Can we try again?

Sixty-nine

Victor's eyes widened. "Oh my gosh!" He exclaimed, a little too loudly, drawing the attention of a few people. 

"Ehh! Calm down, please." Daniel hushed him.

"How can I? This is good news, man!!! When are you planning on doing it? Does she suspect you're gonna pop the question? Has she been giving you hints? Is she ready? Are you ready?"

"So many questions bro." Daniel sighed, grinning a little. It was quite exciting talking about it with an actual person, rather than just contemplating in his head. "I'm the one meant to ask the questions, cos I don't know what to do. That's why I invited you here."

"I see."

"Yeah, so please advise your brother."

Victor huffed loudly. "There's not much to say other than, are you ready? And do you think she is?"

Two simple questions. Two simple but tough questions. 

Was he ready? 

"I really don't know," Daniel confessed. "I can't say I'm 100 per cent sure, but there's one thing I'm sure of and that is, I love Kim and I really want to spend the rest of my life with her. I mean, living with her just seems so natural and unforced. When I'm with her, everything is just perfect, and the girl is just . . .I dunno. . . she's amazing. So yeah . . ."

Victor gave a slow clap and shaking his head, said, "Chai! Love has turned my friend into a poet o," He teased. "See what happens when you fall in love."

"You're a big fool," Daniel retorted, and they both laughed. 

"But in all seriousness though," Victor started. "I think you're ready. From what you just said, I would say you're ready and that is the first step. Now, do you think she is? Has she been giving you hints, talking about marriage or engagement rings, or wedding dresses, how she wants her wedding to be like, how many people she wants to invite, and all that stuff? Cos you know girls will not tell you straightforward, they will be dropping hints like bombs everywhere and as a guy, you have to be smart to pick it up, or else one day, you'll end up in deep shit." He shook his head. "Trust me, I'm talking from experience."

Daniel tried to recall if Kim had ever mentioned anything of some sort. 

Well, there was one time though. They were sat on the bed, after a heavy dinner, and she showed him a wedding dress on Pinterest. She'd literally shoved the phone in his face gushing over the dress, 'oohing' and 'ahhing' about how gorgeous it was. 

"Babe, look at this! Isn't this dress just beautiful?" She's gushed. "I mean look at the frails. The details of it are just unique. Wow! Look! It just popped up on my Pinterest homepage." 

Daniel had just nodded that evening, feigning interest, and saying "wow" too, just to be polite. He couldn't for the life on him remember what that dress even looked like. Thinking about it now, he could see that it didn't just pop up on her Pinterest homepage. Pinterest didn't work like that. You'd have had to search up on a particular idea to start getting similar recommendations. So she must have searched on wedding dresses at some point to get pop-ups like that.

There was another time, he remembered, she mentioned she didn't like a big wedding with hundreds of people who knew nothing about her. She said she wanted a small wedding with just her family and close friends. She also talked a lot about her friends who were married, and what they told her marriage life was like. And of course, there were the times they talked about having a family.

Those were the little hints Victor was referring to. The signs.  Had he been dumb enough not to pick up on the signs?

He sure had!