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Returning, she found Jax pulling on a tight pink t-shirt proclaiming “It’s an Anime thing, you wouldn’t understand.”

“Hey honey, that was the ring guy.”

Scrunching her eyes, Cynthia asked, “What ring guy?”

“Umn, the one we were to causally come across in the vendor room and then I go down on one knee there and ask you to marry me, and then we pick out your engagement ring and our wedding rings.” Jax rubbed his neck. “And that would have been a disaster. I don’t know what I was thinking, putting you on the spot like that in public. Anyway, he is wanting to shut down for dinner and was wondering if we were coming by soon. I … well, I am going to go meet his assistant at the table and we are going to put together a selection and then, once Xander finishes his dinner, we’ll come up here and let you pick things out. Is that okay?” Jax used his puppy dog eyes like he always did when he did something he shouldn’t have as he shuffled toward the door.

Cynthia held up her hand. “Wait, you actually had a plan?”

“Um, yes?”

“You actually called ahead to arrange to buy rings.” Cindy was agog. “Who are you, and how far in advance did you plan this?”

“Hmm, it was part of the plan when I asked you to come to the con with me. I saw the vendor on the website when I was making reservations, and it went from there.”

“Jax, that was like, three months ago.”

“Yes?”

“What else is planned? A quiet dinner in the hotel room afterwards by candlelight?”

Jax shifted from foot to foot, looking abashed, “How did you know?”

His fiancee rushed across the room to hug him fiercely. Burying herself in his chest, she whispered, “I never knew you were a romantic. You do so many things off the cuff, I’m never sure if you really mean it.” She drew back, tears streaming down her face, making Jax feel very uncomfortable. “The public question would have sucked, don’t do that. E.V.E.R. Okay?”

Jax smiled down at her. “Okay.” He wiped a few of the tears away. “But the ring guy coming up, and food?”

“Wonderful. You are the most wonderful man in the whole world!”

Quickly kissing her, Jax opened the door. “I’ll be back soon. Why don’t you read some of the books we brought with us until I get back?”

“It’s what I always do while you are at a con.”

“So you get to do it where I can see you this time.” He tapped her nose while standing in the hallway. “I can get used to you attending conventions, just to let you know, even if you never leave the room. I love you.”

“I love you, too, you goofus.”

Once the door was closed, Jax pulled out his phone while taking huge strides down the hall to the elevators. Speaking at the black square, he asked, “Jeeves, what is the nearest Italian restaurant? No, wait. Mexican. Delivery.” He pushed the button on the wall to start the long wait for an elevator. The phone listed several places nearby, he scrolled through until he found one with delivery to the hotel. He was just finishing up his order when the elevator doors opened.

“Going up?” Someone in the small crowd asked.

“I think going up is the only way I will be able to down,” he said, stepping sideways into the lift, swimming toward the back through the ocean of flesh.

“Sure enough,” can the random answer.

***

Several hours later Jax sat across from the love of his life, for real this time, staring into her chocolate eyes and thanking his lucky stars. He had fallen in love for the first time in high school (middle school crushes do not count), the second time he lost his heart was Freshman year of college – and that one had been his biggest mistake (fortunately the antibiotics cleared his system), then again in Junior year. Him and Joyce might have made it the distance, but she wasn’t willing to leave the mid-west and his only job opportunities were at the coasts. She refused to follow even when he got her job interviews in her field paying her more than she was making in the town where she had grown up and given her more opportunity for advancement. He kept in touch for a couple years through social media, bleeding at every post like a love-sick idiot, until, one day, he was delivering product to at-home medical transcribers for a new corporate client and met Cynthia. He had remember previously running across her at a library event featuring the classic Vampire Hunter D, so they talked about that while he showed her how the new equipment worked. Before he left, she mentioned a dollar theater running anime nights on Wednesday and invited him.

One thing led to another.

Now he sat across from the most amazing woman in the world. Her eyes sparked like the three stones in the Tardis blue ring on her left hand. Xander had taken their measurements to make a set of matching wedding rings and promised them by the end of the summer convention season. Knowing the promptness of crafters who sell at conventions, Jax figured he would get the rings by Christmas.

Cynthia kept looking up at him, through the purple candles set into muetre skull candlestick holders he found when racing through the vendor room to catch the assistant before the convention closed the vendor room for the night. By the time the ring merchant finished his dinner and returned, the Mexican place had delivered to the front desk and Jax picked up the food on the way by. The candlesticks day-of-death theme tying into a Mexican tradition was a pure coincidence but made everything looked well-planned and coordinated. A perfect night for his perfect woman to remember.

 

A to Z Short Story List Breakdown

Rainbow Spectrum (A to F)
Marathon Party (G to M)
Trigger: Cutting (N to Q)
Bookstore Sort (R to T)

Panic at the Convention (U to Z)
4/24/2019 – U is for Uniform
4/25/2019 – V is for Volunteer
4/26/2019 – W is for Weasels
4/27/2019 – X is for Xander
4/28/2019 – Y is for Yuengling
4/29/2019 – Z is for Zillion

Cindy woke up and levered herself off of Jax, wiping her mouth for drool then his still bare chest. “You should have woke me.” She pushed her hair back from the face and blinked, looking around the hotel room.

