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 Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 11:58 am
"Why would I want a ring??" he sputtered right back, his flushed cheeks not seeming to fade in color just yet. "It's usually the girl who gets an engagement ring!" He paused suddenly, feeling even more awkward than before. "Not... that I'm saying you're a girl... er... in this relationship. Not the girl... N-not that I'm saying... Y-yeah you are a girl if we're gonna get technical about it... and a boy..."
Not that he really wanted to get into gender issues at the moment with potentially judging and discriminating people there... After a beat he continued, trying to get back on topic.
"I guess that doesn't exclude me from getting a ring, but... t-traditionally speaking," he rambled, trying to figure out just what the hell was going on in his head.
Did he want a ring? Hell, that question should be 'did he want Paris to have a ring'?? Chris had never actually thought about it! At least not to the point where it would lead to a marriage! Unless that's what Paris wanted!
But there was more to it than just that. It wasn't as if Paris was against the idea, outright... or at least he hadn't been vocal about his discomforts in this public place.
"I don't want a ring for myself," he concluded, as long as they were talking about engagement rings and things of that nature. "But, I don't know... it might be nice to have guys leave you the hell alone once you flash them a ring," he grumbled, recalling on a number of occasions in which his mother had done something similar in nature, with an added sympathetic smile and apology that she was already taken.
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Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 12:28 pm
Paris’s eyes snapped back to Chris, and he felt himself settling somewhat for no other reason than the fact that he would much rather debate traditionalism with his boyfriend than talk about marriage.
“You are not going to start pulling that crap on me,” he said, not angry so much as… grasping at straws, trying to find an avenue he was more comfortable with. “‘Traditionally speaking,’” he mocked with a soft snort.
Although he supposed that answered some questions. Chris clearly had some traditional ideas buried in there somewhere, which Paris figured wasn’t all that surprising when he considered Chris’s family. They were the traditional ideal, weren’t they? It didn’t help Paris feel any better about the idea at the heart of the discussion happening now, but at least he knew Chris wasn’t exactly averse to it, that it might be a possibility, that this whole thing might come up again… eventually… maybe… so long as they were both in agreement whenever it did, so long as it was… what they wanted… at some point…
Or maybe they were both just being foolish. Who was to say they’d even be together years down the road? Of course Paris wanted to be, but how was anyone supposed to know?
Sweet Jesus ********, why had they even bothered coming into this store?!
“I… It’s not like… I mean…” he found himself stammering again. “Why is it that I… I mean, yeah, people flirt, but… It’s not like… It’s not like they don’t… with you, too. I… I mean, I guess… sometimes… when people are persistent… it’s sort of annoying, and… you know, I thought maybe once or twice… if I got a fake ring or something, but… well, it’s not like that’s always enough… and it’s not like it’s hard to just tell people that I’m not available… and this is all…”
He paused to look around them, feeling the stress rising again. “It’s… kind of a lot… I mean… my parents, and… I just… it’s sort of… I never really thought… You’re not… Are you… Is this you…” Frustrated with himself, Paris stopped, took a breath, squeezed his eyes shut, and then blurted out, “Please tell me this isn’t you proposing, because if it is I… I love you, but I don’t know, Christopher…”
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Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 12:43 pm
"What??" Chris sputtered right back, lifting his hands, smoothie and all, in a kind of defensive stance. "No! Not at all!" He wanted Paris to be very sure that this wasn't him proposing and that they were just talking about jewelry and material things like that. "I love you, too, but we're both still in school and we've got so much to deal with. Everything is already happening so fast, I don't think I'll be able to handle that."
Catching a glance from the saleswoman, he flushed deeper. "N-not that maybe... several years from now, when... you know, we're both out of school and want to talk about it then!" He really, really didn't want to sound as though he was breaking up with Paris or had the idea to break up with him. He just... didn't think getting married was the best idea, especially right now!
He knew there was hesitation on Paris's end, anyway... what with his parents and what happened with them... Hell, his parents hadn't even gotten married until they were thirty, or nearly. There was just... no point to rushing things.
"Breathe, Paris," he insisted, placing the drink on the counter to be able to take hold of Paris's shoulders. He was getting himself worked up over nothing. "Relax... we're not going to worry about something like that right now... but... I don't know. What about a promise ring...? Uhhhhhh... not like... 'eventual engagement' promise ring, but... to show that we're in a committed monogamous relationship or something..."
It sounded ridiculous, but... if it got Paris to settle down and helped him explain how he felt about it, then why not?
