Picture of the ring!

Hey guys! Another chapter is here! My 18 days-long vacation starts tomorrow, and I can't wait! Even the writing was easier somehow. Usually, I stop for few minutes here and there because I can't come up with the right thing to tie the paragraphs and sentences together, but this one was so easy! I'm so looking forward to the end of my night shift!

Anyway, get ready; the real drama will start soon! I just realized I'm going to be really evil in this book, so don't hate me after the events come around! >.<

Enjoy the chapter!

***********************************************************************

OLIVER's POV

I could feel the stares Charlie was throwing at me, and it was starting to get on my nerves. It started the moment I came to work and now, two hours later, it was still the same. It almost looked like he was expecting something from me but refused to start the conversation.

He and Dylan changed shifts so it was him who was helping me around the kitchen today. And I was starting to regret I agreed to it.

"That's enough! I can't work like this; with you staring at me as if I was some kind of freak. What is it?" I threw almonds I had in my hand, ready to decorate one of the cakes, on the table, returning Charlie's glare with same intensity.

He chuckled, his dimples showing, and leaned against the wall behind him. He looked really cute like this, eyes sparkling and his curly hair ruffled, sticking out in every direction. I couldn't help but wonder, for the billionth time, why he wasn't in a relationship. During the whole five years we knew each other, there wasn't a single person who would interest him enough to make him fall in love. From what he told us, there were men he met, from time to time, to take care of his sexual needs, but he didn't have a serious relationship since Victor. Which was kind of sad considering the bastard was two timing. I always thought it was because he was traumatized by it, but every time I brought it up he just laughed, telling me I was talking nonsense.

"Well, I don't know. Maybe I'm just waiting for my best friend to wake up and finally tell me what that extra shiny thing on his ring finger is," he said, turning his head and playfully pouting.

Looking down at my hand, surprised by his sharp eyes, my whole being filled with warm feelings. An involuntary smile tugged at my lips. Just remembering the events of yesterday's afternoon made my emotions go crazy.

(...)

"Ollie, we talked about children and decided to try for our own. The fact we agreed in this matter and the fact we can't wait to have another child convinced me even more that it's a good time to do this. We just clicked, and if this would be a book or a movie, as sappy as it sounds, I would say we were soul mates and were destined to be together. I just hope you feel the same way because I have no idea what I would do if you felt differently." His eyes filled with tears and he smiled one more time, his face brightening even more. He was so handsome I would've cried if I already wasn't full on sobbing.

"What do you say? Will you seal the deal with me and marry me?"

I was speechless. Tears started to fall down my cheeks sometimes in the middle of his lovely speech, and my head was spinning a little bit from all the emotions I was feeling at the moment. I couldn't believe this was happening. None of his actions in previous days indicated he was about to do something like this. Something so crazy and life changing like proposing to me!

I looked up into his beautiful, now wet and red eyes, and a silent sob escaped my lips. I could see the sincerity and insecurity written all over his face. Shaking my head at the ridiculous fact, I touched his cheeks and smiled. His face was starting to look extremely blurry with all the tears that were gathering in my eyes, but I couldn't care less at the moment. There were butterflies in my stomach, my body tingling all over. Never in my entire life did I felt so loved like in this exact moment. The fact Josh wanted to form a family with me and complete it with a marriage, made me so happy I saw everything around us sparkling.

"Joshua," whispering, I saw his shoulders tense, and I couldn't help but chuckle. He looked so scared, just like a little child. This silly man would be the death of me some day in the future.

"Come on, do you really think I would refuse you after what you just said to me? You know I love you. You know I'm so damn in love with you, I want your child. Of course I will marry you, you dummy. I would be an idiot if I didn't say yes," I said, smiling at him broadly, hugging him when the tears in his eyes started to fall down his cheeks.

I could see people around us looking in our direction, some of them awing and whispering to each other. But it didn't matter. What mattered was the big baby in my arms, whose shoulders were shaking under the pressure of his silent sobs.

"Thank you," he whispered, stuttering a bit, hugging me tightly. I tightened my hug as well, enjoying the warmth of his body around me.

It took us a while before we pulled away from each other. Josh took the beautiful ring out of the box, taking my hand and putting the ring on my ring finger. The feeling of the silver metal sliding down my finger was indescribable. He smiled at me, his whole being glowing with happiness, and before I knew it, I was all over him, kissing him hungrily, totally ignoring the people around us, and my son, who was still filming the whole scene.

"Well, Charlie, soon, I'm going to be Mr. Oliver Owens." I smiled, looking at the ring fondly. My eyes started to grow warm at the memories, but even though I wanted to keep calm and suppress the tears, when Charlie jumped on me and hugged me, congratulating me in the process, the tears just spilled out of my eyes.

"Finally! Finally! I'm so happy for both of you! Josh was dropping hints here and there when we were talking last time, but he never said anything, so I was unsure of it. I even thought I was imagining it or something. But when we came to work today and I saw your smiling face and the ring I just knew!" he said and let go of me, clasping both of my hands for a change.

