An Elaborate Plan

Chapter 1: The Break Up

The machine beeped as the message ended. The display stopped blinking, and so did Jonny. He stared, wide-eyed and horrified, across the room, because he couldn't think of anything else to do. There was nothing else to do.

When he finally did regain a bit of his consciousness, his eyes turned down to look at the machine. Did he hear it properly? Did Chris really say that? Were they-?

But it couldn't have been real. The past four years couldn't have meant nothing. There was no way Chris could just throw that all away. And then there was all that money Jonny had spent for...

His heart breaking, his one hand over his chest, Jonny brought his other hand up to the machine and replayed the message. It pained him to do so, but he had to confirm that it was real.

“Hey... Jonny...” Chris's voice began. Already he sounded sad, like maybe he'd only just stopped a faucet of tears that had run for hours before. That alone was enough to kill Jonny.

“So, I know that last night didn't happen as either of us had expected, which is all right, I guess. It's kinda out of our hands. But...”

Jonny closed his eyes and braced himself. If there was only one thing he recalled from the first listen, it was the next line and the devastation with which Chris delivered it.

“But I just think that maybe it's a sign. When we first got together, Jonny, we said we could get past any obstacle that got in our way. Maybe... maybe we can't.”

Without thinking, Jonny slammed his hand down and shut the message off; he couldn't stand hearing it anymore. He felt an overwhelming anger consume him, and he ripped the machine from the wall and threw it across the room. It hit the wall, smashing into several pieces and leaving a large dent in the drywall.

Jonny, panting heavily, collapsed into a nearby chair and buried his head in his hands. His brain whirred around violently, and he could feel his heartbeat in his temples. He sat there for about an hour, trying to forget and make the pain go away. It didn't work.

He was only vaguely aware of the water dripping down his cheeks when he stood up. He dizzily took a step forward and the room began to spin, nausea bubbling in his stomach. He took another step forward, then ran into the kitchen and leaned over the sink.

Several times he heaved, and what little content his stomach had contained was now splattered in the bottom of the basin. Jonny ran the faucet and rinsed his mouth out, then he grabbed the dish towel hanging on the door of the fridge and dried his face.

Then he caught a glimpse of the many pictures held to the fridge by magnets, pictures of his old friends, pictures of his family, and one picture in the middle of he and Chris, in which Jonny looked the happiest he probably ever had. He thought about grabbing it and ripping it into shreds, but he decided it was best not to feed the angry monster inside of him. He also realized that there was no way he could stay in that apartment, not when only the night before had Chris broken his three-week streak of staying over. There was just too much of Chris's spirit in that place.

Jonny left without even thinking of where he would go. He didn't really want to go anywhere, anyway, he just needed to get out. He needed the fresh air and the sunshine to give him the prospect of a bright future, but most of all he needed a distraction.

It was mid-morning on a Saturday, probably close to eleven o'clock, and the sidewalks were relatively clear. Jonny breezed past the pedestrians who did get in his way, but for the most part he was alone. He liked it that way.

He would have to get used to being alone now. After an entire four years and counting, he was now completely on his own. The only thing with him was his thoughts, which really did not do him any good. They merely taunted him and reminded him of how crazy he was without Chris.

Was it totally pathetic that he was still wallowing? But it had only happened a little over an hour ago, the message had only been sent a little over an hour ago, and it brought with it the destruction of what he had helped built for four long years. There could never be enough time for him to wallow.

A child seemingly attached to her mother at the hip passed by Jonny, and as she did she frowned at him, like she could see through his clenched jaw and enraged eyes into the soul of a man who didn't know what his life was for anymore. What he had thought was his one true purpose turned out to be completely false, and Jonny began to think that maybe he was wandering aimlessly because he no longer knew where to go or what to do with himself.

While Jonny's brain was busy overworking itself and causing all sorts of harm to him, his feet were busy carrying him across the city to where he would be able to find himself again. In fact, he had been so wrapped up that he only snapped out of his sort of trance as he looked at his hand, formed into a fist, which had only seconds before knocked upon the wooden door of what he recognized as Will's apartment.

The door creaked open a minute later and Will's rough face appeared. Jonny swallowed, thinking of what to say, but as his feet had acted on instinct, so his vocal chords knew just what to do.

