Awkward Kiss

Seeing Derek, I stopped so abruptly that Luke ran directly into the back of me, bumping me forward.

“Oh, Aleah, I’m so sorry.  Why’d you stop?”

“Uh…”

Awkward.

Derek was glaring at me.  No surprises there.  Poor Luke.

Luke says, “Hey man, is something wrong?  Can I help you?”

Derek deadpans, “You’re walking in with my girlfriend, so yeah, something is wrong.”

Luke looks down at me.  His look was partially confused, partially hurt. 

I look squarely at Derek and flatly say, “Derek, I am not your girlfriend.  You ruined any chance of that ever happening again when you called me a bitch.  And you shouldn’t have come here.”

I start to walk, to push past and around Derek, as I hear Luke say, “Oh… so you’re Derek.”

“Fuck off.”  Derek snapped.

I started walking up the stairs and I felt a hand grab my arm.  A little too tightly.  “Let go of her arm.”  Luke’s voice was a little louder and deeper now, projecting authority.  The tight lessened, but didn’t let go. 

“I need to talk to you, Aleah,” Derek pleaded.

I stopped, and turned and looked down at both of these men.  Luke stood almost a foot taller than Derek.  I knew if something were to happen, one of them was going to get hurt.  “Please, stop,” I said softly.  I walked back down the couple of steps I had made it up, and strode up to Luke.  “Luke, please go, I’ll be fine.  I will see you tomorrow in class.”  I grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze.  He bent down and kissed me on my cheek, gave one last wary look at Derek, and walked out.

I closed my eyes briefly, to gather my thoughts.  I took a deep breath and turned to face Derek, for what I expected to be the last time. 

“Please sit down with me,” Derek motioned to the stairs.

“No.”  I shook my head.

“Aleah… babe… I’m so sorry.  I should’ve never called you that name.  I felt like Zach was antagonizing me that night.  I thought you would run right back into his arms.  I want you, I want to be with you.  I can make things better, I can be what you need.  I can change.”

“No.”  I looked at Derek with sadness.  Not because I was sad that he was going to be out of my life, but I felt sorry for him.  I felt sorry that he was groveling, and I didn’t care.  “Derek, this is over.  We are over.  I don’t think we will ever be together again.  I’m sorry you’re hurt.”

He looked at me, at first with desperation, but then with anger.  He stormed past me.  I jumped as he slammed the door shut.  I slowly climbed the stairs up to my floor.  With each step I took, I felt lighter and lighter, until I arrived at the top with a peaceful smile on my face.

Friday morning, I had class with Luke.  I arrived to class early, and chose a seat in the back.  I looked down and starting playing a game on my phone.  I saw someone slide into a seat next to mine.  “Huh, I’m surprised you’re here early.  Early to class, but late to our date?”

I looked sideways to see Luke sitting there, grinning at me.  But then his face turned serious.  “Are you alright?”

I took a deep breath and smiled genuinely at him.  “I am.” 

Throughout class Luke sat with his arm draped behind me and propped on the back of my chair, lightly scratching the top of my back, and playing with the ends of my hair.  It was giving me shivers and goosebumps up and down my arms.

After class, Luke grabbed my bag along with his and asked if I wanted to grab lunch with him.  He walked me to the dining commons and asked me what I wanted.  He told me to go get seats and he would be there shortly with our food.  He handed me the bags and I went and grabbed two seats at a table close to window in the corner.  He walked up and set my tray down in front of me. 

“You know I was going to knock his ass down last night, right?  It is never okay for a guy to put his hands on a female.  But it is especially not okay when it is someone I could be starting to kind of like.”

“Kind of like?”

He smiled at me.  “Eat.”

We sat chatting and eating.  Luke is a funny guy.  He makes jokes a lot, and gets my sense of humor.  He’s good at giving it, but just as good at taking it.  He asked me about my weekend plans, and I told him I was planning on taking it easy.  I told him I had picked up an extra shift at the Racquet Club on Saturday night for a friend, and had a match on Sunday.  He asked me if it would be okay if he came and watched my match, and I told him it was.  I asked him about his weekend plans.  He said he was practicing with the team that day and Saturday before they left for Wisconsin for a game on Sunday.  He said he’s not traveling with the team since he’s not playing, yet.  He said that evening he was going out with some guys from the team, for bonding.  Saturday evening he was planning on staying home and working on homework. 