"Oh my God! There's going to be a wedding! A wedding! Will you let me help you with the preparations? I've always wanted to help organize a wedding! You can't even imagine how thrilled I'm right now!" His whole body was shaking, face shining in excitement, and the smile playing on his face was so contagious I chuckled. He was really like a little child.

"Char, slow down. I'm engaged for one day, and you are already talking about wedding? It's not going to happen tomorrow or in a month. We talked about it a lot in the evening, and both of us agreed it won't be sooner than in half a year. He has an important business trip in four days, and their company is going to be busy in next three months because they are expanding. What more, people who are going to be invited need to have time to come, so we don't want it to be in summer as everyone will be traveling at that time. You will have to wait for a bit. I would actually love wedding in winter but we will see about that." His face lost some of the shine it had a moment ago, but the excitement was still there.

It was the end of April right now so according to our agreement the wedding would be sometimes during October, but as I said, wedding in winter with snow all around us would be beautiful as well.

"Winter would be good. It wouldn't be hot at least," Charlie hummed, releasing my hands and coming towards one of the refrigerators in the kitchen. Opening it, he stuck his head inside of it and started to rummage through it as if searching for something. When his head appeared again, he was smiling mischievously, hiding something behind his back.

"And because I was hoping it would happen, sooner or later, I made sure we could properly celebrate it before throwing a real party." He brought his hand from behind his back, bottle of Champaign in it.

"Let's clink glasses!"

*****

It was almost three in the afternoon and I was just finishing the last cake for the afternoon menu. I was still feeling a little bit guilty I drank the Champaign even though I was working, but it was just one glass and a half, so I guess it was ok. Charlie even called Melanie who was already in the shop, so the drink disappeared in a blink of an eye. When Mel found out about my engagement, she made a similar scene as Charlie and thanks to that, we were almost late to open. We lost over half an hour before getting back to work, and I had to even change a menu a bit because I wouldn't manage to finish some of the sweets I had planned to bake before. I was still a little bit stressed because of that as there were several people waiting in front of the shop when I went to open, and it gave me this feeling we were late even though I unlocked just few seconds after 8 A.M.

Humming while cutting the cake into several pieces so Charlie didn't have to do it while serving behind the counter, there was a sudden loud cracking and clanking noise followed by incoherent yelling. It startled me so much I almost cut myself. The sounds were coming from the front of the shop and because it sounded as if someone was arguing, I left the cake be and started for the door to look what was happening. I didn't tolerate any kind of violence or arguing in my shop. Just before I managed to push the door open, Charlie came running inside the kitchen, almost knocking both of us down as he crashed into me.

It shocked me so much it took me a while before I was able to react at all.

"Charlie? What's wrong?" I asked, ready to go and look what was going on. He looked really shaken up so it was even more shocking. He might look cute and all that, but he was tough as nails.

"Don't go there," he said, his voice trembling, full of tears that started to fall on my shoulder. He was shaking so much it scared me a little bit. The last time I saw him so shaken up was when he was mugged after leaving one of the night clubs he liked to visit. He was so scared and traumatized after the incident, he had to stay in our house for two weeks before he was able to sleep at his apartment alone again.

"What happened? If it was some rude pig that offended you in any way again, I will go out and personally kick his ass and embarrass him in front of everyone in the shop," I heard myself growling. I was tired of all the stressed businessmen who found it funny to be rude and have obscene suggestions towards him. It happened at least three times in total already, and my patience with these kinds of customers was running low. The only thing that saved them from my outburst was the fact I wasn't working at the same days as Charlie. I was really considering changing it. We worked well like this, but I wasn't going to let some shitheads offend my employee just because they thought it was okay.

I felt Charlie shaking his head, expecting some kind of response, but he stayed silent, just quiet sobs escaping his lips. What the hell made the poor guy feel like this?

"If you are not going to tell me, I will find out for myself. I won't let anyone get away with this. They made you cry and because I know you, and I now you don't cry easily, the person had to be extremely rude and offending. People these days are just terrible," I grumbled, slowly pushing him towards the sitting area in the kitchen and helping him sit down.

"Do you want some water or something else?" I asked, thinking about the Champaign that would be handy in a situation like this.

"No, I just need few minutes to calm down," he hiccupped, taking deep breath right after. Nodding, I was about to turn and leave for the shop, but he grasped my hand, his tear stained face looking in my direction.

"You can't Ollie. You can't go there. No, no way. It's going to be a disaster if you come out. Just stay here and wait for Mel to give us a green. There are not that many people around, five, maybe six at the moment, so she will manage." He looked so desperate and scared I just couldn't let it be. If the person out there had such an impact on him, what if he or she was dangerous and endangered Mel in any way?

"I have to. If you don't tell me what happened I have to go out there to check if everything is okay. Mel is my employee and friend. You are having a break down because of someone who is probably still out there, doing whatever." I shook his hand off and went straight for the door. I could hear him babbling something but I ignored it completely. There was no way I would let Mel deal with it alone.

Opening the door, inhaling the amazing smell of coffee and sweets, I went straight to the cash machine and looked around to see if something was wrong.

And I regretted it immediately.