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Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 1:05 pm
“I am breathing,” Paris mumbled.
The stress was getting to him, of course, but he couldn’t imagine ever facing this calmly. It was all just… too much pressure at once, trying to keep everything balanced perfectly without shifting one way or the other. He’d blame the sales lady for all of it if he could actually think through the panic. It was all her damned fault for bringing it up in the first place. Was she even allowed to do that??
Still, when he took another deep breath and focused on reigning in the confusion and the dread that came with this discussion, he knew that it was one of those conversations that was going to have to happen between them simply because of who they were—Paris the product of a broken home and Chris the product of an ideal one. If they stayed together long enough, wasn’t it bound to come up? Someone would mention it, surely—he could immediately point his finger at Momma Gallo, who would likely be the first to voice “Soooooooo, when are you going to get married~?” as if that was the obvious conclusion to everything that had led them here—and then they would have to figure it all out anyway.
So maybe it was best that it came up now, when they could get their thoughts out there before either of them got the wrong idea. It wasn’t as if they hadn’t been in various states of togetherness for a year and a half. It wasn’t as if they didn’t know each other well enough for something like this, or that they weren’t comfortable talking to one another about important things like their relationship and marriage, because that certainly wasn’t true. They talked to one another all the time. They didn’t have any secrets anymore—at least not when it came to who they were together.
Wasn’t he just… getting himself worked up for nothing?
“A promise ring…” he said once he’d let out another calming breath. “I… I don’t know. I never really thought about it like that. I don’t… I mean, it shouldn’t really be for the benefit of other people, should it? We shouldn’t need to show them something that… that doesn’t really involve them. Shouldn’t it be… shouldn’t it be for us?” he asked, finally able to look up at Chris again. He hoped he was articulating his thoughts the way he meant to. “Isn’t… isn’t that what it’s supposed to be for? You know… making a promise to each other…?”
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Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 1:22 pm
"Not very well," Chris mumbled back, half serious and half teasing, although his face remained serious. The tone of his voice was light. Concerned, of course, but it was something he expected from Paris, so it wasn't all that surprising.
"Of course that's what it's supposed to be for," he agreed, keeping his hands on Paris's shoulders, not caring at all that the condensation from the smoothie cup was now dripping all over the glass counter. Served them right... "I guess I didn't say that as well as I wanted..." He might say what he means, but whether or not it's worded in the clearest way possible was another story. "To show... ourselves... sort of... is what I meant. I don't give a damn what other people think, but I do like getting you things." Paris wore the necklace he got him all the time!
"I promise to be a good boyfriend and try not to have you spoil me too much," he offered with a grin. "And if we decide to go even further, later on... we'll talk about it then. Okay?"
He hoped that would be enough for Paris. It was enough for him. He just wanted to be a typical college kid who moonlighted as a knight right now. Settling down was... kind of scary to him. Not that he didn't imagine himself getting along with Paris in the years to come, but... everyone knew things changed. He wasn't about to throw himself into something that could end up hurting the both of them later on.
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Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 1:48 pm
“That seems… reasonable,” Paris decided.
There, that wasn’t… that wasn’t really so difficult, was it??
A part of Paris was still very confused and terribly conflicted, fretting about this and that and wondering what was going to happen the next time something like this came up and if he’d be ready for it then, but he was trying his hardest to push it aside and not get too far ahead of himself. They weren’t at that point yet. They were at the here and now. The only decisions he could make were the ones on the table in the present. Worrying about a future that might not turn out the way he assumed it would… that wasn’t going to get them anywhere.
The point, he supposed, was that they were happy like this. They were happy together. They were making sense of their lives—in whatever way they could in a city that had stopped making sense years ago. Spending time together, growing together, living together, surpassing obstacles together, they were following a logical sequence, weren’t they?
Or as logical as anything as illogical as love could possibly be.
“I promise that I’ll always be there for you and that I’ll never give you any reason to doubt me and every other sappy or romantic thing I could ever promise anyone, because you mean more to me than anyone else ever has or will,” Paris rambled on again, though his voice sounded much more steady than it had before. His expression turned serious, his shoulders straightening as he got a bit of his confidence back. “And now I’m going to go tell that woman she doesn’t have to worry, because she’ll likely have gotten exactly what she wanted when she tried to rope us in to helping her make a sale.”
With that, he decided to just roll with it and turned to march back over to the sales lady and announced, “I like the emerald cut but I’m not really sure how I feel about a diamond.”