I said, “Oh, you care about your grades then?”

“Of course.  You know, in case my good looks can’t get me through life.”  He winked at me.  I rolled my eyes.

When we walked out of the dining commons to go our separate ways, he leaned down and kissed me lightly.  “It was great seeing you today.  And I can’t wait to see you play on Sunday.  You better get a win for me!”

“Bye, Luke,” I smiled back at him.

Margaritas and Men

Sarah had her MRI Wednesday afternoon.  She got the results yesterday.  She has a tear in her labrum.  She’ll have to have surgery.  She’s meeting with her coaches and the University’s athletic doctor to discuss her options as to whether or not she can finish out the season or she needs surgery now.

Wednesday night I got home from practice before Maddie and Sarah were walking in, so I was going to help Elena get set up for dinner.  We had decided on breakfast for dinner including French toast, eggs, and bacon.  I walked in to the bedroom to throw some different clothes on, since I was all sweaty, while Elena was putting the bacon the stove.  I was just opening the bedroom door when I heard Elena start screaming.  I ran out the door to see a grease fire on the stove top and Elena opening our apartment door and yelling fire into the hallway.  It was relatively small, just surrounding the pan of bacon.  I screamed at Elena to get in to the apartment.  “Start looking for baking soda!”

I got to the stove top and turned my head away while reaching for the burner knob and turning it to “off.”  I ran to the bathroom and grabbed the first towel I could find and put it under running water and started squeezing it to eliminate as much water as I could.  I looked over and saw Elena frantically looking for baking soda in the cabinets.  “Grab the stuff in the freezer!  There’s some in there!”  She ran over to the freezer and grabbed the baking soda.  “Dump it on the flames!  Don’t get burned.”  I ran beside her and she started jerking the box back and forth to make the baking soda fall out onto the flames.  They were starting to subside, but there wasn’t enough.  I took the towel and threw it on top of the pan and burner and fire area of the stove top.  It smothered the flames.  “Come on,” I exclaimed to Elena, as I turned to run back to the bathroom.  I dampened another towel as she did the same, and we ran back to the stove and put those on top of the other towel.  We stood there, with our eyes wide, staring at the now smothered fire, surrounded by smoke and a burning smell.  Although the hood fan was going, I walked over to the bathroom and turned on that fan, and shut both bedroom doors to help eliminate any smell seeping in there.  Elena had gone to open the 2 windows in the living room.   

Our apartment door was still open.  I went to look out in the hallway and not a single person had come out!  I was shocked that people didn’t pay attention to a “fire” warning.  But I saw Sarah and Maddie coming down the hallway and Maddie wrinkled her nose and said, “What is that smell?”

“Oh, just our apartment on fire, no big deal,” I responded.

Elena sheepishly poked her head around the corner.  “Who wants margaritas and Mexican food?”

So needless to say, we went to a local, authentic Mexican restaurant, took a deck of cards with us, and sat around drinking, eating, and playing cards in the bar at the restaurant.  Looking back, we laughed, because Maddie and I both knew that Elena is incapable of cooking, yet we had put her in charge of it.  Elena had used a pancake griddle to cook bacon on.  The rest of us know that’s a bad idea.  Low sides equal grease fire.  Elena, though?  Clueless.

Sarah was appreciative of the gesture, though, and had a good time.  I think it helped take her mind off of everything that had happened.  We also got to discuss Elena’s impending nuptials a bit more.  She and Jeff are just so excited to start their lives together, they have the same goal in mind, they just want to get life started together.  Hey, if it’s the right person, why wait?  I also shared with my friends about the embarrassing day I had Wednesday morning.   They laughed.  At first I was a little upset they were laughing, but then realized, how boring and sad is life, if you can’t laugh at yourself?  And I joined in.  I probably shouldn’t have jerked away from Luke like that, I decided.  They agreed with me.  They said to apologize, and if he was a jerk and couldn’t get over that, then he wasn’t even worth a friendship anyway.

