Chapter Text
The first time Chloe Price asks Maxine Caulfield to marry her, Chloe is thirteen and Max has recently turned twelve. They're hanging out in Chloe's backyard--literally, in Chloe's case--on a warm fall day in the precious time between the end of school and the call to dinner, the time when they can both be themselves without worrying about what anyone thinks of them.
After a philosophical debate on the merits and pitfalls of telepathy as a superpower, Chloe casually steers the conversation to the topic she's been thinking about all day. Well, all month, really.
"So, anyway. We should get married. Wanna marry me?"
Max, sitting in the swing beside Chloe, freezes. She swallows the gummy worm she was chewing and scrunches up her nose in the way she does when she's worried. "Uh, wh-what? You want to...? Ah, we're too young. Right?"
Chloe, hanging upside down from the chains of the swing set her father built her in the Price household's backyard, rolls her eyes. "Obviously we'll get married when we're old. Like, way old. Twenty or something. I didn't mean this actual minute, Maxine."
"Hey!" Max does her best to glare at her best friend. "Don't call me Maxine!"
"Well, stop being a wuss and answer the question!"
Max chews her lip and furrows her brow. Her hands worry the hem of her shirt and her eyes unfocus. Thinking about things can take Max a while, because Max has a tendency to worry about things in every way they can be worried about.
Chloe lowers her feet and drops onto the grass of the yard. Chloe's starting to feel weird because every ounce of blood in her body is in her head now and was probably going to start shooting out of her nose if she'd stayed in that position any longer. Chloe is pretty sure that you're not supposed to shoot blood out of your nose all over the person you're proposing to, even if they are a wuss who is taking way too long to answer you. Chloe's mom has an old etiquette book in the house--a present from her mom--and while Chloe's research on proposals didn't rule out explosive nosebleeds, it didn't have anything positive to say on the subject either.
Best to avoid them altogether, Chloe thinks.
Dizzy now, Chloe grabs the frame of the swing set and aims herself in the direction of the blur that looks most like Max. "So?"
Max swallows audibly, clearly getting way more worked up than she needs to be. It's just marriage, after all. If their respective parents could figure it out, there's no way Max and Chloe won't be able to handle it.
"Don't you have to...to b-be in, uh, in l-love to get married?" Max says.
"Well..." Chloe closes her eyes, which helps with the nausea and dizziness caused by every ounce of blood in her body figuring out where it's supposed to be instead of crammed into her head. "Uh, we love each other? So what's the issue?"
"I guess..." Chloe listens to the sound of Max's sneaker wearing a furrow into the grass. "But...we're not in love, are we? It's different. Why do we even need to get married?"
"Because, dummy!" Chloe tries to suppress her irritation. This is not how it goes in any of the movies her dad secretly loves to watch and loudly complains about when they come on TV. Maybe she should have bought a ring and got on one knee instead of buying Max a packet of gummy worms and hanging upside down until her face was redder than a tomato.
For the first time since the idea occurred to her, Chloe wonders if it's a good one. Then she remembers that it's a great idea, and Max is just being Max about everything. "We're gonna be together forever, right? And that's what marriage is. It's like saying...it's like saying we're best friends forever in a pinkie swear with Jesus. Don't you want to be my BFFIA...uh, PSWJ?"
Max giggles. Her face when it's all lit up and happy is too good to miss, so Chloe opens her eyes, even though she's still feeling a little unsteady. Looking at Max's grin and the glow in her eyes makes Chloe feel even more dizzy somehow, but it also makes her feel better.
The laughter fades from Max's face after a second and she starts to frown again. "We'd have to kiss, though. In front of...everyone. You can't get married if you don't kiss."
It's true, but Chloe was hoping Max would have said yes already and not noticed that part. The thing is...the thing is that Max is still too young to get kissing as an activity. Chloe has been a teenager for months, and while kissing is something she has almost no experience in, it's something she's begun to think about. And somewhere in that thinking, Chloe began to think about kissing Max.
On the lips. She's...been thinking about that more and more lately.
Which...is maybe weird. And definitely not something she can casually bring up in conversation with her best friend. But there's this sense of curiosity as to what it would be like that won't go away, and Chloe thought she'd figured out the perfect plan to get to kiss Max in a way that wouldn't be weird, but Max is being so Max right now.
Chloe wipes her palms on her jeans and puts on a grin. "It's, like, one kiss, Max. Not a big deal."
Max pales. "I...I d-don't know, Chloe...I don't...I couldn't do that."
"You don't have to now!" Chloe hesitates. She licks her lips, trying to make her tone airy even as her stomach drops into a heavy, twisting darkness. "Unless...you wanna practice, maybe? We could, I dunno, give it a go while no one's--" Max gets even paler, her nose even more scrunched up, so Chloe quickly says, "Just kidding!"
"You suck!" Max sags with relief. "Don't joke like that!"
"Whatever! You're the one who doesn't wanna marry me. You suck way more."
"Shut up!" Max's brow furrows again. "Can...can girls even get married?"
"Duh! Ask your mom the answer to that one, genius!"
"Hey!" Max folds her arms and pouts. "I meant to each other!"
Chloe blinks. "What kind of bs would it be if we couldn't?"
