Milkshake Hearts

Chapter 47: Bookcase

A/N: My chapter lengths got a little all over the place when I rewrote this section because the cutoff points were pretty important, so this one is a little shorter, but also without being too spoiler-heavy... The next few chaps are nice and fluffy. Enjoy!

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Shayne tells Courtney he's going over to Damien's after work on Thursday to help him put together a new bookcase in his streaming room. It works, because Damien had done exactly that by himself the night before, so his next stream would actually feature a new bookcase in his backdrop. Still, Shayne wrings his hands together as he sits at his desk waiting for their day to end, trying not to throw any obvious signals of what he's doing after work anywhere.

"What's got you so impatient?" Sarah asks, and he shrugs to buy himself time.

"My brain has just mentally clocked out for the day, nothing in particular," he answers, thankful Courtney is currently down the hallway in the editing room going over something with Tommy and Kevin. Sarah seems to accept it, and they fall back into their quiet work environment until it hits 4 and people start to leave.

"Hey Shayne," Courtney turns to him, grabbing his attention when he starts to pack up for the day, "I'm going to stay on a bit and finish a couple of things here - when do you think you'll be home?"

"I'm not sure exactly, depends how cooperative this bookcase is," Shayne shrugs, glancing over at Damien, who gives a supporting nod, "I'll be home for dinner though."

"Okay, all good. See you later, then," she smiles, accepting his answer as he quickly leans down to place a kiss against the corner of her mouth.

They drive separately to the mall because they have to drive separately home after, and Shayne kind of hates it. His thoughts run over and over through his head without any distraction other than the crappy radio show playing through his car speakers, and he can't get them under control. He's excited, sure - he wants to see it, he wants to have it in his possession for real, he'd given his bank a heads up that he would be making a legitimate $8000 payment to someone...

But at the same time - what if he saw it and it wasn't perfect?

"Why so nervous?" Damien asks him, when they meet up in the car park at the mall, and he sighs.

"It has to be perfect. I need it to be absolutely perfect for her. And- what if it isn't? Plus, it's been so much build-up for two months to this, having it be real is just... a lot," Shayne admits, hands stuffed in pockets as they walk through to the jewellery store.

"You're excited too though, right?" he pushes, and Shayne nods.

"I kind of can't believe in a little while I'm going to be holding the ring that I'm going to use to ask the love of my life to marry me, but I can't wait to do that. I mean- I am waiting a little to actually ask, technically. But yeah, it's..." he trails off, at a loss for words.

"I get it, dude. I'm not going to ask for details, but have you decided when and how you'll do it?" Damien asks.

"Mostly," Shayne nods, "I'm not doing anything huge. It's not our style to get excessive over something like this- but I've got an idea of sorts and I'm thinking of a particular week. I've gotta hide it until then, which could be interesting."

"I would say hide it amongst your clothes, but she wears your stuff a lot, doesn't she?" Damien laughs.

"She does. She only steals my shirts though, so I think hiding it amongst my pants is going to be the best bet," he admits, "I've just gotta be careful who puts away laundry for a while. But I'm normally the one that does laundry, anyway."