Tony had had the ring in his pocket since before his accident. He’d been carrying it around since Thanksgiving actually, when he was sure that Loren would be inviting him over to meet the family. He would have proposed that night, but as always, Loren was silent about his family and his friends. They’d been dating for almost two years at this point and if Tony didn’t know better, he’d say that he was Loren’s bit on the side with how in the dark he was.

Loren had been the one to find him caught under that car lift a few weeks back, he’d waited with him until the ambulance came, and then he stopped answering his calls for the last two weeks. In an arm sling and with two black eyes, Tony took himself from the Uber to the small café and bookshop his boyfriend owned. There were two people there having scones and coffee, but Tony didn’t pay a lick of attention to them.

He thumbed the ring box in his pocket with his uninjured hand and strode right up to the counter before he paused. This felt familiar. This felt like he’d done it before. Maybe he’d been obsessing a little about it….?

“You haven’t answered the phone so I had to call a car to come and get me.”