A quick disclaimer before we begin: This story is entirely fiction and is written purely for fun. It is not meant to reflect reality in anyway. Because of this I have gone to great lengths to change the names of all the people and places involved, and to make them, where possible unrecognisable. If, however unlikely, you are to recognise a person, place, or event, please put this down entirely to chance, coincidence, or just good old improbability. And now on with the story!     

I am Grim, my actual name is Gabriel, but all my friends call me Grim. Why this nick name? Well, my full name is Gabriel, Ryan, Iven, Michaels, or G.R.I.M. The reason I have such a long name is because my parents decided it would be fun to add an extra name for each child; my oldest brother is just called Michael, Michaels. [We sometimes call him M&M.] All things considered he got off quite easterly. I have an older sister who is called Sally Ann Michaels, or S.A.M, this is rather confusing as my parents (who I think where running out of good names at this point) named my younger sister Samantha. That is Samantha Charlotte Ursula Michelle Michaels. Or S.C.U.M.M. My younger sister does not get on well with the rest of our family.

Now that you know these fascinating facts about my family, you can forget them. They play no part in this story. As a matter of fact, I only play a small part in this story, because this story is a Romance! [sort of] and I have never even had a girlfriend. So, I am just a side character. This is a good thing, because, apart from my name I am a very average, slightly boring person. This story is about my friend and colleague Chad, and his girlfriend Ava.

Our office is a bit of a mess; they never finished putting the cubicles up so most desks have one side that is completely open, or the front is open with ‘walls’ on either side, or like mine, I have a wall on one side and the rest is open. This wouldn’t be too bad, except that I sit next to the water cooler [the cooler part of which is broken] and that wouldn’t be too bad, except that whenever someone got a cup of lukewarm water, they would stand there with it wondering how to get rid of it, and then inspiration would strike and they would begin some small talk with me. During which they would put their cup down, and mysteriously forget it! Before wondering off! There were 5 cups on my desk so far, but I could see Belinda was heading for the watercooler with definite plans to make it 6.  There are two things to know about Belinda, she is slightly overweight , and she likes to think she is in one of those trashy romance novels you read online. Belinda got to the water cooler and began filling a cup. I watched on with a resigned feeling of inevitability, but then something happened to change the course of fate: Chad walked in! Chad does not think he is in a romance novel, he just looks like he is the male lead in one. Belinda gave a little sigh, and took a step towards Chad, and tripped over Newton. Newton [he is our IT guy] was mostly under Chads desk trying to fix his computer. Now I am not saying it was deliberate, all I will say is that she did just happen to crash right into Chad. Now as I said I don’t think it was planned, if it had been Belinda probably wouldn’t have ended up bouncing off Chad and sitting down Newton. Newton responded by sitting up, fast. I know this because the calculator on Chads desk gave a jump that would have put most frogs to shame.  Clare, who is our designated first aider, came rushing over from the other side of the office to flap her hands around and worry that Newton might have concussion. I thought she should be more worried about a crushed pelvis, but what do I know. In the end Clare wouldn’t be content until Newton was sent to the hospital, and she insisted that Belinda went with him. This just left Chad, who had had a full cup of lukewarm water poured over him. After the commotion had died down Chad [who had picked up the now empty cup] came over to my desk. At first, I thought he was just trying to correct fate by adding the 6th cup to my desk. But apparently, he had something on his mind, “hey, Grim, do you think this shirt will stain?” “I don’t think so…” I said not at all certain “it is just water after all.” Chad made a sound at the back of his throat and pulled his chair over to my desk, I hoped that he didn’t sit down; Chad is a big dude, I mean 190 odd cm and muscular, and my desk isn’t made with two people in mind, it made me feel like I was all elbows when I had to share it with anyone. “It would just be my luck at the moment if it did stain” Chad said as he sat down. There was silence as I tried to find somewhere to put my elbows, and Chad seemed to settle comfortably into place. A moment passed and nothing was forthcoming from Chad, so, I asked “is there something wrong?” Chad seemed to come back to earth, “no, no, everything is fine. Well, maybe… there is something… it’s Ava…” “you haven’t broken up, have you?” he looked shocked for a moment, and then he laughed, one of those big laughs that starts in the chest and works out. “Why would that be your first thought? No, nothing like that” Chad pulled a velvet box out from his pocket and fiddled with it for a moment before popping it open to reveal a ring with a blue diamond set in it. “I want to propose to her!” he said, all in a rush, “I don’t really see the problem then.” I said “I want to propose,” Chad said, fiddling with the ring as he spoke; “but the problem is I don’t know how too!” “What?!” I looked at Chad in disbelief, he looked back at me levelly, “I was just wondering if you have any ideas…” “I believe the traditional method is to get down on one knee and-” “I know all that” Chad said cutting me off “I mean; I want it to be special. To be… unique…” and then, like a light being switched on, the problem struck me; this was Chad! Chad didn’t do normal. The last time Chad had done the normal thing was in 2018 when he went on holiday to Kapoho [Hawaii] the aftermath of this visit had made internarial headlines. Now I would like to make it quite clear; I don’t blame Chad for what happened, I mean he had no way of knowing his presence would set off a lava flow. But it does make sense that if you cannot even go on holiday like a normal person, proposing like a normal person is out of the question. “Well, I see your problem.” I admitted “but I don’t know how I can help. I’ve never even thought about proposing.” “I was just wondering if you had any family stories, or I don’t know… I just need something that I can build off, something to tweak.” Family stories? Ideas? As far as I knew my father had ‘popped the question’ one uneventful afternoon over a plate of fish and chips, hardly a highly romantic event. And as for original ideas; well, I am just a very normal sort of guy, original ideas don’t flock to me. It was while I was in this state, the state of being at a loss for anything to say, that Chloe stuck her head over the partition. Now Chloe is 23 years old with blonde hair, braids and braces. I have always thought that she would be a very nice person, if it weren’t for her personality. Anyway there she was, braids hanging down over the partition, gazing down at us, and she said “my cousins’ boyfriend proposed to her a few years ago” we looked up at her, taking this as a green light she ploughed on; “he made her one of those charms, you know, the type you put on key rings and bags and things,” I nodded to confirm that I had heard of key rings, I had even heard of putting things that weren’t keys on them, Chloe went on “well, what my cousin didn’t know was that he put an engagement ring inside this charm! She carried it around with her on a key ring for 2 years! And then one night [they had driven out into the hills to watch the moon rise or something] anyway he asked if he could look at her key ring, and when she gave it to him, he took out a knife and cut up the charm, and out fell the ring!” I thought it was quite a good story, but Chad was already shaking his head, “I can’t wait 2 years before proposing to Ava!” “Maybe you could wait 2 months,” I suggested, “No,” Chad said decidedly “you need a long gap of time for that to be effective, or else there is no point in doing it.” “We could ask around the office? there must be someone here with interesting stories?” Chloe offered, I rolled my eyes, the last thing I wanted was to be asking people that sort of question, thankfully Chad stopped her, “Look, both of you,” his expression said he was very serious “look both of you, I don’t want this spread around the office; the last thing I need is for it to somehow get back to Ava,” he paused and then “but if you could ask around… you know; without letting on that it has anything to do with me. I would appreciate it.” “You want us to do the dirty work for you?” I said as Chad got to his feet. He grinned down at us, “I am taking Ava out to dinner tonight, maybe, if the mood is right, I’ll ask her and then you won’t have to worry about it!” he waved a hand as he walked off. “You could always ask at Church,” Chloe said, still leaning on the partition, “no one knows Chad or Ava there so there would be no chance of it getting back to her” I gave her a look that made her shrug and disappear out of sight. I just hoped the mood was right, and that I would get the news of a successful engagement on Monday morning, but somehow, I doubted it would be that simple. If I had only known how complicated it was going to get, I would have come up with some way to get out of it, maybe quit my job, move territories, that sort of thing. But maybe it would not have made any difference, you can’t get away from some things, they are inevitable. I should know; I had 6 cups sitting on my desk!