“Will, I need to talk to you.” It was simple, but he knew it would do the trick. Will was the friend they could all lean on, no matter what. Jonny took a deep breath and said the most difficult words to have ever come out of his mouth. “Chris broke up with me.”

He could feel the tears resurfacing, his stomach churning again. Will nodded and pushed the door open all the way, standing off to the side to give Jonny a view of the inside of his apartment. “I know.”

Sitting in direct sight of Jonny, his eyes puffy and bloodshot, a phone held firmly up to his ear, was Chris. He was in the middle of a sentence, but he stopped talking immediately when he saw Will open the door. He was frozen for a minute, then there was a tiny beep noise as he shut the phone off and lowered his hand. Then he and Jonny just stared at each other, wordlessly and pained.

Chapter 2: The Clean Up

For nearly five minutes Will stood by the door and watched the two men engage in what seemed to be a rather competitive staring contest. Finally he decided to interject, and he stepped over so that he was blocking Jonny's view. Jonny barely moved at all, and his eyes seemed to gaze right through Will's body as if he were some sort of glass.

“I think you two need to talk to each other,” he said, referring to Jonny's earlier request to speak with Will. “Please, come in.”

Apprehensively, Jonny walked into Will's apartment, his heart shattering into an even larger amount of pieces with every step he took until he reached the sofa where Chris sat, and he was almost certain that parts of his heart had been crushed so finely they were now just sand that spread throughout his body and rubbed its grainy exterior against his fragile organs. He had not thought about how far he had walked from his apartment to reach this destination, but it didn't matter anyway; no amount of walking, he felt, could have done this much damage and made him ache this badly.

He sat down as far away from Chris as he could, not because he didn't want to be near Chris, but because he thought Chris wouldn't want to be near him. He stared at the floor, unaware of Chris's eyes upon him and Chris's new look of sadness brought upon by the fact that Jonny had not chosen to sit closer.

“Talking usually involves words, you know,” Will said, resting on the coffee table that sat in front of the couch. He placed his hands on his knees and sat forward.“Chris, why don't you tell Jonny what you told me before?”

Chris looked up at Will with the expression of a small frightened animal, but he nodded and slowly turned back to Jonny.

<<<<<20HoursEarlier

The sun, though slowly making its way to the horizon, was beating down hard on the city. Luckily Jonny was sitting comfortably in his jeep, which he actually had not driven in a really long time. He never really needed to, since both his work and Chris's place were in very close proximity to his own apartment.

The jeep was kept in the widely unknown car park around the back of Jonny's apartment building. Like himself, most other tenants walked everywhere, and so quite a large percentage didn't even own a vehicle, other than maybe a bicycle. Jonny was going to need the jeep that night, so he decided to check on it and make sure that it was working well. While inspecting it through a drive around the outskirts of the city, Jonny decided that it was far too dirty and needed to be cleaned. He changed his route quickly and headed to the only place he could think to go.

The Berrymans had never been on friendly terms with the Bucklands, at least not until the generation that brought along Jonny and Guy had come into existence. In an almost fairytale way they became the best of friends and helped bring their families together. That was in high school, and some things had changed since then; for instance, Jonny was no longer working at the local bakery, but at a photo developing place, something he much preferred doing, and Guy now owned his own small car wash a few blocks away from Jonny's workplace.

“Nice ride,” Guy sarcastically remarked as he observed Jonny's jeep. He walked around the back and made note of just how unclean the entire vehicle was. “Do I get extra since the thing is practically caked in mud?”

“Do I get to release those pictures you dropped off last week to the public?” Jonny retorted, and the color left Guy's face, his eyes widened with horror.

“Dude, isn't there, like, a law against looking at those or something?” Jonny shook his head, laughing, and he put a hand on Guy's shoulder.

“Hey, man, that's what friends are for.” Jonny was only joking, but the anger strewn across Guy's face made him think that maybe there was more truth in it than he had first thought. He brushed it off, though, and tried to change the subject to get the strange images out of his head. “So, you gonna clean this or what? I'll pay extra if you really want.”

“Nah, man, it's cool,” Guy said with a wave of his hand. Then he shifted his eyes to the dirt on the car. “When's the last time you took this thing out, anyway?”

