Softness

He looked through his hair at the red lighting blinking on the wall
"No fucking way..." Logan spoke, his words slow and articulate, barely above a whisper. Defeated, he shoved both his hands into his pockets leaned his forehead against the wall, and found himself automatically fingering the cold source of his shame in his right pocket. Behind him, an exhausted sigh echoed in the dark box.

"I'm ready for this night to be over," came the weak voice from the far corner of the elevator. "I-" she stopped, suddenly realizing the irony of her own situation


"No way... I've gotta be dreaming!" Taegan wrapped her arms around Logan, her face lighting up with joy. "How on Earth did you afford this?", her tone quavering with excitement, and implying her question was somewhat rhetorical. Logan remained silent, but his pride in his own decision was abundantly clear. Soft sounds of conversation, and the smell of expensive food bled out the restaurant into the night as the two stepped in, hand in hand.


"I'm not getting any reception in here" came Logan's voice, flat, his eyes still staring at the blinking red light on the wall. The time on his phone read that they had been stuck there for nearly forty minutes.
"Logan, I just..."
"Please. Not now... I... not now."


The couple sat down in a secluded, softly lit corner of the restaurant, ordered their food, and waited while they conversed frivolously, speaking of upcoming plans for the weekend, and social gossip as a an air of general optimism permeated the air around them, adding up to a total atmosphere somewhere between lovers and sibling intimacy.

Eventually the food arrived.


Seventy minutes, and activity was occurring outside the elevator, and conversation was deceased entirely. Logan sat, back to the wall, looking forlorn while the small object on his person seemed to be burning a hole in his fist. Confused, weary and distraught, Taegan sat in the opposite corner, facing the ground as tears formed in her eyes.


Before too long, the couple had finished eating, and with full stomachs and happy hearts, the two of them looked up at the waiter as he said with a distinct formal professionalism, "Dessert is on the house."

Taegan exhaled heavily, and looked toward Logan, a fulfilled smile painting her face.
"Honey... I wish this night didn't have to end." she said innocently, slowly closing her eyes, as if trying to remind herself of the reality of her own situation.
"Do you mean that?" Those four words seemed to linger in the space between them, reverberating in their own seriousness.
Rather than answering, the brunette angel across the table simply grinned

Short minutes later, two plates arrived, both carrying slabs of soft white cheesecake, one with a long red ribbon spiraling around the plate. Looking up at Logan with a mischievous suspicion, she began tugging on the ribbon, unraveling it with increasing rapidness, her childlike curiosity clearly taking hold as the wrapped the excess fabric on her wrist.
Time stopped as she saw it.
A ring.
The world distorting and tilting around him, Logan got on the floor beside his lover's chair.
"Taegan, there's a thousand ways I could say this, but only one I really know how to... Taegan, the night doesn't have to end. Not now, not ever. Taegan Gray, will you let this night last?"

Taegan looked down at the beaming, but clearly terrified man in front of her, and back to the gold ring resting in her palm and shook her head as her lower lip began to quiver.
"I'm sorry." A single tear rolled down her cheek as the dozens of patrons witnessing the spectacle pretended not to notice.


Ten minutes later, they silently stepped into the elevator to take them home.