Page 52 of The Broposal

“Wonderful.” Blaine smiled brightly. “Now that we’re all friends again, let’s just let bygones be gone,byeeee!”

He waved goodbye with a broken-wristed waggle of his fingers, then walked away. It wasn’t until he was out of earshot that Han turned to me and spoke under his breath.

“Okay, confession: I have absolutely no idea who these guys are. Refresh my memory?”

“Me either!” I burst out cackling, throwing myself onto Han in laughter.

“How the hell do we know them?” Han asked in between laughing fits of his own.

“We may have to do some detective work.”

“Okay, let’s investigate.” Instead of sitting down and beingantisocial like Han usually was at parties when he didn’t know anyone, he led the way to a cluster of strangers.

“Hi,” he said, awkwardly announcing his presence to a trio who shared a striking resemblance to each other, all being blond haired and blue eyed.

“Hi, I don’t believe we’ve met?” The woman waved politely. “We’re Zane’s cousins.”

“We haven’t!” I said, relieved we didn’t have to pretend to recognize them, too. “I’m Kenny, and this is my fiancé, Han.”

“Wait, no way.TheKenny and Han? You actually came?”

“Um, of course we came?” I said, trying not to let on how absolutely clueless we both were.

“Didn’t realize we were famous,” Han said. I hoped one of our new acquaintances would take the hint and tell uswhywe were famous, but they did no such thing.

“Not so famous that we know anything about you,” the woman said with an eager smile.

“Well, we must fix that,” I said, taking the opportunity to check something off our “things real in-love couples do” list by inserting a compliment. “Han’s pretty much the strongest guy I’ve ever met. He can bench-press both me and our newly adopted son.” They didn’t need to know that the son in question was a succulent.

“I might be able to lift, but Kenny could take me in a fight hands-down. He’s a black belt in Taekwondo!” Han said, playing along perfectly.

“Oh, please, all you’d have to do is flex before the kick and I’d break my foot!”

One of the guys started laughing. “You two are cute. I can see why Zane and Blaine were so jealous.”

Before I could make any sense ofthat, food started being served, so Han and I found our way to our table. I reached to pull out the chair for Han, but his hand landed on top of mine. We looked up at each other, holding the gaze just a bit longer than necessary.

“It’s my turn, right?” Han said, and I laughed and shook my head.

“The door was automatic! Still my turn.”

Han hesitated before allowing me to pull the chair out for him. Then we spent the next half hour or so being super obnoxious about feeding each other and eating off the other’s plates. The checklist didn’t stand a chance.

Soon enough, it was time for the bouquet toss. Han and I eagerly joined the masses behind Blaine, who held a beautiful bunch of red roses in one hand and a microphone in the other.

“According to gayncient legend, whoever catches the flower bougay will be the next to get married!”

He winked, then turned his back to us as the crowd counted down from five before Blaine tossed the roses over his shoulder.

It felt like the roses soared through the air in slow motion, gradually making their way right into my hands. If I caught the bouquet, that could pretty much replace the doorstep kiss as the thing that would convince the audience of our ship being endgame. I stretched my arms into the air, reaching for the bouquet until I could almost touch it.

Ididtouch it.

A single rose got caught between two of my fingers, while the rest of the bouquet bounced right off. I slumped my shoulders in defeat and turned behind me to face Han, only to find the bouquet inhishands.

Time was still slow as we stared at each other in disbeliefand excitement. Han took my hand in his and carefully plucked the rose from between my fingers. He smiled shyly as he slid the stem behind my ear.

The crowd went wild, but I could still make out a few comments through the chaos.

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