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The clock finally told us it was time to go home, and so, everyone stopped pretending to work and headed out the door. The heat was still unbearable and the air was muggy. Overhead the clouds were starting to build! I was just getting into a taxi when the first roll of thunder came and it was followed about 5 minutes later by the rain, normally rain comes in drops, but this looked more like someone had switched the shower on, I could see the tail lights of the car in front of us, but not the front of the car; that is how heavy the rain was, and the road was turned into a shallow stream, then as fast as it had come, it got lighter, then stopped, by the time I was dropped off at my block of flats, I could walk in [still dodging the odd drop] without getting wet! I walked in and found a small crowd gathered around the elevator, well, it felt like a small crowd, in reality it was just the superintendent and Mr and Mrs Li, [they live in the flat below mine] the reason they were standing around the elevator was because there was a mattress in it, or should I say half in it. It was stuck, how they had gotten it in the elevator to begin with I do not know, but now Allen [Mr Li] and the superintendent were pulling on that mattress was not moving an inch. This was a problem, as I live on the 22nd floor, and the thought of that climb at the end of a long day makes my legs feel like jelly! So, I stayed to help them with the mattress, after ten minutes the only progress that had been made was that I had a bruise on my left hand, after twenty minutes I was thinking I should have just taken the stairs. And then, at about the half an hour mark, the elevator spat out the mattress it was like a spring-loaded rocket, one minute it was wound tight and the next it was released! It knocked Allen off his feet, but at least the elevator was clear! I hopped in the elevator and was on my way up, nursing my bruised left hand. I had learnt two very interesting things from the Allen and Kathrine [actually three but I discounted the third one until much later] one; they were moving, Allen had gotten a new job out of town, two; Allen had proposed at Mt. Huangshan, apparently there is this custom in China, that couples will take a lock up Mt. Huangshan, and you lock it to the railing, then you throw the key into the gulf. Tradition states that the relationship cannot end unless someone climbs down and finds the key to unlock the padlock. This sounded very much like Chads sort of thing to me. The third thing I learnt; was that Kathrine was worried about her family, they lived in Wuhan and there had been an outbreak of some disease, in the wet market or something; I must admit I was not paying that much attention to this part; girls are always worrying about something. Whatever was going on, on another continent had nothing to do with me after all.