“I don't even remember,” Jonny said, shaking his head. “But I'm taking Chris out to dinner tonight, and, you know, I wanted to ride in style.”

Guy laughed and folded his arms across his chest. “Why didn't you just rent a limo or something?”

“I'm already gonna be broke from the dinner alone. And then there's this...” Jonny opened the door of his car and pulled a tiny box from the glove compartment.

“Shit, man,” Guy exclaimed before Jonny had even opened the box. “Good luck.”

“Thanks,” Jonny said, running a hand through his hair. “I think I'm gonna need it.”

“No way, he'll definitely say yes.”

Jonny shrugged halfheartedly. “I just have this feeling that something's gonna go wrong. Like... my car will catch fire or something and I'll have to cancel... It's just nerves, right? Everything'll be fine.”

“Yeah. Listen, you two are totally fated to be together, so there's really nothing to worry about,” Guy told him.

Jonny thought about it for a few moments. He tossed the box around restlessly in his hands, then nodded. “I hope you're right,” he said, and he slipped the box into the front pocket of his trousers.

“Of course. Now,” Guy clapped his hands together with great enthusiasm, “let's get this thing cleaned up.”

Chapter 3: The Pick Up

Chris's frightened animal look didn't fade as he faced Jonny; in fact, it seemed to only intensify at that point. The words were stuck somewhere inside of him, even though he clearly remembered what he had said to Will. He somehow didn't have the confidence to speak anymore.

Jonny waited patiently for Chris to finally begin talking. As he watched Chris struggle in frustration, he wanted nothing more than to jump across the space between them and embrace the poor man. But he couldn't do that.

The sound of Will tapping his fingers against his leg filled the room, since nothing else would apart from the oxygen being in- and exhaled. He too waited for Chris, but his patience was even less than Jonny's.

“Last night...” he began, urgently, and Chris flashed him a helpless look.

“Last night,” Chris repeated, his voice shaking and his eyes unfocused, “I... Well, I thought last night was going to be... special. I don't know. But then all that stuff happened, and one thing didn't happen, and I guess I just got my hopes up for nothing. So I thought... what am I doing? If it didn't happen then, it'll never happen.”

Though his manner had seemed to imply he was near tears, by the end of his speech he appeared more blank than anything else, like he didn't know what to do with himself anymore. He stared off into the air before him, vacant, and only blinked a total of three times in the proceeding minute.

Jonny watched him, his mouth feeling incredibly dry, and as he tried to swallow he discovered it was painful to do so. He bit his lip, almost to the point of drawing blood, and decided on what to say in response. After all, Chris had said some pretty deep stuff.

“It was supposed to be special,” Jonny told him.

<<<<16HoursEarlier

The sun had just set on the city, and Jonny had just set foot on Chris's doorstep- actually, the doorstep to Chris's apartment building. He turned to a box on his left and pressed a button. He didn't even need to say anything, and moments later he was let in.

He took the stairs two at a time, even though it frightened him to do so- he was always afraid that he would trip and end up hurting himself badly- but at this moment he was too eager to see Chris to care. That is, of course, until he actually did trip, but luckily by that time he was already at the top of the stairs and he merely stumbled onto the landing and, conveniently, right in front of Chris's door.

Right on cue, the door flung open and a smiling, bubbly Chris beamed at Jonny. He was wearing a rather sophisticated look, with a fancy black suit and his hair slicked back a little. Jonny regained his composure and returned the dazzling smile.

“Are you ready?” he asked Chris. Chris nodded ecstatically.

“Oh yes,” he said, and he laughed a little, “otherwise I wouldn't have opened the door right away. And I assume you're ready, too, otherwise you wouldn't have come here yet.”

Jonny shrugged mysteriously. “Well, you never know.”

Chris suddenly had a very serious look on his face, which both confused and worried Jonny a little. But he kept his smile on, and soon Chris had changed back once more. He stepped out of his apartment, making sure the door was locked behind him, then he stood in front of Jonny for a few moments.

“Shall we?” Chris gestured to the stairs, but before he began to walk, Jonny moved forward and kissed him. Then without saying another word the two men descended the small flight of stairs.

