I'm not a person who is afraid of just something.

I mean, I made it through life in the mafia, surrounded by guns all the time, and I survived three years with Maya, that speaks for itself.

Jesus, three years. Who would have thought it would last us this long, eh? One would think that we would kill each other over time, but that didn't happen. Yet.

But like I said, I'm not afraid of just something. But tonight? I'm surprised I didn't pack up and flew to New York, seeking comfort with Killian.

"We'll be late." Maya entered the room, putting on an earring. She wore a long, burgundy-red dress that had a slit on the left side that reached just above halfway up her thighs, and the long sleeves covered her tattoos. Her hair, which she had cut just above her shoulders a few months ago, was loose and curled, and she wore a subtle make-up.

I bought her that dress a few weeks ago, and this is her first time wearing it. It's not formal but perfect for this evening. When I suggested she wear it to dinner with Vilma and Luke, Christian's parents, she immediately agreed.

It wasn't a formal dinner, but I wore my best navy blue shirt and white, looser pants. I did my hair and even shaved.

"Well, don't you look yummy." Maya smiled and walked over to me, standing on her tiptoes and giving me a quick kiss on the lips. "You okay?"

"Yes of course." I cleared my throat. "You look stunning." I smiled.

"It's the dress." She winked at me. "We should get going, I don't want Mrs. Johnson to have to reheat dinner. I'll hit the bathroom and we'll be off, okay?"

"Sure." I nodded.

"Okay." She frowned, sizing me up with her eyes. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes, yes, everything is fine, Mimi." I put my hands in my pockets, which wasn't the best decision because my fingers bumped into what I'd been scared of all evening.

"You're weird." She shook her head, but left it at that, walking out of the room and heading, I assume, to the bathroom.

I stood there for a moment longer, looking at the door she had gone through, thoughts of tonight on my mind. What if tonight goes wrong? What if I screw everything up?

"Acker! Move!" I was interrupted from my thoughts by her voice, which I immediately followed. Maya stood by the door, her favorite combat boots already on.

I followed her out of the apartment without saying a word, my nervousness rising more and more with each passing minute of this evening.

*****

Vilma cooked an amazing chicken with rice and vegetables, which Maya ate her weight in. I, on the other hand, barely touched it because I had no appetite. My foot kept bouncing under the table until I wondered how it was possible the table wasn't shaking.

Vilma, Luke, and Maya talked all evening as if it was just another dinner they invited us to. We visit them every few months, sometimes even more often if Luke leaves and Vilma is alone. We like to keep her company.

But I only occasionally joined their conversation tonight. I was quieter than normal, which at least Maya noticed because she kicked me under the table a few times when someone asked me something and I wasn't listening.

When we had all finished both the main course and the dessert, I took out my phone from under the table and wrote a quick message to Julie to do what we agreed on.

"...if you ever need help with the garden, let me know, at least I'd learn something." Maya smiled at Vilma.

"Oh, I'd love to. Maybe you could pick up some flowers and put them in your apartment, how about that?" An excited Vilma spoke up.

"That would be amazing and..." Her words were cut off by her phone starting to ring. "Excuse me." She took out her phone from the leather jacket draped over her chair. "I have to take this, I'll be right back." She stood from the chairs, giving us all a small smile before picking up her phone. "Hey Julie, what's up?" I heard her talking as she disappeared out of the kitchen, going behind the wall, leaving the three of us alone.

So this is it.

I took a deep breath, directing my gaze to the Johnsons, who were both sitting across from us. "Um, I..." I started, but was suddenly at a loss for words. I've been thinking about what I'm going to tell them all evening, but now that it's here, I don't know where to start.

"Yes, honey?" Vilma raised an eyebrow, sipping her wine.

"I wanted to ask you both something." I swallowed hard. "Or rather ask for something."

"Is everything alright? You look a little pale. What's..."

"Let the poor man speak." He interrupted her. "He's obviously nervous. Come on, son, spit it out." Luke laughed.

"I..." Was it so hot here the whole time? "Uhm..." You better hurry the fuck up, Julie won't be able to entertain Maya forever.

"Honey." Vilma reached across the table, placing her hand on mine next to my plate. "It's okay, whatever it is, it's going to be okay." She gave me a heartwarming smile.

"I want your permission to propose to Maya." I blurted out.

The silence after my words was so great that I wouldn't be surprised if I heard mosquitoes outside.

I've been with Maya for over three years now, so I would say it's time to move forward in our relationship. I love Maya and I seriously can't imagine life with anyone else. I can't imagine waking up next to someone else every morning or going to sleep next to someone else.

