Who: Max and Molly When: Saturday afternoon Where: The Whitke's house What: Looking at engagement rings
Max was lying on the couch in the living room, staring at the ceiling. Today had been pretty boring so far, but now Molly was coming over, which should help a little. Max had been resolved not to call her first; he wasn't even sure why. Perhaps it was because he didn't want her to know he was calling her because he was bored, or maybe he didn't want her to think he was needy, or maybe he didn't want to deal with the constant back-and-forth bickering that the two had become so accustomed to since the summer before their senior year of high school. It grated on Max, but he still didn't know how to make it stop. Things had been strained between them since the day Max first mentioned that he thought he wanted to marry Molly.
But they'd been together forever. That was the natural next step, right? But the wedding planning had turned out to be a bit of a contentious issue. The first big fight had been over whether Max should play baseball for the varsity team his senior year. In his mind, of course he should. He was the starting pitcher. In Molly's mind, they had set a date for June, 2007 to have their wedding, so he should use his time to help her get ready. Perhaps it was that, with neither one willing to budge, that had led to Max not buying a ring at Christmas. He had properly saved for it, but he just couldn't make himself do it. It had led to him having to tell Molly that, and the two had managed to barely survive a frosty winter and spring together as a result.
Max did go on to play baseball that spring, and there was no wedding in June. The following March, there still was no set date, but there was a lot of bickering. Max knew he still loved Molly, but he wasn't ready to be married yet; that much was obvious. However, he was prepared to give a little this afternoon, so when Molly got to the house, he planned to let her know he was willing to go look at rings. It was going to happen sooner or later. He might as well know what she wanted, right? Max shut his eyes and frowned, listening for the doorbell. Why did the thought of wedding stuff repel him so much?