Last night was Luke night.  He had sent me a message on Facebook with his number and told me to text him to set up the details.  We had agreed to meet outside the bookstore, since he knew where that was.  I originally had told him I would meet him after practice, but I had forgotten I had a match, so we changed the time to 7:30 to meet. Me, being unable to be on-time anywhere, got there at 7:37.  His back was to me as I walked up.  I slowed my pace.  I was dressed in mass amounts of layers, due to the cold.  I didn’t know if Luke wanted shown around the city, or just campus, but I figured we could walk to my car if he wanted a tour of more than just campus.  He looked so good, standing there, looking around.  He was wearing a snow hat, scarf, a nice coat, jeans, and dress shoes.  As I approached, I could see his breath every time he exhaled.  I tried to get as quiet as possible and snuck up behind him and grabbed his arms.  He didn’t move.  My smile dropped off of my face, as I slowly walked around to his front side.  He was grinning so cheesily.

“Gotcha!” He proudly exclaimed.

“Got me?  What are you talking about?  You know I scared you!”

“I didn’t even flinch!  And you’re late.  I thought you were blowing me off again.”

“Sorry.  I have timeliness problems.  And I didn’t blow you off before, either!  I told you I had a lot going on!”

“Okay, okay,” he responded, as if waving a white flag.  “Where to?”

“Are you wanting a campus tour, or city?”

“I actually just want to get to know you better.”

“Uh… oh.”  I didn’t know what to say.  My heart was somewhere else.  Namely, somewhere that I couldn’t see my breath right now.

“So, does that mean we could maybe go somewhere for a drink?  Or even a Starbucks would suffice.”

I tilted my head sideways and looked up at him.  I studied his face for a moment.  Probably a moment too long, actually.  “Yes,” I smiled at him.  “Let’s do that.”

“I can drive us.”

“I thought you were new here and didn’t know your way around?”

“Hey, I figured that would be the easiest way to get you to spend time with me.  I’ve been here for a couple months now.  I’ve had time to explore, myself.”

“At least you didn’t use a lame pick-up line, I guess.”

“Don’t write me off, yet!  If I need another way to try to see you, that might be the route I take!”

We ended up going to a quiet dive bar, not far off of campus.  We were there for a couple of hours.  I learned about where he grew up (Kansas), that he had played basketball at Kansas University, but decided to transfer for academic reasons, and that he saw some playing time, but sat the bench more, and knew at Nebraska he’d be able to play more, he’s an only child, and he broke up with a long term girlfriend when he came here.  Oh yeah, and I was right, he has dabbled in some modeling.  No surprise there, since he’s a beautiful man.  I told him about growing up on a “farm” where we leased out the land for other farmers to plant crops, and we just kept fields for a few horses, my brother, briefly about Derek (I didn’t mention Zach), and how I had no idea what I wanted to do when I grow up.  It turns out that Luke it a pretty down to earth guy, and while he knows he is good looking, it comes across as confidence, not cockiness.  But time will tell on that one.  We left, and he told me he wanted to see me again.  He said he’d like to take me to dinner.  I obliged.  We tentatively planned for Monday.

As he parked his car outside my apartment, I decided it was a good time to apologize to him.  “Luke, I’m really sorry for jerking away from you Wednesday.  First of all, I didn’t even know you were in class with me until right before my speech.  How lame is that?  Secondly, I was so humiliated by… you know, looking at you and talking about shafts.”  I turned my head away, because I almost started giggling out of nervousness.  I don’t like apologizing, it makes me feel vulnerable.  I straightened my face again, and turned back to him.  “Anyway, I really am sorry, it was rude, and I know you were just playing around with me.”

Luke smiled at me and leaned across his middle console and pushed his lips against mine.  I froze for a second.  Part of me didn’t want the memory of Zach kissing me tainted by someone else’s lips.  But then I thought, he’s in Arizona, and we aren’t together.  He could be doing the same thing right now.  But then thinking about that, made my stomach churn and I pushed the thought out of my mind and focused on Luke’s tongue exploring my mouth.  I pushed back against him and ran my fingers into his hair.  I noticed it was really soft.  Softer than mine, I thought.  I wondered what shampoo he uses.  Then I caught my mind wandering again, and started giggling.  Oh my goodness, why was I so unable to focus on this man and his beautiful mouth?  Luke pulled away, smiling.  “Why are you laughing?”

“Well, because I was thinking about your hair.”

“You’re telling me that I’m sitting here kissing you, thinking about how great it is, and you’re thinking about my hair.”

“Yeah, that sounds bad.”

“Was I that terrible?”  He was looking at me teasingly.  He clearly knew he was not a bad kisser.