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Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 2:11 pm
Well, that was easier than he'd expected it would be to get Paris to settle down. Now Chris just had to make sure he had his credit cards with him-- ah yes, he had his wallet in his back pocket.
"You don't have to get a diamond... Aren't there other stones? You like pink, don't you?" he asked, moving up to the counter as well to peer over into the glass display. "What about that one...?" he asked, pointing at one of the pink colored stones. Of course, he'd missed the whole thing about emerald and cushion and button cuts or whatever they were... so he doubted it would be the shape Paris wanted.
"Ah yes," the saleswoman answered cheerfully, reaching in to pull out the ring. "This here is a beautiful, natural pink tourmaline. Tourmalines are the most popular pink stones in jewelry. Don't worry if you're not looking for a diamond. We only have one pink diamond in our stock right now. And it's right over here," she told them, pointing out the ring in question, the stone about a quarter of the size of the tourmaline.
"Why? Are pink diamonds popular?" Chris frowned, not understanding why they had every other stone imaginable, but something like a simple pink diamond was almost completely absent.
"They're quite rare. In fact, the last of the pink and red diamond mines are being closed in the near future," the lady explained although she didn't seem too concerned about it. "We've got lovely pink sapphires as well. These rose pink gems over here are spinel. They have outstanding brilliance and clarity."
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Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 3:06 pm
Cue another information overload.
Fortunately, Paris was able to keep his cool this time, even as his head felt as if it were spinning between tourmaline and diamonds and sapphires and spinel and whatever else this woman was trying to tell them about the wide variety of stones they had in stock. What the hell did he know about gemstones? He barely even knew what sort of questions to ask, much less how to make an educated decision when it came to his choice in stone. He’d never really paid attention to jewelry enough to know anything about the different gems aside from which colors he liked and which he didn’t.
He looked from the tourmaline ring the sales woman had pulled out to the pink diamond, sapphires, and spinel still in the cases and observed, “The diamond’s sort of small.”
“Oh, yes, well they’re extremely valuable,” the sales woman explained. “A high quality pink diamond can price at over a hundred-thousand dollars per carat. This one here is half a carat and around sixty-five thousand on its own.”
“O-Oh…” Paris squeaked, trying to wrap his mind around the fact that a teeny, tiny stone could ever be worth more than his father’s house had been. It was a lot to swallow. “Umm… that’s… that’s way too much. Jesus, I’m not worth that much. Uhh… but… I like the color?” he tried.
“This particular diamond is a fancy intense pink, but they come in various colors, from a very faint pink to a deep, purplish pink. Over here we have a few pink sapphires that might come close in color. Oh, this one,” she said, slipping another ring out of the case and comparing it side-by-side to the tourmaline ring she’d retrieved previously. “This is a medium light pink sapphire, cushion cut. And this pink tourmaline is closer to the color you’d see in a purplish pink diamond. This stone is a radiant cut, so not the emerald you mentioned you liked, but if you’d like to try one on…”
She trailed off and waited, watching him expectantly. Paris hesitated and shrugged before reaching out for the pink sapphire ring and sliding it onto his finger, where it rested loosely.
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Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 4:32 pm
Chris took in a deep breath and let it out slowly as Paris mumbled about the price of diamonds and gemstones, not thinking it was at all acceptable to base one's self-worth on something so trivial as money. It might be easy for him to say, since he'd never had to worry about it... but he hoped that one day Paris would learn to stop comparing everything, himself included, to its monetary worth.
Instead of any comment, though, he reached out to place an arm around Paris's waist, gently rubbing at his side and back, as if that would somehow help him stay calm. "Don't think about the price. Just if you like it and if you'd wear it," he told him, glancing up at the saleswoman. "No prices, please," he requested, not wanting Paris to think there was some kind of limit. He knew he wouldn't be picking the diamond, of course... but everything else was fair game.
"I'm serious," he insisted, making sure Paris caught the look on his face. If he was going to be getting him a ring, he wanted it to be something he wanted, not something that he settled for.
"That one's nice... do you like it...? Or did you want to keep looking? God, Paris... your fingers are so small," he noted, seeing how easily it slipped on and off his hand.
"We can have it sized and ready to wear in less than a week," the woman assured them, clearly excited that they were sounding serious about buying.
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Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 5:03 pm
Paris did have very conventional thoughts about money. He didn’t always look at himself and base his own worth on a price, but he knew what he thought was a lot of money and what wasn’t, and what was worth the high price often attached.
