“Why,” thoughtlessly leaks out, shocking us all.“Why now?”

Is it because he has an audience?

Because he thinks doing it in front of Garcia will cause me to permanently store my jealousy that gets a littleGone in Sixty Secondsbetter of me at times?

“Why.Not?” the returned challenge successfully re-silences me.

Huh.

I…

I…don’t know that I have a good answer to that either.

“Kid,” both of his hands suddenly plant themselves on the edges my knees, “when do you buy a new car?”

“October.November.December.Dealerships are eager to get shit out of the way for new ones or to make sales quotas.”

“Or?”

“Holiday events, obviously.There are typically promotions.Special benefits to entice a buyer to commit especially if they’re on the fence.”

“Or?”

“When a new model of a vehicle is released.They tend to offer significant discounts on the older one as they’re trained to push the new arrival, which is likely – though not always – to have better specs.”

“Or?”

“End of the month.”

“Or?”

“End of the quarter.Again, sales quotas for both of those.”

“Or?”

“Tuesdays.Sales teams are past the weekend rush, over the Monday maybe, and more willing to give the consumer the type of attention they tend to need.Kind of like certain mechanics.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever learned this much during a proposal,” mirthfully mumbles Eva.

“Or?”Nolan continues to repeat the phrase, attention never wavering.

“When you can afford one?”

“Or?”

“When you need one?”

“Or?”

“Fuck,” becoming more flustered pushes me to defensively bite, “Idontknow!When you want one!”

“Exactly.”

My jaw remains frozen in its lowered position.

“Sometimes it’s not about waitin’ for the perfect time of the year or a holiday or when something new distracts you or a certain day of the week or fuckin’ anything else other than simplywantingit in your life.”His thumbs gently stroke the areas underneath them.“And I wantyouand Rabbit wearin’ my rings and gettin’ called by names I’ve only dreamt about callin’ you and staying that way ‘til we’re nothin’ more than scrap metal rottin’ at a junkyard.”

Melting mindlessly occurs.