Almost directly in front of the building was Jonny's parked jeep. The passenger side was closest to the curb, so Jonny had intended on walking around to the driver side, but before he made it all the way he heard Chris gasped extremely loudly.

“Jonny!” he said in a hushed voice. Jonny stopped dead in his tracks and looked back.

“Yeah?”

“What happened to your car??” Chris asked, pointing to what appeared to be a scratch that stretched across the entire passenger side door, and then some. Jonny craned his neck to see what Chris's fuss was about, and when he saw the scratch he nodded apathetically.

“Some stupid kid keyed it earlier,” Jonny said. He ducked his head, a little ashamed. “I was hoping you wouldn't notice. Or mention it, at least.”

Chris tilted his head to the right, frowning a little. “Why wouldn't you want me to notice and-or mention it?”

“Because I wanted the jeep to look... presentable for tonight. I actually got it cleaned and everything, only to then have some... jerk come along and-” Jonny fervently shook his head. “Whatever. People will be people. But you don't mind, do you?”

Chris smiled at the skepticism in Jonny's tone, and shook his head in response. “No, to be honest, the car doesn't matter at all to me. But I like that you were worried about it. It's kinda sweet.”

As Jonny stared at Chris and was momentarily mesmerized by his bright blue eyes and shining smile, he remembered the reassuring words Guy had said to him, and with all his heart he hoped that Guy had been right in saying that Chris would not reject him. Surely, though, Chris had never rejected him, no matter what.

When he felt that he had done enough staring, Jonny continued his walk around the jeep. Making sure that there weren't cars around that would drive over him and kill him, or perhaps just take the car door with them as they passed, Jonny entered the jeep and almost immediately put the keys in the ignition. He realized that he was being rather hasty now in his nervousness.

Both men had strapped on their seat belts, and Jonny had started the car. But before he did anything else, his hands gripped tightly on the steering wheel with what he had always been told were the right hand positions, he stared at the other parked car in front of them and breathed deeply. He only do so for a few moments, though, because he didn't want Chris to get suspicious.

Once again checking that they wouldn't get into an accident if he started to drive, Jonny slowly hit the gas and carefully pulled out of the spot.

Chapter 4: The Screw Up

The meal was practically over now, and all that was left to do was to pay the ridiculously large sum of money they owed to the restaurant and leave. It had already been determined that Jonny would pay, even though Chris insisted otherwise. Jonny argued with him and eventually seemed to somewhat convince Chris with the fact that Jonny was supposed to be taking Chris out to dinner, and it was therefore only fair that he should pay for it.

Jonny called the waitress over to the table and within a few minutes they got the check. Jonny grumbled about how overpriced everything was, especially considering the tiny portions they gave. Chris smiled at him and went to take a sip of his drink, but as he did so a man passing by the table accidentally bumped into Chris's chair and his hand shook, pouring the contents of his glass all down the front of his clean white shirt.

“Oh, sir, I am so, so sorry,” the man said. Chris, now standing and trying to pull the wine-soaked fabric away from his shirt, held up his hand and shook his head.

“It's all right, accidents happen,” he replied. The man still looked at him apologetically, but after a few moments he realized there was no point in him standing around for much longer and he walked away. Chris turned to Jonny, who had been watching Chris and the other man the entire time. “I'm gonna go wait in the car, Jonny, is that OK?”

“Yeah, it's fine,” Jonny said. Chris left as quickly as he could, eager to ditch the wet cloth, and Jonny returned to counting just how many hours of work he had endured to pay for his food alone. It was worth it, though. It was going to be worth it.

Jonny sat in the jeep and turned to find that Chris had solved his shirt problem by removing it entirely. He had to pull his thoughts away from what else Chris could remove, and as he did so his nervousness returned. The moment would come soon.

“I, uh... wanted to bring you s-somewhere else, too,” he said, stuttering just a little. “If that's all right.”

“Sure,” Chris sweetly replied. “Where, exactly?”

“It's a surprise.”

“Oh, then should I, like, close my eyes or something?” Chris did close his eyes, and he raised his eyebrows as well and made really weird-looking facial expressions. Jonny laughed at him.

“You can keep your eyes open, if you like.” Chris lifted his eyelids to reveal his bright eyes and he blinked magnificently a few times before speaking.