“Why?” Jax sat up, rearranged the pillow, and leaned against the posts. “It’s not often I get you completely to myself.”

“You are at a con, you doofus. You don’t need me.” She rolled away to sit on the edge of the bed. “You never need me.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Stop right there.” Jax reached across to grab her by the wrist. “I always need you. Got that. Don’t let that brain-weasel tell you otherwise, okay?” His blue eyes bore into her chocolate ones.

“But you are at a con. You go to them all the time.”

“And I text to you about them all the time while I’m at them.” Jax moved to sit next to her. “I want you here. Got that. I am so glad you came. You make me happy just by being in the same room.”

She shook off his hand to rub her arms with her hands, crossing her arms across her chest. “But I can’t. I can’t be in the same room. We just tried it and I–”

“And I screwed up.” Jax said firmly, interrupting. “I didn’t notice you having problems, and I should have. You are doing this for me.” He lifted her chin with a finger as she tried to look away. “You are incredibly brave. The bravest person I know.”

“I panic at nothing.” Cindy tried looking away at the abstract paintings of triangles, circles, and squares decorating the hotel room.

“No, you panic at something, we just don’t know what. And you were willing to risk that for me.” He gently pressed a finger against her cheek until she was staring at his eyes again. “Wow,” he said intimately. “You ask me to go into a place where I panic, like a roomful of clowns, I’m not sure I could.”

Cynthia laughed a sad chuckle. “I promise I will never drag you to the circus.”

“Thank goodness,” Jax sagged in pretend relief. “You are the perfect woman for me. I should marry you.”

Red rushed up both sides of Cindy’s neck to flush her checks, ears, and forehead. “Wha…”

Jax did a control fall to the floor in front of the bed, ending up on one knee and grasping both her hands. “Cynthia Amanda Cooper, will you marry me?”

“Ah.” She stared at their joined hands, pulling hesitantly away, but him firmly holding on, but gently. If she actually tried to pull away, she could. “Ah.”

“I meant to have a ring, but …” Jax shrugged, “you know me and being organized.”

“No, you don’t want to be married to me.” Cindy shook her head, whipping the purple hair side-to-side. “You can’t. It’s just hormones talking.”

“I think after four years, we are pretty much beyond the in-love hormone stage.”

“But I can’t be there with you. You are great and handsome and smart and–”

Jax interrupted, “And you are smart and beautiful and funny and caring and sexy.” He released one of his hands from where they were jointed and lifted a finger up to her lips where more protests were forming. “Stop, stop. Shhh. If we were at home, last week or the week before that and I asked, what would you have said.”

Cynthia waited until he lifted the finger away, then bit her lips, tensing her shoulders.

“Ah, ah.” He waved his finger side-to-side the first time she opened her mouth to speak. “The truth.”

She relaxed her shoulders, then leaned forward until their foreheads touched. “Yes. I would have said yes,” she said, “I’ve been ready to say yes since you fell shoveling my snow that first year.”

“Give a guy some hints,” Jax whined.

Cindy shrugged. “I let you move in the next week.”

“Okay, that was a hint. I got to admit that should be considered a hint.” Rocking back on his heels to switch to a full kneeling position. “I’m an idiot.”

“No, Jax, you are a doofus.” Cynthia ran her hand over his hair until she let her hand drop on his shoulder. “My doofus.” She leaned all the way forward to kiss him quickly on the lips, falling completely off the bed into his lap in the process. Laughing in each other arms, peppering kisses on each other between the twin full-sized beds in their hotel room until Jax’s phone rang.

His newly-minted fiancee let him roll away immediately. His medical equipment sales position lived and died on being available to his clients 24-7. Jax pulled the phone out of the holster on his belt and looked at the number before swiping to answer. “Yes? Jaxson Miller here.”

Cindy got herself off the floor, touching him on the head as she passed by where he sat to go to the bathroom and give him privacy, carefully not paying attention to anything he said. Just like he carefully ignored any paperwork and phone talk about her medical transcription job when he had to come into her home office for something. While most of Jax’s clients were hospitals and doctors where HIPPA did not matter since owning certain machines are a given, he had some direct customers where having equipment really was life and death and the medical information was protected.

 

A to Z Short Story List Breakdown

Rainbow Spectrum (A to F)
Marathon Party (G to M)
Trigger: Cutting (N to Q)
Bookstore Sort (R to T)

Panic at the Convention (U to Z)
4/24/2019 – U is for Uniform
4/25/2019 – V is for Volunteer
4/26/2019 – W is for Weasels
4/27/2019 – X is for Xander
4/28/2019 – Y is for Yuengling
4/29/2019 – Z is for Zillion

“I’m okay.”

“You sure hon?” Jax asked, turning the scratches away from her.