“Oh, absolutely horrible.”

“Well then, Aleah… it looks like I’m going to have to practice some more.”  He grinned wickedly and then leaned in and kissed me again.  He had one arm back around behind the headrest of my seat, and the other hand was on my cheek.  He moved it down to my waist, and then my hip.  I wished that he would just move his hand a little more central… but then he stopped.  He sat back and smiled and said, “It seems that you know what you’re doing, as well.  Let me walk you to your door.”

We got out and started walking up to my apartment building.  He opened the door of the building and I looked at the ground, trying to hide my ear to ear grin, as I walked inside.  As soon as I looked up though, that grin was wiped completely off my face.

There, sitting on the stairs, was Derek.

Getting the Shaft

Elena and Jeff, her fiancée (eek!), had already decided to get married this upcoming summer, in July.  She asked all of us to be bridesmaids.  Her sister was going to be her maid-of-honor.  Of course we all accepted the honor.  She wants to go dress shopping this upcoming Saturday, because of how close it already is.  All three of us have athletic endeavors, though, so she’s going to go with her mom and sister and if she doesn’t find anything, we’ll go next week with her.

Yesterday, while in the athletic trainer’s room, I have another encounter with Luke.  I was laying on the table, icing, with my eyes closed, when I felt someone standing next to me.  I popped my eyes open to see Mr. Gorgeous himself, standing overlooking me.  “So, not to be confrontational, but you never responded to my Facebook message.  You just befriend people, and then ignore them?”  He looked at me quizzically.

I blushed.  Dang.  “Oh… Yeah… About that…”

He raised an eyebrow at me, prompting me to finish.  “I’m sorry.  I’ve had a lot going on, in my personal life, it wasn’t on purpose.”  He started laughing.

“Hey, I’m just messing.  But Katie told me you’d give me a tour around town.”  I quickly sneaked a look at Katie, she was working on someone else and not looking at me, but I could see her smugly smiling.  “So do you think you’ll have time this week?”

“I think I could pencil you in sometime this week.” I grinned, teasingly at him.

“Thursday?”

“Sure, but it’ll have to be after practice.”

“Understood.  7?”

“I think I can squeeze you in, then.”

“It’s a date.” He winked at me and walked away.  Of course I blushed again.  I have a horrible inability to control that seemingly natural reflex of mine.  Katie walked over, held out her hand for a high-five.  I playfully glared at her, told her not cool, and hopped off the table to dump my ice out and head home.

Once home, I walked in to see Sarah sitting on the couch crying. 

“Sarah?  What is wrong?” I worriedly approached her, sat down next to her and put my arm around her.

“It’s my… hip… surgery,” is what I managed to understand between her sobs and hiccups.

“No!  Have you been to the doctor?”

She looked at me miserably, with her eyes red and tear streaks down her face.  “Yes.  They *hiccup* think I tore *hiccup* my labrum in my *hiccup* hip.” 

“Can you finish the season or what do they think?”

She threw her head back onto the back of the couch, staring at the ceiling, and sighed, then deeply breathed before answering me.  “I have an MRI tomorrow.”

“What time?”

“2.”

“I’m taking you.”

“What?  No.”

“Sarah, don’t be ridiculous.  Your family is in Wisconsin, and you aren’t going by yourself.  I won’t allow you.”

She looked at me, and gave me a half smile, hiccupped again, and said she was going to lie down.  I knew that meant thank you, in her own way.  At the door to the bedroom, I heard her call out to me, “Aleah, you’re the best friend ever.”

I sat thinking to myself.  I don’t know what I would do, if something like that were to happen to me.  If I couldn’t play tennis?  Part of who I am, is a tennis player.  It had been a big part of my identity for so long.  Not even being a tennis player, but an athlete.  I had slowed down once I entered college on a full scholarship, but all throughout my childhood and high school, I played sports all the time.  I was a tomboy.  When I would go to a beach (as much of one as you can get in Nebraska!) or to a pool, while my friends were laying out soaking up the rays, I was always with the boys playing sand or pool volleyball, or playing football out in the yard.  Imagining not being athletic, for Sarah, who was very similar, hurt my heart, for her.  I want to do something special for her tomorrow, I decided.  I sent Maddie and Elena a group text and told them that I had to take Sarah to the doctor the next day, but after Maddie’s and my practices each got over, we should have a roommate night, and make dinner and play cards.  I asked Elena to get some peonies, too, since those are Sarah’s favorite flower, while we were all at practice.  Even if Sarah couldn’t participate, I know her, and I knew that she would choose to go and sit and cheer her teammates on, rather than sit back here and mope. 

