THE ZINE (Newark to Seattle) - Frerard | ✔️

eight - epilogue

"Hey, Giselle," Frank murmured as he took his place next to her at the bar.

"Hey, Frank, you're almost late."

"You know why..."

"What did you forget this time?"

"Batteries for the external flash." He reached out and touched her waist, her hips, and his hand settled right above her ass.

"Hands to yourself," she whispered, hiding her smile, but he just pulled her closer to himself. She giggled.

"Frankie, the band's about to start playing, and the team will be here soon."

"They're not here yet," he said, and kissed her head, but let her go anyways. "I should probably get to the front before the moshers start, though."

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm going to start taking some notes. I'll see you afterwards."

"Yep," he replied, but before he could start weaving through the crowd, she pulled him in for a kiss.

"Just for luck," she said sheepishly, and he kissed her again.

"Just for luck."

...

"I got a bunch of portrait style shots of the bassist and drummer with a couple of prime lenses, and Thom got a bunch of wide-angle shots of the whole band using the fisheye and the 18 to 140 lens," Jamia reported when they all regrouped at the end of the show.

"Perfect, because I got the guitarists and the singer's profiles," Frank said, grinning at his photo team. "It's really great to have you guys."

"C'mon, Frank you've been saying this for a year," Thom said, nudging his shoulder, and Frank shrugged.

"Because it's true. You guys deserve to hear it."

"Cut the sappy shit with us and go over to Gee already, your timing's gonna be off if you keep stalling," Jamia said a little more quietly, even though the three of them could clearly see that she was still talking with the other writers.

Frank nodded, and the three of them began to weave through the crowd towards Gee and the writers.

"Oh!" she said when she saw them, "perfect timing. I was just wrapping up and telling them we should leave. Everything good on your guys' end?"

"Absolutely!" Thom covered while Jamia slipped Frank the little box he'd given her a few days back. "We were just talking about how we managed to split the workload perfectly to get shots of everything."

"Awesome," Gee said with a grin. "So you guys are ready to head out too? I don't wanna keep everyone here longer than they have to be."

"Well, there was one thing," Frank said, and Gee looked at him expectantly. The writers and photographers held their breath expectantly, and Gee could tell something was going on.

"Frank? What did you scheme up this time? Is there another band?"

"Um, no, actually," he said, strapping his camera over his shoulder and taking both of her hands in his. "I was going to ask you something."

"Frank...?" Gee asked, smiling a little, and when he slid down and got on one knee, she pulled him straight back up. "Get the fuck off the dirty floor, those pants are new!"

"Just let me propose to you!"

"No, you can do that standing up!" Gee said, tears finally breaking their way onto her cheeks. Her hands were shaking and she was grinning, holding onto Frank's hands so tight that her knuckles were white as fire.