His Secret Addiction

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Damien's POV

I bought the ring on a Tuesday. I was walking past a jewelry store in SoHo and saw it in the window. Simple platinum band with a small diamond. Not flashy, not traditional. Just right.

I went inside and bought it before I could overthink it.

The jeweler asked when I was planning to propose.

"I don't know yet," I said honestly.

"Waiting for the right moment?"

"Waiting to figure out what the right moment looks like."

She smiled and packaged the ring in a small blue box. I put it in my jacket pocket and carried it around for three days without telling Alex.

Not because I was hiding it. Because I was waiting for something that felt right instead of forced.

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

Friday night we cooked dinner together. Alex was teaching me how to make risotto. It required constant stirring and attention, which I was terrible at. He kept correcting my technique while trying not to laugh at how bad I was at following simple instructions.

"You're impatient," he said, taking the spoon from me. "You can't rush risotto."

"Everything else in life can be rushed. Why not rice?"

"Because that's not how it works." He handed the spoon back. "Stir. Slowly. Pay attention."

I stirred. Slowly. Paid attention to the rice and to him moving around the kitchen, pulling out wine, setting the table, completely at ease in our space.

Halfway through cooking, my phone rang. Victoria.

"Don't answer it," Alex said.

"It might be important."

"It's Friday night. Nothing's that important." He pointed at the risotto. "Keep stirring."

I let it go to voicemail.

She called back immediately.

"Answer it," Alex said, sighing. "But keep stirring."

I answered on speaker while stirring. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong. I wanted to tell you Sterling resigned."

I stopped stirring. Alex grabbed the spoon before I could ruin the risotto.

"What?" I said.

"He resigned this afternoon. Effective immediately. No explanation, no dramatic exit. Just a letter to the board and he was gone." Victoria sounded almost gleeful. "Marcus and I are calling an emergency meeting Monday to elect new leadership."

"Who are you thinking?"

"Marcus as CEO. Me as COO. We'll find a new CFO externally. Clean slate." She paused. "I wanted you to know before it goes public tomorrow."

"Thanks for telling me."

"How does it feel? Knowing he's finally gone?"

I thought about it. "Like closing a chapter I should have closed a year ago."

"Good answer." She paused. "Are you happy, Damien?"

"Yes. Actually happy."

"Then I did the right thing buying you out. I'll let you go. Give Alex my love."

She hung up.

Alex was watching me while stirring the risotto. "Sterling's gone."

"Sterling's gone."

"How do you feel?"

"Relieved. Free. Ready to eat this risotto you're making because I've completely forgotten how to cook it properly."

He laughed and handed me back the spoon. "Last five minutes. Just keep stirring."

I stirred. Alex opened wine. The kitchen smelled incredible. And for the first time in a year, Ross Industries felt like something that happened to someone else, not something I was still carrying around.

After dinner we cleaned up together.

The ring was still in my jacket pocket, hanging on the back of a chair. I kept glancing at it while washing dishes.

Alex noticed. "What?"

"Nothing."

"You keep looking at your jacket."

"I'm admiring it. It's a nice jacket."

"It's the same jacket you've had for three years. What's going on?"

I dried my hands and pulled the box out of my pocket. Set it on the counter between us.

Alex stared at it. "Is that…………."

"I bought it Tuesday. Walked past a*****e and saw it and bought it without thinking." I opened the box. "This is not a proposal, not officially. I don't have a speech prepared and we're standing in the kitchen doing dishes."

"Damien…."

"Let me finish. I bought this because I want to marry you, not someday eventually. Whenever you're ready. Tomorrow or next month or next year. I don't care about the timing." I looked at him. "I just want you to know I'm certain, completely certain. About you. About us. About everything."

Alex was quiet for a long moment. Then he started laughing.

"What?" I said.

"I bought a ring too."

"What?"

He went to his office and came back with a small box. Opened it to show a platinum band almost identical to the one I'd bought.

"Last week," he said. "I was going to wait until our anniversary or something official. But apparently we're both terrible at waiting."

I stared at the two rings sitting on our kitchen counter.

"So we both want to get married," I said.

"Apparently."

"And we both bought rings without telling each other."

"Also apparently."

"So what do we do now?"

Alex picked up the ring I'd bought. Looked at it carefully. "This is perfect."

"So is yours."

He set it down and stepped closer to me. "Damien Cross, will you marry me? Right here in our kitchen while we're doing dishes on a Friday night with no plan and no witnesses?"

"That's not legally binding."

"I don't care. Will you?"

"Yes. Obviously yes." I pulled him closer. "Will you marry me?"

"I already said yes. You were there."

"Say it again."

"Yes. I'll marry you."

We kissed in our kitchen surrounded by clean dishes and wine glasses and two identical rings that somehow proved we'd been thinking the exact same thing.

"We should tell people," Alex said eventually.

"We should probably actually get officially engaged first. With real proposals."

"We just proposed. Both of us."

"That was practice. We need to do it properly."

"Why?"

"Because your niece is expecting to be the flower girl and I want to be able to tell her we did this right."

Alex laughed against my shoulder. "Okay. We'll do proper proposals. When?"

"Tomorrow. I'll take you somewhere nice and do it with a speech."

"I'll do the same the day after."

"We're each proposing separately?"

"We each bought rings. Seems fair."

"This is ridiculous."

"This is us." He pulled back and looked at me. "And I wouldn't change it."

That night we lay in bed with both ring boxes on the nightstand.

"I can't believe we both bought rings," Alex said.

"I can. We've been thinking about this for months. Makes sense we'd act on it around the same time."

"Your proposal tomorrow better be good."

"It will be. Yours the day after better be better."

"It will be. I'm competitive like that."

I pulled him closer. "I love you."

"I love you too. Future husband."

"Future husband. I like that."