Page 57 of Out of Bounds

“I can see that.” Brennan let out a nervous laugh as he sipped his coffee, the caffeine lubricating his brain.

“I’m going to Europe.”

Brennan did a double take. “To see Rosie?”

“To surprise her.” He rubbed his hands together. “I’m going there over Thanksgiving. She said some of the other Americans in her dorm are making Thanksgiving dinner, but I know she’s feeling lonely. It’s really going to cheer her up.”

From the pictures Brennan saw on social media, it seemed like Rosie was having the time of her life abroad, though he knew that what he saw online could be misleading.

“Is she not having a good time in Paris?”

“She’s been seeing the sights and traveling, but I’m sure it gets old. You start to miss home. You start to miss the people you love.”

Brennan should’ve hung a white sheet between two trees for all this projecting Alex was doing.

“I’m worried about her. She’s never been outside the country before. She was terrified of getting on the plane. At the airport, she squeezed my hand so hard before she went through security. I thought she was going to change her mind, but I told her she had to go. This would be an incredible experience.” Alex’s cheerful bravado slipped away. The guy who usually let everything roll off him couldn’t shuck this feeling, and Brennan didn’t want to see his friend in pain. He felt added responsibility to be a good friend since he was secretly schtupping his brother.

“Hey, she loves you,” Brennan said with conviction, even if context clues were giving him pause.

“We haven’t talked as much as I thought we would.” Alex picked at the rim of his paper coffee cup.

“That doesn’t mean she isn’t thinking about you.”

Alex was going to say something but stopped himself. He stared at his computer for a few deliberative seconds before spinning it around.

A website for wedding rings sat on the screen.

“Whoa.”

“I’ve been thinking about this all quarter. How romantic would it be if I took her to the Eiffel Tower and proposed to her on this trip?”

Cliched? Yes.

Shocking? Definitely.

Romantic? Possibly.

Brennan believed one of the benefits of dating men was that they weren’t obsessed with Paris the way women were. But now was so not the time to ponder the differences between opposite- and same-sex couples.

“Are you sure about this? Doesn’t this seem sudden?”

“We’ve been together for two years.”

“But we can’t even buy alcohol legally yet.”

“Not having Rosie in my life this quarter has made me see things clearly. I want to spend the rest of my life with her.” His eyes and voice were possessed with passion. It was a rare time to see Alex Warner get so serious. “When you know, you know.”

But did you know?

“Have you talked about marriage with Rosie?”

“We’ve talked about our future. We both want to move to D.C. after college. We haven’t explicitly discussed marriage.” He smacked Brennan’s arm like he was crazy. “That’d ruin the surprise!”

There was only one right response here: Be the supportive friend. He’d never met Rosie, never seen them together. Maybe Alex was right, and they were soulmates. But he thought that about Paul at one point, too.

“That’s exciting. Good luck, man.” Brennan clapped him on the shoulder.

Alex shut his computer, flush with the adrenaline of his plan. “Are you going to the game tonight?”