“All right, let's go!” he exclaimed. Jonny grinned and his heart beat faster for several reasons. His clammy hands grabbed the steering wheel and he once again mentally prepared himself.

The drive lasted about five minutes, and as Jonny stopped the car, Chris gasped in total awe. In front of them was the sandy shore of the beach, the ocean spread out as far as the eye could see. What was even more impressive was the glowing moon and its reflection in the still waters. It was one of the most amazing things Chris had ever seen, and Jonny could tell by Chris's reaction that so far his plan was going well.

They sat silently for a minute or so, then Chris turned his eyes away from the view and to Jonny. “Is it all right if we stay in here?” he asked, uncertain. “It's just that I don't really feel comfortable walking around without a shirt on.”

“We can stay, yeah,” Jonny said, though he felt that Chris had nothing to be ashamed of. His eyes wandered over Chris's sleek torso, down his muscular abdomen. It calmed him, a little, though only because it made him forget entirely about what he was going to do. But they had all night, so he was in no rush.

Chris had gone back to staring at the moon. Jonny still watched him, still let his mind wander far from the rundown car and the lightly populated beach. He drifted to their future, to a day hopefully not too far, where maybe Chris would be wearing that suit again, and loads of people would be gathered around...

Jonny decided that maybe enough time had passed, and his patience had grown far too thin. He quickly went over in his mind what he had rehearsed relentlessly over the past few days, then took a deep breath.

“Chris,” he uneasily began, “could you, uh... could you see what's in the glove compartment for me?”

Chris raised an eyebrow at Jonny, but, like Jonny had hoped, he nodded and reached for the handle without even truly questioning Jonny. Little did Jonny know, Chris had his own theories, and as he pulled open the small door his heart raced and his palms were sweaty.

But there was nothing in there. Both men stared frozen at the empty space for a few seconds, then sat back with disappointment, though neither of them would show it.

“Uh, there's nothing in there,” Chris joked halfheartedly. Jonny laughed affectedly in return.

“I guess not.” Jonny said nothing else, for he was too busy from that moment on trying to figure out why the compartment was empty. There should have at least been that one box, the one that had cost so much and meant even more to him.

It could have been ten minutes that they were sitting there, it could have been twenty. Or maybe no time had passed at all. Jonny was too preoccupied to notice or even care. He was only brought back by the sudden appearance of Chris's voice.

“Jonny, I'm kinda tired,” he said, softly and sadly. To prove that what he was saying was true, he stretched a little and even yawned. Jonny was fine with that. The night wasn't exactly going his way anymore, and he wouldn't have minded going home. But it was the next part that really hit him hard. “Could you take me back to my place?”

Maybe Chris had realized beforehand the sort of impact it would have on Jonny, because as he said it he seemed to wince and frown a little. Jonny thought he felt his heart rip in two, but he didn't dare fight Chris's request. After all, Chris was entitled to spend at least one night by himself. It didn't mean anything.

But Jonny still couldn't help feeling just a little rejected.

Chapter 5: The Wake Up

“It was?” Chris asked Jonny. He felt a strange sensation tingling through his body. He couldn't tell if it was good or bad. On the one hand, he had indeed been right, though on the other hand it still hadn't happened. But he had actually been wrong, too, and with that in mind he figured that this weird feeling was probably regret mixed with a little guilt.

“Yeah,” Jonny replied. “I spent a lot of time and... money into preparing it and making sure that it was going to be perfect. But obviously I didn't put enough in.”

“What do you mean?” Chris's face had softened a little, so he no longer looked too upset. It was almost as if he knew deep down that things were going to work out. He even moved a little closer to Jonny.

“Well, if I had, we wouldn't be here right now, would we? Last night would have gone as planned,” Jonny explained. He stared down at his hands. He too thought that maybe their situation was looking up from here, but he couldn't be sure. “And maybe I'd have gotten some sleep last night.”

“You couldn't sleep, either?” Chris asked with a bit of enthusiasm. Jonny shook his head.

“Especially not after I found what I'd been looking for.”

<<<12HoursEarlier

Jonny had intended on hanging his keys up, but he missed the hook. They made a great clanging noise as they hit the floor. Jonny let them fall to the ground and kept walking. It was already midnight and he was pretty tired.