"I know Maya is like your daughter, and she thinks of you as parents, so I thought it would be appropriate to ask you. Your permission and blessing are important to us." I said after a moment of silence.

"But what about her brother?" Vilma, who was still holding my hand, asked.

"I talked to Theo, and he gave me his blessing." It was an interesting conversation that ended pretty quickly with Theo saying that he thinks of me as a brother and that he knows Maya will be safe with me.

"And you want our blessing?" This time it was Luke who spoke.

"Yes." I swallowed hard, thinking about what I could have done differently to get an unequivocal yes.

"Sebastian, that's..." Vilma pulled her hand back to her, looking at her husband. "Of course, you have our blessing." She smiled, placing her hand on her chest, tears welling up in her eyes.

I looked at Luke, waiting to see if he would say the same because until I heard those words out of his mouth, I wouldn't be able to breathe properly.

"I wouldn't rather give my blessing to anyone else." He smiled, and as the words fell from his mouth, all worry fell from my shoulders.

I breathed out, all nervousness and fear partially draining from me. "That's...Thank you." I smiled at them. "You don't know what it means to me."

The Johnsons didn't have to accept me. After all, I was dating their son's girlfriend. They had a big impact on Maya's life, but also on my life. In the last few years, they have treated me more like their child than my biological father and mother. So if they said no, I don't know what I would do.

"Oh my, when are you going to do it?" It was obvious that Vilma was excited, but she tried to speak quietly so that Maya wouldn't overhear us.

"This evening."

"Do you have a ring?" She quickly wiped away her tears. "Oh, can I see it?"

"Of course." I quickly took it out of my pocket and opened the small black box.

Julie, my guardian angel, helped me choose a ring that Maya might like. Not that I don't know Maya well, but when it comes to something so important, it's better to have her best friend's opinion.

When I told her what I wanted to do, that I wanted to finally propose to Maya, she cried. It immediately scared the shit out of me because I thought I had done something wrong, but she assured me that they were tears of joy.

"Oh, it's gorgeous, Sebastian." I hid it back in my pocket. "She's going to love it."

If she says yes.

"We're both so happy for you." Luke put an arm around his wife's shoulders.

"Thank you, it really means a lot to me, Luke."

I heard Maya's soft footsteps coming back.

The first step, which involved getting the Johnsons' blessing, was successfully accomplished.

Now it's time for the second step. Having Maya say the most important yes of my life.

I was only hoping that Julie had time to put everything together back at out apartment.



Something is going on with Acker. I'm not stupid.

For the last week, he has been...just weird. And today? His attention was somewhere else all evening. I had to kick him under the table to make him listen to us. Mrs. Johnson made a delicious dinner that he hardly touched, which had never happened before.

It was like he was in a completely different world, far away from us. Far away from me.

Whatever is bothering him, I'd rather he talk to me about it than keep it to himself. I hate that I can't read his mind. I'd probably hit him half the time, but still.

After my conversation with Julie, who needed help with something at work, which was weird because I didn't hear any loud noise, I went back to the table and soon we were getting up and saying goodbye.

"Thanks for dinner." I smiled at them both as I put on my leather jacket. "It was delicious."

"Of course. Nice to see you again." Mrs. Johnson came up to me and hugged me. "Take care."

"Good night." I also said goodbye to Mr. Johnson, exchanging fleeting kisses on the cheeks.

We left their house, and it wasn't until we were sitting in the car that the door of their house closed.

At that moment, I punched Acker in the shoulder. "What the hell was that?"

"Ouch!" He grabbed his shoulder as if I had dislocated it. "What do you mean?"

"Seriously?" I raised an eyebrow. "You've been ignoring our conversation all evening. If something bothers you, you should have said so and we'd cancel dinner tonight. Do you know how rude that was?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't think..."

"Exactly." I interrupted him. "You didn't think. Shit, Sebastian, we agreed to communicate." Especially after the fiasco where I thought he was cheating on me.

"I...I know, it's just..." He looked between my eyes, obviously lost, not knowing what to say.

"Whatever." I shook my head. "Let's go home." I looked at the city outside the car windows.

Acker and I rarely argue. Mainly because if I'm mad or something, it usually ends with us both at ease and post-orgasm, a much better solution than yelling at each other over little things.

But tonight not even a night full of orgasms would fix this. The Johnsons are like parents to me, I respect them more than anyone else, and Acker knows that, so today's behavior pissed me off on a completely different level.

When we were less than five minutes from our apartment, he spoke again. "I'm sorry Maya. I didn't mean for tonight to be like this. I have a lot on my mind, I'm sorry."