He couldn’t always help the way he looked at things like that. Part of the time he wondered if it was an effect of dancing ballet in spite of his family circumstances. Ballet was expensive in and of itself—the shoes, the costumes, private lessons, entrance fees to recitals and competitions. For most of his childhood his parents had worked hard just to be able to afford it. He understood the value and the sacrifice of it. His parents weren’t made of money the way Chris’s family often seemed to be. They’d made enough to live on, of course, and his mother had risen to a higher level of success when she’d gone to New York and finished school, but for much of Paris’s life so far money had been something of an issue.
He looked at Chris uncomfortably even as his boyfriend placed a comforting arm around him. Paris had half a mind to argue, but they’d had that conversation enough already and Chris never seemed to change his mind about it.
“I like the color of this one…” he said slowly. He tried to focus back on the ring, looking down at it on his finger and ignoring the fact that it was worth anything, merely took it in at face value. “I like that it’s… more understated, I guess… than the darker color on the other one. But, yeah, I don’t like the cut.”
“Hmmm,” the sales woman pondered, actively looking through the cases of rings as he spoke. “Ah, here we go,” she said, reaching in to pull out another ring. “This is more of a candy-colored pink sapphire, so it’s a bit brighter than the medium light pink, but it’s emerald cut, and if you’ll look at the band you’ll see the two rows of diamonds on each side. It’s also got this lovely halo around the center sapphire.”
Paris immediately shook his head. “I don’t mind the halo or the diamonds down the side, but I don’t like how the band is split like that.”
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Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 5:52 pm
He was surprised that Paris didn't argue. One of their go-to arguments was always about money and what to do with it and who was paying for what, but for this...? Well, Paris had no choice but to allow Chris to buy the ring.
A sort-of-but-not-really engagement ring. The very thought had Chris's stomach churning again and did his best to convince himself that it was just a promise ring. Not even a promise of getting married, but just... to be in a committed relationship. That... he liked. He liked the idea of being able to promise something and hopefully give Paris the stability he needs at this time in his life. With everything going on, Chris wanted his boyfriend to know that he wouldn't just leave him... again...
"I don't really like that either..." Chris mumbled, as if he was going to be the one wearing it. No, but he was going to be the one buying it and wanted Paris to like something that he agreed on. "What about that one...?" he asked, pointing to a ring with a clear, square cut stone in the center and two light pink rectangle shaped stones on either side, lining the band.
"Ah, you have good taste," the woman complimented, waiting to get the other ring back from Paris before reaching in to get the other.
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Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 7:43 pm
Paris was pretty sure the sales woman was pulling s**t out of her a** and saying whatever she thought she needed to in order to keep their interest and finish the sale, nodding along and humming with satisfaction and throwing compliments out there when it suited her to do so. He was tempted to turn around and pretend as if he’d changed his mind about the whole thing, if only to crush all of her hopes and dreams, but he hadn’t changed his mind at all and leaving now would only mean they’d have to go through this again now that both he and Chris had the idea in their heads.
He pulled the previous ring off of his finger and handed it back, waiting patiently as the sales woman returned it to its proper place before she took out the next selection.
“This is a one and a half carat asscher cut white diamond, also known as a square cut,” she explained. “As you can see, it’s very similar to the emerald cut. Along each side you have a tapered baguette cut medium light pink sapphire set in a platinum band. Together the sapphires add up to another half a carat.”
Paris wasn’t concerned with the carats so much as how it actually looked, but he nodded along anyway. The sales woman passed it over to him and he cautiously took it in hand, slipping it on to the appropriate finger—this one was loose as well, though he suspected they all would be—to ponder its presence there and see how it looked.
‘Weird’ was his first thought, not because there was anything wrong with the design of it but because he was wearing a fancy ring on a finger he’d never put a ring on before. He did what he could not to think of it in terms of promises and an engagement that wasn’t happening and instead looked at it more objectively. Did he like it? Was it him? Would he wear it on a day-to-day basis? If they hadn’t been suddenly thrust into this promise ring business, would he have worn something like this on a normal day?
As full of s**t as the sales lady might be with her glowing praise, Paris had to admit Chris had a good eye for these things.
“I like it,” he finally said. “It’s not, like, too much. It’s sort of simple and elegant, but still obviously a ring. I actually sort of like the white diamond in the center. It looks more understated, which, I mean, right now, I think that’s what I’d like. And the sapphires keep it from looking too plain, so… I like it. It’s pretty. I feel like I could wear this one.”