As he sat on his bed, he was no more conscious than he was when he first walked into the apartment. He blankly stared across the room at his open bedroom door, his mind still running through all the possibilities of what could have happened to the ring. He remembered putting in into the glove compartment that morning so that he wouldn't forget to do it later. A lot of good that had done.

And he had locked the doors when he returned to his apartment, so it didn't seem plausible that the same kid who had vandalized the jeep had stolen it. They were locked while he and Chris were at the restaurant as well. In fact, the only time he didn't have his doors locked was when he had it cleaned.

But no one had been around at that point, apart from Guy. Jonny would never have suspected Guy of doing anything like that, and even though it seemed to be his only explanation, he still didn't think it was true. Guy was one of his best friends, why would he steal from Jonny?

Jonny decided that the span of time in which he had been sitting and thinking was approximately an hour. He was still very, very tired, but he couldn't go to sleep. His brain was simply working far too much from him to even try to relax.

He did look away from the door, though, and around his room. The clothes he had been wearing earlier were carelessly thrown in the corner, as he had been so nervous before the date that he didn't bother tidying up after himself. He kept his eyes on them for a while, and then he suddenly remembered something.

He had taken the ring out to show to Guy. But- did he not put it back? He could have sworn that he had put it back in the car afterward.

Almost afraid of what he would find, Jonny slowly stood up and made his way over to the corner. He reached a tentative hand out and eventually came in contact with the fabric of his pants. He barely had to lift them to tell that there was extra weight in there somewhere. But he raised his arm regardless, and, sure enough, in one of the front pockets there was a small box.

Jonny dropped the pants and held onto the box. He didn't feel like being in his room anymore- there was absolutely no way he would get any sleep at all that night- and so he left for the living room.

He tried not to be too angry at himself for ruining what was supposed to be one of the most perfect nights of his life. After all, there would always be the next day. If Chris really was going to say yes, then it wouldn't really matter when he was asked.

But in the back of Jonny's mind was a tiny voice that reminded him of Chris's attitude before Jonny had dropped him off at his apartment. He hadn't seemed like his normal self, happy and bubbly and whatnot, but more sad, and Jonny didn't like that at all. It didn't appear to be a good sign.

Very much like Jonny, Chris was also wide awake in his own living room, thinking far more than he ought to have been. He wanted desperately to stop thinking altogether, because he knew that whatever his mind came up with would probably be ridiculous and he might end up doing something that he would regret in the future. It's what always happened when he couldn't sleep at night, though his mistakes were usually small, ranging from eating too many snacks to writing what he later realized were just awful lyrics. Sometimes he wished he had a time machine so he could go back and slap the pen out of his hand before it could even go near any paper.

Still, he couldn't stop himself from thinking, and he couldn't stop himself from acting on any thoughts that popped up. He had watched the sun rise in the sky for several hours before he finally did act, though. Judging by its position in the sky, it must have been around ten o'clock.

Chris could feel his heart breaking as he stood up. He wanted to do it, but he didn't at the same time. He told himself it was a bad idea, but in return his inner voice kept pushing him to do it. Finally, he could no longer control anything, and he picked up the phone and called Jonny.

Chapter 6: The Make Up

As Jonny finished recalling his tale, the last bit being the part about him throwing up, a silence fell on the small room. Will, whose presence was basically forgotten about, watched as Chris inched his way closer and closer to Jonny. Jonny didn't seem to notice, for he was staring at his hands once again, apparently lost in thought.

He felt some air stirring around his ear, but before he could properly notice it there was a quiet voice he heard.

Come on along and listen to...

Slowly, Jonny moved his eyes, and in his peripheral vision he could see Chris leaning a mere centimeter from him. Even with the limited sight he could see Chris smiling a little.

...the lullaby of Broadway...

Jonny blinked a few times, and as he did so he felt a tear roll down his cheek. It was that song, their song, that always got to him. Whenever he felt bad, whenever anything was wrong, Chris would sing it for him, and it always made him feel better. And now he knew it meant even more.

This time he turned his entire head to face Chris. Chris was no longer smiling, but his frightened look had returned.

“I really hate you,” Jonny whispered, even though he knew it wasn't true. For a while Chris stared at him, then nodded his head.

