hand comes to rest on the nape of the other man’s neck, pulling him in for a desperate kiss to which Carlos all too willingly responds. They continue to kiss for a moment, their first kiss that hasn’t been the result of a stupid game of truth or dare or spin the bottle, until Max pulls away again, keeping Carlos on his toes by giving him a firm shove to the chest. “You’re an idiot, you know that? Fifteen fucking years just so you can do this?”
“Hey, it’s called perseverance,” the older man counters, still grinning like an idiot as he wipes some of the moisture from his lips, “So what do you say?”
“Well… I could hardly let over a decade’s planning got to waste now, could I?”
Taking the box from his fiancé(?), Carlos removes the ring before letting the rest fall to the ground, ignoring Max’s indignant ‘hey, I wanted to eat that!’ as he thumbs away the excess icing. Once it’s no longer sticky, he takes Max’s left hand in his, not looking back up at the younger man until the ring, his ring, was safely on his finger.
“Happy birthday, Max.”