For one of my morning classes today, I had to give a presentation.  It had to do with the 5 stages of loss and grief.  What a lot of people don’t know about me, because I am good at hiding it, is I’m actually rather shy, and one of my biggest fears is public speaking.  I can pretend to have all the self-confidence in the world.  But leading up to presentations, or public speaking of any kind, my stomach starts hurting, I usually have to pee really badly, and my armpits sweat like I have hoses hooked up to each of them.  It’s disgusting.  I always wear a black top on presentation days, so no one will notice.  I really should get a script for some Xanax, with how much anxiety it causes me!  It’s just so bizarre, because playing tennis, I want all eyes on me, but speaking, I would rather sit in solitary for 3 days. 

Because of how large the class is, the professor doesn’t have everyone present.  He always chooses 10 people.  He makes sure that throughout the semester, everyone presents at least once.  So everyone who doesn’t present just has to turn in their paper.  Well, this was my lucky class where I get to present.  As I’m walking to the front of the room, I stumble over the step, onto the “stage” area.  Luckily, I don’t fall.  I hear some snickering.  I can tell this is already going to be great.  I set my note cards on the podium and take a moment to center myself, glancing around the classroom.  Most people are doodling, or trying to secretively play on their phones.  I think to myself that most of these classmates of mine are just like me, and aren’t going to pay any attention to what their peer is saying.  But then, at the far opposite end of the room of where I normally try to sit and slip in and slip out, I see him sitting.  Luke.  I’m close my eyes and groan internally.  How have I not EVER noticed him in this class before?  Oh yeah, because I rarely show up to class.  Good job, Aleah.  I instantly become exponentially more nervous.  My hands start shaking and sweating.  I grip the bottom edge of the podium, so try and give myself a sense of calm.  I take a deep breath, and clear my throat and start speaking.  I always try to interject some humor whenever I have to publically speak.  Unfortunately, I did unintentionally during my presentation.

I was winding up my talk, going over points that if someone is grieving, some nice gestures to make towards an individual to help them out.  I had managed to avoid Luke’s eyes the whole time.  Then, right as I was going to say, “Offer to take someone’s shift.”  I looked at Luke and misplaced the word shift for shaft.  I immediately stopped talking, closed my eyes, turned bright red (no surprise there),opened them, muttered thank you, and skulked back to my seat.  I heard my classmates laughing and someone behind me patted me on the back.  I lowered my face on to my table top and let the coolness calm me down.  I squeezed my eyes shut really tight, remembering that I was going to be giving Luke a tour of who knows what, the next night.  Maybe I could cancel. 

After class, I shot out of my seat to run out as quickly as possible.  I was just walking through the door when I felt a hand grab the back of my arm.  I turned to see Luke smiling mischievously at me.

He started, “So?”

“So, what?”  I replied defensively.

“Do you have an offer for me?”

“An offer?”

“You know, to take my shaft?”

I jerked my arm away and quickly took off in the opposite direction, mortified.

Love is in the Air

Dear Aleah,

I miss you already.  As much as I didn’t want to leave, you and I both know I couldn’t stay.  I valued the time we just had together, catching up, among other things!  Let’s not wait so long before we speak again, next time.  And of course, if it’s meant to be, it will happen when the timing is right.  I love you.

Always yours, Zach

That’s the note I found in my bag when I was unpacking Saturday night.  I’m a procrastinator, naturally, and so although I got back to my apartment Wednesday, I had just thrown my bag onto the floor of the bedroom by my bed, ignoring it.  I don’t know when he slipped the note in there- probably when I was sleeping- but I cried, reading it.  Zach is, and always will be, not only my first love, but my best friend.  I folded it back up and tucked it into a wooden box I own.  My grandpa had made it for me when I was younger, and I kept everything precious on this earth to me, in that box.  I took out the earrings and put them on top of the note, as well.  I continued unpacking my bag and also found a t-shirt of Zach’s.  I smiled, and then put it on top of my pillow on my bed, to keep his scent as close to me as possible, for as long as it would last.  He must’ve remembered I always had a thing about wearing his t-shirts back in high school, and had insisted on taking one with me freshman year of college, before we broke up.  After we broke up, in a moment of bitterness, I had torn it up to use as a sweat rag while playing tennis.  I mean, although it was a mutual break up, more or less, there was still a lot of pain associated with it.