“I hate me, too,” he said. “I'm really sorry, Jonny.”

“It's not your fault-”

“Jonny,” Chris interrupted, laying his hand on Jonny's shoulder, “I broke up with you over the phone.” He gaped a bit, waving his other hand as if to say that even he couldn't comprehend the vastness of his stupidity.

“Good point.” Jonny frowned at Chris, though he had to try really, really hard not to just leap forward and grab Chris in his arms. He and Chris would get back together soon enough; a few more seconds wouldn't kill either of them.

“I understand if you don't w-want me anymore,” Chris said with a little stutter. His insides felt like they were on fire, but not in the somehow good way that he had felt before. He really was afraid that he had actually lost Jonny, and it definitely would have been his fault.

Jonny stared at him, still trying to not give anything away. It became harder and harder with each second that passed, as he could only look for so long at the sad face of the man he loved without reacting. He held on for a few more moments, though.

“When a Broadway baby says goodnight,” Jonny quietly began, and he patiently waited for Chris to continue.

“It's early in the morning.” Chris laughed, breathlessly, and Jonny felt his hand clamp down harder on his shoulder. “Manhattan babies don't sleep tight-”

“Until the dawn.” Now Jonny was smiling, too, and the atmosphere in the room seemed to have lifted tenfold. Soon the voices of the two men bounced off the walls as they began to sing.

Goodnight, baby,

Goodnight, milkman's on his way

Sleep tight, baby,

Sleep tight-

“All right, all right,” Will shouted. He stood and held up his hands. “You're happy now, that's great. Can I have my privacy back?”

Both Jonny and Chris looked up to him as if they meant to appear apologetic, but any emotion other than happiness was completely missing from their faces. Jonny quickly turned back to Chris.

“Wanna go back to the apartment?” he asked.

“The apartment?” Chris repeated, and Jonny grinned even wider.

“Well, we could find a new place. I just think that if we're gonna get married, it would be best for us to be living together.” Jonny reached out and brushed away some of the hair that was resting on Chris's forehead. Chris's jaw had dropped, and he was just staring blankly at Jonny, barely even breathing. “Is that a yes?”

“Yes, yes, it's a yes. Of course it's a yes,” Chris said, spewing the words out like he was afraid that he would forget them if he didn't say them quickly enough. “Oh my God, Jonny!!”

Chris tightly shut his eyes and he wrapped his arms around Jonny, trying not to burst into a million pieces due to extreme joy. Jonny hugged him back, but they were soon interrupted once more by an impatient Will clearing his throat.

“OK, we're leaving,” Chris said, standing up and grabbing Jonny's arm along the way. Jonny was pulled up as well, and a few seconds later they were both walking to the door. Jonny had started to step out into the hallway, but Chris stopped and turned around. “Thanks, Will.”

“No problem,” Will replied, much calmer now that he knew he was actually getting rid of them. Chris smiled at him, then left, closing the door behind him.

As he and Jonny made their way outside, they were silent, because there was no need to say anything. Their hands reached for each other's when they stepped onto the sidewalk. Since neither of them had driven to Will's apartment, they were forced to walk all the way back to Jonny's place, but it didn't really bother either of them. It was nice to spend time just strolling through the sunny day.

“You know,” Chris said as they passed by a jewelry store, probably the same one Jonny had purchased the ring from, “you could have asked me last night anyway, even without the ring. I still would have said yes.”

Jonny shrugged his shoulders. “I know, but... I just wanted you to have it. Of course, it's still not with me now.”

“It's all right, I don't need a ring. I just need you.” Even though he knew it was ridiculously cheesy, Chris still said it because it was true. The few hours he had spent being single were some of the worst ones he had ever experienced, because it truly felt like a part of him was missing. He always thought it was silly for people to say that, that every person should be able to be whole without needing anyone else, but ever since he had met Jonny he realized that wasn't how the world worked.

Despite his terrible morning, Jonny was feeling like a million bucks right about now. He'd misplaced a ring, lost a boyfriend, broke an answering machine, pulled a muscle in his leg- but somehow, through it all, he ended off better than he had started, because now he was going home with his fiance, and nothing could bring the worth of that down.