"Can we leave this for tomorrow?" We have a silent rule that we don't go to bed angry at each other, but I think I'll make an exception today.

We pulled into a designated spot in front of our apartment, but Acker stayed seated even after he turned off the engine. "I'm sorry, but no. Let's go upstairs and I'll tell you why I acted like that today."

"Sebastian..."

"Please." He jumped into my speech, begging me with his eyes.

"Okay," I whispered and got out of the car, not waiting for him to open the door for me.

We entered the building quietly, walking past his tattoo parlor up the stairs to our apartment. We stopped in front of the door, Acker picking out the keys he'd handed me for some reason instead of opening the door. I took them from his hand and unlocked the apartment.

I entered with my head down, taking out the keys from the door, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement in the apartment. I looked up and noticed that the movement was a shadow. And not just any shadow. There was a shadow cast by the candles that were spread throughout the apartment.

What the hell is going on?

My gaze fell to the floor, on which were white rose petals. "Wha-what..." I couldn't get a single sentence out that made sense.

Acker walked past me into the apartment, grabbing my hand. "Come on." He began to drag me into the apartment, walking on the petals.

In the center of our living room there was a heart on the floor, small candles around it.

Oh no, what's going on?

Are you stupid? Isn't it obvious?

"Acker...." I don't even know what I was going to say when we stopped in the living room, but he cut me off as he grabbed both of my hands.

"Maya, you are the most important person in my life. I never thought I could love anyone the way I love you, especially Theo's little sister." He smiled. "I don't know and I don't want to know what my life would be like without you. I never want to find out because, without you, I'm not sure my life has any meaning. Oh, wow, that was cheesy." He laughed nervously. "But it's true. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. The good and the bad. Everything that includes you."

I lost the ability to say anything. I don't even know if he wanted me to say something, but even if I did, I wasn't able to. Especially when he started to get on his knee.

Oh God, this is happening. Jesus Christ, Virgin Mary and all the saints, this is happening.

"Maya Marie Carter." He took out a small black box from his pocket and opened it. It contained a beautiful silver ring with a black diamond. "I have Theo's, Julie's, and as of tonight Luke and Vilma's blessings. So my question is...Will you marry me?"

Four words that I truthfully did not expect to hear this evening. I'm serious, we never really talked about it and now he's on his knee in front of me asking me to marry him?

He waited patiently for my answer. "I..." I opened and closed my mouth, searching for the right words. But the thing is, I don't need words, just one. "Yes."

"Yes?" Acker raised an eyebrow. "Yes-yes?"

"Yes." I nodded still confused as hell.

Acker had a huge smile on his face before he stood up and kissed me so hard I almost lost my breath.

"Oh God, this was intense." He breathed heavily as we pulled away from each other. "When we were in the car, I really thought I screwed up." He ran his hand over my cheek.

"No, I overreacted, I'm sorry."

"No you didn't I was a dick. Here." He pulled back a little and took my hand in his, slowly placing the ring from the box on my ring finger. "I want to marry you, Maya, have kids, grow old and..."

"Kids?" My eyebrows almost shot through the roof. That's another thing we haven't talked about.

"Yes." He laughed. "Kids if you want."

"Right now?"

"Don't get me wrong, I'll be happy to work on them, but no." He shook his head with a laugh. "Not right now."

"Oh, okay." I breathed a sigh of relief. I think I want children, but not right now, we have time.

"That really scared you, huh?"

"No, just...Kids are a big responsibility and I want to be financially stable. To have a proper home for them and give them everything that every child deserves." In other words, I don't want to end up like my parents raising me and Theo.

"But on the bright side...you wouldn't have period for nine months." He shrugged.

Well, when he says it like that. "Oh, yes. Kids, I want kids." I laughed. "A lot of kids."

"We can work on them for sure." He winked at me.

"But you do realize that means no sex during pregnancy, right?" That's not true, but I'm not sure he knows that so why not torture him, right?

"What?" The enthusiasm immediately slipped from his face.

"Mhm." I nodded, holding back a smile. "Nine months without sex."

"You know what? Kids are overrated anyway. Maybe we should..." I couldn't stand it and started laughing. "Oh wow, seriously Maya? That's not funny."

"It so is." I wiped away tears that were partly from laughter, but also partly from happiness because I'm engaged.

"You will pay for that, Carter." He pointed his finger at me.

"You mean, soon-to-be-Acker." I corrected him.

"I like the sound of that." He bent his head kissing me. "Maya Acker." He whispered against my lips. "Yep, I love it."

I think I do too.



I missed this duo so much, so of course I had to write another bonus chapter ;)