very_uninterested | (no subject)

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Being engaged feels weird.

Well, no, it doesn't feel weird, but it does make David feel as if he's finally skipped ahead to the part of his life that's meant to make sense. Which is the weird part, since he's living in a magic city and is friends with people from movies, like the actual fictional characters, and his store is on a ley line, and his sister and best friend aren't here, so none of it truly makes sense.

But he has the store. And he has Patrick. And he actually has friends. Now those friends need to be told that they're about to be dragged into the most amazing wedding planning this city has ever seen. Not to mention the most amazing wedding. They're going to be involved, they have to be involved. They really have no choice in the matter.

He's in a good mood -- obviously he's in a good mood, he's engaged and he's had engaged person sex recently -- and so he's wearing a pleased, thin-lipped smile when the door of the store opens, a musical little bell tinkling overhead.

"Hi," he says, that smile growing wider. As wide as his smiles ever really get. Maybe he purposely flashes his left hand with the gold rings having taken place of the silver. Maybe he wants someone else to be the first to start the conversation.

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"Hi," he says again and he wonders if he should be offended that no one thinks he's ever in a good mood. After contemplating it just for a second, he decides it's actually a very fair assumption.

"I'm in a good mood," he tells Therese as he leans casually on his left hand, positioning his fingers so the rings can be seen. Four gold bands, two on his ring finger today and two on his middle finger. They're perfect and he loves them. "I have reason to be in a very good mood."

He wiggles his fingers a little, as if to make his point.

Therese doesn't get it, at first. Part of it is that she's distracted by David's expression; part of it is that, in all the time she's known him, he's always been wearing jewelry, so the rings aren't, at first, particularly eye-catching. The light hits the gold bands, though, and what he's said starts to sink in, and then she thinks the pieces fall into place. When she'd first met Patrick, he was darting out of the bank, surprised by the sudden arrival of what he told her were David's engagement rings. If he has a reason to be in a very good mood and at least seems to be trying to draw attention to the rings he's wearing, then she does have a guess as to what that reason might be.

"Are those what I think they are?" she asks, her brow raising and the corners of her mouth lifting a little. She doesn't want to jump to conclusions and risk being wrong, but it's an exciting prospect.

Finally someone who gets it without having to have the rings literally shoved into her eyes. David heaves a sigh of relief and beams -- well, as close David has ever gotten to beaming, really -- at Therese.

"These are what you think they are," he confirms. Being happy about something like this is an entirely new experience for him, but he finds he actually kind of likes it. He's going to make a fantastic engaged person, he thinks, especially if everyone fawns over him.

Even having guessed it, getting confirmation is a totally different story. Her smile breaks open across her face, earnestly bright in a way that it rarely is, and Therese glances at the rings again for just a moment before looking back up at David. "Oh, my god," she blurts out, a little awkward in her enthusiasm, but not particularly minding that for the moment. "Congratulations."

She heads further into the store, in the direction of the counter where David is. "That's amazing."

"Thank you," he says in a breathless sort of rush, still looking terribly pleased. Having someone excited for him makes him feel like he's gotten engaged all over again and he wonders now if he should have made some sort of official announcement. Maybe an ad of some sort. Although there really isn't any publication in Darrow renowned enough that David would want their names in it.

"I proposed to him," he admits. That he'd done so is something he's very excited to share with people. No one would expect it of him, he thinks. No one would expect him to be that brave and David can't fault them. Most of the time he really isn't that brave at all.

"You did?" Therese only brightens at that. It's unexpected, and though it would have been wonderful news regardless, she's that much happier for knowing that he took that step himself. Part of that is probably knowing that she would never have been able to put herself out there like that, but for all that David may be far more openly and unapologetically himself than she'll ever be, she thinks he's a little like her in that regard when it comes to the big, emotional things. It's hard to go out on that limb and risk getting hurt.

Considering that he looks happier than she's ever seen him, though, it seems like it must have been worth it.

"I'm so happy for you. Both of you."

"I mean, it helped that I had all these memories from home," he says, gesturing up at his head. "So I remembered Patrick asking me and all the really sweet things he said and it made it a lot easier, knowing he wasn't going to say no."

Or being at least eighty-four percent sure he wasn't going to say no.

"I don't know if I would have been able to without those memories," he admits. "It was still pretty much the most terrifying thing I've ever done and that includes telling Tyra Banks her skirt was tucked into her pantyhose."

