What can make me feel this way?

 

Alfie was not going to change Boone's mind. If this was what Maddie wanted, well...it was going to happen.

He snapped the little box closed. He knew her ring size. He got the engagement ring at the local jeweler's on main street. In fact, she had pointed to it the time they went in. He knew that smile. It made him smile too.

"Maybe if you wait a year," Alfie had said while they were out Christmas shopping. They mainly shopped for Boone's adopted mother and their Dad. Alfie had several little things to get Zoey, mostly on her wish list which weren't that expensive, like bath towels, body wash, fuzzy slippers and pajamas. He'd gotten them both red sweatshirts donning "My Merry Era." Seriously, Boone thought his brother was a little silly, but he guessed it was a silly time of year. 

"I don't want to," He felt sad about saying this, but happy too. He knew they were happy together.  He wanted to keep it that way.

"But you haven't even slept together," Alfie pointed out that had to be a big factor in all this.

"Oh, God..do you have to bring that up?" Boone pouted about Alfie's observation. After all they were in the middle of ROSS when Alfie said that. Although, no one seemed to notice. "It'll be fine."

"What if it isn't?" Alfie persisted.

Boone had sighed then. It was the noble thing to do, he kept telling himself. He didn't want a long engagement, but he wouldn't tell his brother this.

"Oh, I don't know what to tell you," Oliver's dad squinted hard as he carried Carrie through the department store. Neither had done much shopping, other than finding everything Carrie wanted for Christmas which was weeks ago.

"It might not be that bad, if..if you know, you did have someone extra around the place," his dad Ed told him about the Gabby matter.

"Dad, she only has a one bedroom place. That would mean, we..we would be sleeping together."

Oliver looked at him wide-eyed. Carrie glared at him with a round pout as if she didn't like what he was saying.

"I'll sleep with Daddy. She can have my room." 

Carrie's answer only made Oliver's eyes roll. Now he was giving Carrie a pout. His father shook his head. He recalled how he slept in a the basement until winter set in when he moved in with Oliver's adoptive mother Betty. "Winter is a good time to sleep together."

His dad sounded rather Indigenous or was he just a pagon, after all. Of course, he couldn't find a thing for Betty. Oliver reached for the beautiful electric blanket and put it in the cart. He soon found her favorite chocolates and the perfume she liked. These were things his dad paid no attention too.  Oliver felt so down and out, but he reached for his phone to text Gabby. He wanted to know these things about her.