She nodded, rubbing her face, smudging her thick makeup. Jax, pulled his t-shirt over his head, quickly mopping his face to get the blood off, then passed it to her. “But–”

“I got more upstairs.” Jax gently tucked a lock of hair behind Cynthia’s ear.

“You’re half-naked.” She shook her head. “You can’t go out in public like that.”

“Seriously, after what you’ve seen in those halls?” Jax smiled until she smiled back ruefully. The cos-play added color to the halls outside, and a significant portion of it was the shades of humanity’s skin, if blue counted. “Besides, I don’t work out to get this chest just to hide it. What do I say?”

“Sun’s out, guns out. You big goof.” Cynthia laughed, and for the first time truly looked at the third person in the hall. “Hello?”

“Hello.” Basketcase nodded at the woman with purple hair. “I’m Reese.”

“I’m sorry to be a bother.”

He shook his head. “No problem. Keeps me from eating too much in the hospitality suite.”

“You have better things to do.”

“Not really.” Reese cocked a half-smile. “Talking to purple-haired anime fans is my job today. Especially when they are cute. A bonus for a rather boring job.”

“A job you want to be boring.” Jax inserted.

Reese nodded. “Amen to that. We got a good bunch. And it is Friday.”

Her eyes drifted down to his badge with the big yellow ribbon attached to the bottom like a prize at a state fair proclaiming him a volunteer with a second one, even bigger, in blue and black indicating security. “Basketcase?”

“My con name. I may volunteer just a little.” Reese held his two index fingers closely together, maybe an inch between them, then, keeping the fingers in parallel, he spread his arms as wide apart as they could go. A small laugh escaped from Cynthia at his antics. “For some reason my friends call me Basketcase. So what are your names, my purple-haired wonder and hunky shirtless guy?”

Cindy’s froze a second, looking up at Jax, who smiled easily. “I’m Jax. No con name.”

“Cynthia,” came as a whisper that Jax barely heard.

“Jax and his silent partner. Got it.”

“Cynthia. My name is Cynthia.”

“Nice to meet you Cynthia.” Reese waved at both of them from where he sat. “So, are you ready to face the world again?”

“No!” erupted from the woman, holding her boyfriend tighter.

Reese nodded his head slowly. “Okay.” His brown eyes darted, studying the couple. “Are you staying at the hotel? Do you want to go back to your room?”

“Yes, we are the fifth floor.” Jax responded.

“The quiet floor.” Reese stood up in pieces, arms first, then knees, feet, and rose like a titian out of the Earth or an old man from the sea. “I think we can get there without getting into the main halls. Do you want the elevator or stairs?”

Jax and Cindy stood, reflecting Basketcase’s moves without conscious attention. “I think stairs.” Jax said, reaching for Cynthia’s hand.

“Yes, please.”

“Let me think.” Reese moved his pointer finger through the air. Lifting it up one way, down another. Holding a finger at one point and bringing his left hand up to draw another line from it before waving both, erasing the lines only he could see, and starting over. The two watched the invisible mapping, until, at last, the convention volunteer said, “Got it. Least amount of people until the stairwell. Going to go through some dicey areas, just a warning.” He lowered his voice ominously. “We are going to cut through the gaming section with the D&D and Star War RPG enthusiasts. Are you ready to go where only nerds dare to go?”

Sounding equally serious, Jax responded, “I believe we are up to the task. We recently watched a Game of Thrones episode at a friend’s house.”

“If you think that is enough to prepare you for the horrors you are about to witness, you are sadly mistaken my friend. Hold your lady tight as we prepare for this journey.”

Cindy looked back and forth between the two men as Jax squeezed her hand and smiled reassurance. The two followed Basketcase down the cement-floored hallway until cutting out another side door into a main convention thoroughfare. The convention security volunteer quickly drilled them through the horde down a smaller hallway with a switchback, opening up into a larger space filled with dozens of round tables surrounding by five to ten people each, mostly men, rolling dice, scribbling on paper, and hiding behind screens. Several tables had piles of miniatures, everything from dragons surrounded by archers and men on horseback, to armies of mechs on hexagonal graph paper. Not a single person looked up from their games as the group skirted the edge until they exited the room through a set of double doors. Five steps ahead were the elevators with dozens of people waiting for the two lifts, but Reese turned immediately through another door of the maze and suddenly they were in the back hotel areas again with a cement stairwell.

“I think you can get back from here.” Reese waved up the steps. “Remember, it is dangerous to go alone.” He gave them a crazy look, smirking. “Good luck on the rest of your adventure.”

“Thanks, and good luck to you too, old wise man.” Jax shook the hand Reese tentatively offered as he stepped past them to return to the main floor.

 

A to Z Short Story List Breakdown

Rainbow Spectrum (A to F)
Marathon Party (G to M)
Trigger: Cutting (N to Q)
Bookstore Sort (R to T)

Panic at the Convention (U to Z)
4/24/2019 – U is for Uniform
4/25/2019 – V is for Volunteer
4/26/2019 – W is for Weasels
4/27/2019 – X is for Xander
4/28/2019 – Y is for Yuengling
4/29/2019 – Z is for Zillion