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Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 8:28 pm
"I like it too," Chris said, although he thought that was obvious... since he'd been the one to pick it out. It wasn't too gaudy looking, and the quality was good... Or at least he assumed it was good, but his mother had a few pieces from this particular store. "It looks good," he reiterated, leaning down enough to affectionately press a kiss to his boyfriend's temple. He'd try to lean down farther, but their height difference made for some awkward moments when trying to be close in public.
"We'll get this one," he confirmed to the woman behind the counter, reaching into his back pocket with his free hand to pull out his wallet. "Whatever warranty or care plan there is, I'll get that too." He was also going to talk to his dad about getting it insured, but he'd worry about that later.
"Alright, let me just ring it up for you, and then we'll see what size you need and get it sent off!" the woman smiled happily. "We have financial plans available, if you would just take a seat over at the desk right there," she offered, indicating to the place that had been vacated by the other customer, but Chris shook his head.
"Nah, this should be fine," he said, pulling out one of the cards from his wallet and handing it to her, as well as his driver's license for identification purposes. He didn't want her to start thinking that he'd stolen someone's wallet and was buying expensive things.
"Would you like to know the price?" the lady asked, still chipper as she took the card, but Chris shook his head once more. He didn't want Paris to start feeling uncomfortable about what he'd be wearing.
He felt momentarily guilty that Paris's family had struggled through years of hard times when he could just waltz in and buy a diamond... but then figured he did enough to give back to the community through working with the animal shelter and, you know, killing youma.
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Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 8:51 pm
Paris didn’t bother to argue, though he really wanted to and he turned to Chris to give him a look. He didn’t even know what he would have had to say anyway—“why do you do that?” or “shouldn’t you care more?” or “I can at least pay for half!” or something else to express his vexation.
He took the ring off as carefully as he’d slid it on and passed it back to the sales woman so that she could do whatever she needed to do with it as she rang up the purchase and swiped Chris’s card and had him sign the receipt Chris didn’t bother to let him see. Paris stood there and tried not to feel too antsy about it. He didn’t like being left in the dark, he didn’t like not knowing, but if Chris could be so calm about it and just whip out a card and pay for a ring like it was nobody’s business then Paris figured he could keep his mouth shut about it just this once. It wasn’t like Chris would try to pay for something he couldn’t afford.
Or at least he never had before. Paris assumed it to be the case this time as well.
He very determinedly did not let himself consider how much money Chris and his family collectively had. He was fairly sure he didn’t want to know yet. Ignorance, in this case, might not be bliss, but at least it meant less time freaking out over things he couldn’t control.
Once the payment had been made and the appropriate finger had been sized and everything for the purchase and later pickup of the ring had been finalized, Paris allowed himself to be ushered out of the store in a sort of numb state of disbelief.
“Did we really just do that?” he felt the need to ask, though he knew very well that they had.
He didn’t feel so uncomfortable about it anymore, but he certainly hadn’t expected it when they’d decided to go shopping that day—or ever, really, if he was to be totally honest with himself.
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Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 3:14 am
"Yeah we did," Chris confirmed, glancing Paris's way once they were out of the store and he had the smoothie back in his hand. He held it by the rim and down by his side, his other hand in the pocket of his shorts. He let out a small sigh through his nose as he looked back towards the sidewalk they were going down, trying not to let himself frown in frustration.
"I wish you would stop giving me those looks," he pointed out, rolling up one of his shoulders as if to try and get his muscles to relax. "I know it's not something you're used to, yet... but it's not a crime for me to want to give you things. You spoil me all the time, so I think I'm allowed to do the same."
It was sometimes frustrating, knowing that Paris wanted to argue with him, even if he didn't follow through with the thought. He didn't mind minor arguments, of course, but this was something that kept repeating — the whole money thing, that is... It wasn't going to be easy for Paris to get used to, he knew that... but this whole 'Cinderella complex', as he just now decided to call it, needed to be something Paris was eased in to.
"You should get your mom a scarf," he suggested, hoping that the subject switch would benefit his boyfriend, especially if he didn't feel like getting into that conversation that very moment. They'd crossed a lot of bridges together, but coming from two different worlds was always going to be a little difficult to get comfortable with, and clearly there were still things he needed to understand about Paris, and for Paris to understand about him. And the money thing was one of those bridges they just couldn't meet in the middle with quite yet.
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