Promise. (Manthony)

Forty-One

     I take a sharp breath as Mitchel, and I enter a restaurant neither of us had been to. It was just the two of us. We didn't want our friends or family (meaning Clinton) to know that Mitchel and I were going out because we didn't want them thinking it was a date. It wasn't. 

"Why such a public place?" I ask Mitchel in a whisper voice. He shrugs. A waitress recognized us as soon she noticed that we were patiently waiting for someone to seat us. There seemed to be a lot of couples out on dates or business meetings occurring at this hour. The nameless waitress gestures for us to follow her towards the back of the restaurant, where it was more intimate and less noisy. 

I followed behind Mitchel, who followed behind the pretty and slim waitress. I couldn't help but look at where Mitchel was gazing to see if he was checking out the woman in front of him. Oddly enough, he was not. 

     "What if someone notices us?" I ask Mitchel as the both of us sit down across from one another. I receive another shrug in return. "What if they do?" He asks me back, cocking his head to the side, and looking at me intently. It was my turn to shrug. I had thought we wanted this to be private.

The waitress sets down a bottle of red wine, two empty glasses, and two glasses of water for Mitchel and I. We say our thank you's, and she disappears into the crowd of people coming in. 

I take off my blazer and hang it on the back of my chair. Mitchel does the same. My blazer was black while Mitchel's is grey. Our pants were the opposite. For people who wanted to be "low-key," we were far from it. 

     "No one's here watching us, are they?" I gave Mitchel a look that said he better say no, or he can forget about all of this. Mitchel gives me a reassuring smile. "No, we are the only people here I know," He replies. I nod my head. "Well, besides the waitress, but she's just a friend of Amber's, so I wouldn't say I know her that well." Mitchel adds. He takes a sip of water that the waitress had left us. 

"What did you wanna talk about?" I ask Mitchel nervously. I wasn't sure what I was expecting. Of course, I wanted to talk to him about us, but what if it was too soon to be asking such a question?

"Anything and everything, but I do want to talk about us," I took a sip of my water as my throat was feeling dry. I hadn't told him Elijah and I had broken up, but I wanted to know if he would ask me if I planned to. 

"How have you been? We should catch up first," Mitchel suggests. I knew I was awkward, but I was scared this could be the end of any future relationship Mitchel, and I could have. 

"I'm alright, still processing everything, I guess." It was true. I sometimes had difficulty falling asleep when I thought about the weird love triangle Mitchel and I had been involved in. Some of it was still confusing, but the pieces would fall into their rightful places as the days went on. 

"I know," Mitchel begins. "I am very sorry. I realize saying that doesn't change anything, but I need you to know I am. In the beginning, I thought I was protecting you. I thought that I was doing the right thing, but deep down, I knew I wasn't. I now know that you were right. You don't need me to protect you unless you ask, of course." 

I smile at Mitchel's kind words. 

"I understand what you were doing. I could understand why you were scared. I forgive you."

"You do?!" Mitchel asks me with a surprised look. He was so goofy, but I loved it. 

"I didn't want to. I wanted to hate you forever, but I don't," I pause for a moment. Looking up into Mitchel's eyes with a sincere look on my face. "I love you."

Mitchel's eyes noticeably light up. He looked relieved. I felt relieved that he was relieved. This meant that we were both pleased with how this conversation was going. 

     "I have to tell you something," I had to tell Mitchel that his ex-boyfriend had proposed to me. It didn't feel right not to let him know. I wanted to have no secrets. "Elijah asked me to marry him a few days ago. We went out on a date, and he proposed..." I trail off. "at the beach..." I continue awkwardly. 

Mitchel erupts with laughter. "That's so boring compared to how I want to propose," Mitchel confesses as he continues to laugh. He covers his mouth so as not to make too much noise. 

"Y-you what?" I stutter in shock.  Had I heard him right? Was I dreaming? I was doing my best not to look completely dumbfounded. "Stop laughing!" I whisper yell. Mitchel clears his throat multiple times to stop himself from laughing even more. But he fails the moment he looks at me again. 

"Who are you proposing to?" I ask in shock. This is why Mitchel wanted to talk? He wanted to tell me he was proposing to someone? I had just told him I loved him, and it blew up in my face.

"You," He smiles happily. "Someday," He adds—my jaw drops. I rest my elbow on the table as I chew on the nail on my thumb. "You want to get married?" I finally gained the courage to ask. Mitchel rolls his eyes at me and grabs the hand I was chewing my nail on. 

"Of course, I want to get married. I didn't know how to bring all of us this up because I was afraid you were tired of me now. I was afraid that you had or wanted to move on. I told myself that I couldn't blame you if that were the case because I'd move on from me too."

I rest my other hand on top of Mitchel's. 

"I have. I said yes to Elijah," I joke. I bite the inside of my cheek so I don't smile and blow my cruel prank. Two can play at this game. Mitchel snatches his hand back and looks at me like I had just told him I killed his family. 

"But...I thought you hated him now!? You just said you loved me!" He spits out hurriedly. "Did you forget what he's done? Did someone give you a concussion? What!?" He yells louder this time. A few people look at us with rude looks. I put my hand up as if saying sorry. 

"Relax! I'm kidding! I said no. We broke up," I tell Mitchel rather than dragging out my prank as I had initially planned. He places his hand on his heart and looks up at the ceiling. "Thank God, the universe, whoever is up there," Mitchel rambles dramatically. 

     "Can I be honest about something?" Mitchel questions looking a bit nervous. I nod for him to go on. "I'm upset," he states. I raise an eyebrow. What a candid statement. "You going to tell me why?" I cross my arms and look around at the people who surrounded us. I felt nervous, but I wanted to trust Mitchel when he said no one was spying on us. 

"I'm upset you had sex with Elijah," My focus immediately turns back to Mitchel. I sit up straighter, embarrassed by my previous actions. "I'm so sorry about that...if I had known you two had been together, I would have never-"

"No," Mitchel interrupts. "I didn't mean it like that. I'm upset because," Mitchel starts to play with the sleeve of his white button downed shirt. "I wanted to be your first," He says very quietly. I feel my cheeks up at his words. I wanted to say I did too, but part of me enjoyed that I made him shy about this subject. The power gave me some sort of satisfaction. It sounded fucked up, but we all had our quirks. 

     I smirk at Mitchel. Sitting back in my seat and crossed my legs from under the table. "Can't reverse time now," I state, attempting to annoy Mitchel by this fact. It seemed to have worked. He rests his arms on the table as he looks at me with a seductive gaze. 

"What you're doing doesn't bother me," My face drops at Mitchel's careless attitude. "It doesn't matter since I'm not going to touch you like that until we're together. I want it to be special." Mitchel smirks at me now. How had he done a 180 and made me feel annoyed and impatient? I squirm in my seat as Mitchel's gaze turns me on. 

I swallow hard. I wouldn't say I liked how easily he made me feel hot and bothered. I shake my head at him and dig my nails into the palm of my hand. 

"Besides, I'm the one who's going to have you for the rest of our lives," 

I looked around us as I felt like the entire restaurant could hear our conversation. 

"Who said we were going to be together forever?" I lift my chin to be cocky. Mitchel clicks his tongue and leans back in his chair. He stayed silent for what felt like ten minutes. 

"Me," Mitchel smiles confidently. "Our kind of love doesn't go away and I'm not going to lose you again."