"I have no idea who that is," Therese says, though she's laughing as she does. It makes no real difference when the point of the story is the same regardless, and when she knows how significant it is for David to be the one to ask. The engagement itself doesn't surprise her — Patrick told her when they met that he'd proposed to David back home, after the time that David here came from, confusing as all of that is — but his asking does, and it makes her that much happier for him.

"But I'm glad you were able to do it anyway. That's amazing."

"I know you don't and I adore that about you," David answers. Even though Therese never knows who he's speaking of, he can't seem to stop himself from telling her the stories anyway. That she doesn't know these people is oddly endearing and David doesn't even find himself irritated by it.

"It felt very... freeing," he admits with a little wave of his hand. "I'm not exactly known for taking romantic risks because they rarely pay off and generally just end up with me getting burned and having to nurse myself back to health with repeated viewings of Bridget Jones's Diary."

"I've never seen Bridget Jones's Diary, but I think I know what you mean," Therese says, smiling lopsidedly. It had taken months for her to nurse herself back to health, so to speak, after Carol left her; she'd only just found her footing again when she showed up here. Even if there were anyone like that in her life now, which there most certainly is not, she wouldn't be anywhere close to taking a step like that herself, too worried about being left alone again.

She doesn't want to get too much into all of that and put a damper on David's happiness, though, as well-deserved as she thinks it is. "But this time, it worked out. Do you know when you want the wedding to be, yet?"

Somehow, she thinks that if he doesn't actually know, he's already been contemplating it.

"We need to have a movie night," David decides. "And soon."

He knows she knows what he means, he's seen her movie, too, and while he will never, ever say as much to Therese because that would be incredibly weird, he thinks she's a lot stronger than she gives herself credit for. Stevie would like her. He knows that without a doubt.

"I'm thinking spring," he says. "Originally I was considering winter, because how incredible would a simple black suit look on Patrick with the snow just... falling around him? But that might be too much of a rush to get things planned."

"That makes sense," Therese says, nodding in agreement. "Plus you can never guarantee that it will snow, anyway." It does sound like a nice aesthetic, but it's just as likely, if not more so, that everyone would be standing around in the cold without any snow at all, and she has a feeling that no one would be more frustrated by that than David, who can be somewhat particular.

"And a spring wedding will be beautiful," she adds. "Everything starting to bloom, and all."

"Oh, I would make it snow," he promises. It's true he can't control the weather, but David would find some way to make it happen if that was what he wanted and literally nothing would be able to prevent him.

"But I think you're right," he continues. He wants to be right about spring, so Therese must be right about it, too. "And, by the way, you may be a photographer, but you will absolutely only be at my wedding as a guest. I want you there to be part of the party as my friend."

Maybe she would appreciate the work and he has no doubt she would take amazing pictures, but he would rather she be in the pictures.

"Alright," Therese agrees, laughing a little sheepishly. It doesn't entirely surprise her that he's caught her out, in a way; had he not brought it up, she would have offered to take any pictures he needed. If he wants her there just as a friend, though, that's what she'll be, and gladly. Her camera might serve as a nice shield during big social events, but David is one of the people here to whom she considers herself closest, and maybe it will even be nice to be fully present. It's not even like she won't know anyone else there.

"It is your wedding, so just as a guest it is." She knows David well enough by now to know that it would be a bad idea to interfere with his plans anyway, and he deserves a wedding that's exactly as he wants it.

"Honestly, you'll probably appreciate it when you realize I'm going to want multiple photographers with assistants to get all the right angles, as well as a videographer," David says. "We might end up not being friends anymore if you had to deal with me in that context."

He says it like it's a joke, as if the very thought doesn't occur to him on a very regular basis. So many people in his life have just up and ghosted him and he's sure they all had their reasons. He's also sure he is at least one of the reasons and he'd like to avoid that from here on.

"I don't think it would come to that," Therese says with a laugh, shaking her head at him. "I'm sure I'd've dealt with worse, anyway." She loves what she does, but that doesn't mean there aren't occasionally downsides. Some people tend to see only the camera and not the person behind it, getting far too demanding. She can, on one hand, imagine how intense David will be about the whole thing, but on the other, she doesn't think he would actually forget about having a friend taking pictures.

It's just as well that she won't be, though, and can enjoy the wedding as a guest instead. It will, she has no doubt, be absolutely, impeccably beautiful. "But it'll be a nice change, I think, not just running around taking pictures of everything."

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