I finished unpacking and collapsed on the bed.  I lay with my head on his shirt, closing my eyes, pretending for just a moment that he was near me.  I heard the bedroom door open and knew it was Sarah.  I didn’t even open my eyes.  “Oh Aleah, come on.  You’ve been kinda mopey and sad since Zach left.  I know he’s basically perfect for you.  And hot.  But you aren’t together, and pouting isn’t going to change that.”

I looked at her, finally, and sighed loudly and dramatically.  “Then what do you suggest that we do?” I threw the back of my hand to my forehead and sighed again.  Sarah hopped over and jumped on top of me, smashing me.  For a thrower, she’s small, but still is taller than me, and has a bigger frame than me.

“Let’s go out!”  She yelled at me, excitedly.

“Can’t go out… can’t… breath…”  I may have been exaggerating, a teeny bit.

She rolled off of me and grabbed my arm, dragging me out of bed.  I started laughing.  “Fine!  You win!  Where do you want to go?”

“Haymarket.  We could bar hop.”  Haymarket is a historic area of Lincoln that is really starting to grow like crazy.  They have several bars and gastro-pubs in the area, among great restaurants.  We decided to go to N Zone, a sports bar.  I preferred that, because I didn’t feel like getting all fancy-schmancy dressed up.

I threw on some jeans and Uggs, and an over-sized button up sheer shirt, and decided it was a go.  I left my hair in a messy pony tail, touched up my eye-liner, and told Sarah I was ready to rock.  We got there at 8:45, just in time to order some food.  We decided to split a couple of appetizers:  Nachos Grande and Loaded Potato Skins.  Aside from my general love of food, I have a special spot in my heart-or belly, whichever you prefer- for appetizers.  The food, along with a Blue Moon (my favorite beer, ever), is exactly what I needed.  In addition to my Sarah, of course.  Some nights, although we usually like “classier drinks” just getting out in a sports bar is perfect.  We had a couple of shots.  We laughed and joked and watched tv’s.  A couple of guys tried to sidle up to us and buy us some drinks, but we turned them down.  We were there for us.

After I finished my beer, and had a shot in me, Sarah broached the subject of Zach.

“I’m sorry he left.”

I looked at her sadly.  “Me, too.”

“For what it’s worth, I like him a lot more than Derek, and I feel like he’s your perfect match.  I’ve never seen you light up like that, before.  Not even when you and Derek first started dating.”

Hearing Derek’s name reminded me that we needed to speak.  Since The Incident (as I’ve now labeled it), he had called me a few times, but not only did I have no desire to speak with him, my time was also wrapped up in Zach.  Literally and figuratively.  After spending this time with Zach, not only was the reality of Derek’s and my future buried deep in my heart, but it was slapped right in front of my face.  There was no going back.  There was no making it work.  There was no “us.”

“ALEAH.”  I shook my head and snapped my head to look at Sarah.  She had a look like she had said my name a few times.

“Ah, sorry.  I zoned out.  Lost in thought.  Yeah, there is no one like Zach.  But you reminded me that I need to talk to Derek.”  I had told Sarah about what had happened.  I had asked her to not share with Maddie and Elena.  Not because I didn’t want them to know, but because it really was a terrible night and I didn’t want to rehash the details over again. 

Our waitress walked up then with our next round of drinks, and two shots.  “Did you order us shots?” I asked Sarah.

“No,” she looked at me, confused.

Our waitress pointed over to the same guys we had sent away earlier.  They were looking at us smiling.  We rolled our eyes, but grabbed the shots.

Sarah said, “To a night of no boys!”

I raised my shot, “To free shots!”  And we clinked our shot glasses and gulped them down.

Later on, we got home and the lights were still on in the living room.  Sarah and I both looked at each other, confused.  We had closed down the bar, so we were walking in at 2:15 a.m., and usually both of our roommates, if not out with us, were asleep at this time.  We walked in and Maddie and Elena were sitting on the couch, talking.  Elena jumped up, and ran over to us, waving her hand backwards in our faces.  She had said yes!