"Uh..." Max goes back to working the toe of her sneaker into the dirt of the yard. Her expression miserable, Max says, "I don't think it's allowed, Chloe. I don't think they let girls marry anyone other than boys."
"Seriously?" Chloe blinks some more. Now she thinks about it, that etiquette book didn't have anything to say about two brides or two grooms. Just one of each. "Shit. This sucks, Max!"
"Yeah," Max says, looking relieved. "I think it's the same for boys, too. They have to marry girls. So I can't marry you. It, uh, it totally sucks, huh?"
"We have to do something about this!"
"Oh, uh, okay? But...what?"
"Well...you know what? I'm definitely gonna become a pirate now," Chloe declares, narrowing her eyes and bunching her hands into fists. "When I'm a pirate captain, I'll be able to, uh..." Chloe hesitates, thinking about the etiquette book. "Officiate! I'll be able to officiate for anyone who wants to get married! That's pirate law. No one'll be able to stop me!"
A trench is beginning to form beneath Max as her foot scrapes back and forth. "I...thought you were going to be a scientist?"
Chloe scoffs. "I'll be both! I'll make a lab in my ship! And a chapel, for all the weddings!"
"I...guess that sounds cool." Max hesitates, then blurts, "I don't...I don't think I w-want to get married? I...don't want to kiss and wear dresses and makes speeches, Chloe! People'll laugh at me!"
Chloe narrows her eyes. "They won't. Not on my pirate ship."
Max shakes her head miserably. "I can't do it, Chloe. There's no way I could get married! Not ever!"
"It's cool, Max." Chloe sighs. "It was just an idea. Forget it."
"You're not...mad?"
Max peers up at her anxiously, and even though Chloe is a little mad, that look makes her anger vanish. Chloe hates it when Max gets upset, and she hates to upset Max even more. So Chloe grins and ruffles Max's hair. "Nah, I'm not mad. Wanna go see if dinner's ready?"
"Yeah," Max says, standing up quickly, her expression brightening even as she tries unsuccessfully to smooth her hair back down. "We can set the table!"
"Dork," Chloe says, bumping her shoulder. "You're not supposed to want to do chores!"
Bickering idly they leave the back yard and talk of marriage behind them. Max seems to forget the whole conversation entirely. Chloe doesn't mind. She doesn't give up on her plan, either, but she decides she'll need to wait a while before broaching the subject with Max again. But a year after Chloe proposes, her father is killed in an accident that robs Chloe of her belief in 'forever' and weeks after that, Max leaves Arcadia Bay, robbing Chloe of her best friend.
Chloe is nineteen and hasn't seen Max Caulfield in five years when she discovers that Max has returned to Arcadia Bay. It takes Chloe less than twenty-four hours from the moment she meets Max again to go from being pissed at her to proposing to her.
Admittedly, it's a very full twenty-four hours. Chloe fucks up a blackmail attempt, dies a few times, has a run-in with her dealer which gets pretty close to stabby and is one empty chamber of a revolver away from getting quite shooty and possibly murdery, too. Not exactly an average Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning, even for the shitstorm of a life that Chloe hates to have to call her own.
It's after all the crazy, when Chloe has dropped Max off at school and taken herself to the lighthouse to smoke and try to process everything that the idea presents itself, delivered on a silver platter from her subconscious to her forebrain: she should marry Max.
It's crazy, of course, and completely impractical, and how much she wants it leaves Chloe shaking so badly she drops first her phone and then her joint. As she scrambles to recover them and her own equilibrium, Chloe has to wonder where the fuck that came from. But she knows, of course. Chloe doesn't want to look at it too closely, but she's always known that if Max came back, Chloe's anger and bitterness wouldn't long survive Max seriously trying to reconnect.
Given that Max has saved Chloe's life twice at least, and given that she almost shot the drug dealer Chloe owes money to in an effort to protect her, Chloe has to concede that Max is, at the very least, making an effort. And in the face of that, it's hard to stay angry. And without the defences her anger affords her, Chloe is helpless against the need Max has awakened in her.
Chloe puts her phone on her lap, stuffs her joint into her mouth and cups it with her shaking hands while she relights it. She pulls smoke into her lungs and holds it there. She holds herself there while she stares out over the water below her, trying not to move so she can't get tangled and twisted up in the wreckage of her past.
The water of the bay is silver under the golden light of the sun. A bird calls somewhere in the forest behind her and, as if in answer, something creaks and groans in the old lighthouse. Chloe wonders what sort of picture Max would take, if she were here. Another stab of longing makes Chloe cough on the exhale, like this was her first time smoking a joint all over again.
For a moment, when her lungs have cleared and her head is beginning to be the right kind of foggy, it's like everything is new again.
It isn't, though. And all the things that Max has stirred up are too complicated, too hard to handle, too frightening to sort through. Chloe could comb through the rubble of her broken heart, clear the debris from the pieces that aren't too damaged to function, to swell with love again. But to make that effort, to do that labour with nothing more than a shadow of a hope that Max might stick around long enough for it to matter this time...that might be more than Chloe can handle.
What's truly fucking terrifying, though, is the idea that Max might stay. That there could be something there, if only Chloe could not fuck up long enough to let it happen.
Chloe takes another hit. The smoke seeps into her, loosening the knots of her body. It flows more smoothly out of her this time, taking some of the worst pieces of herself with it. For a little while, at least; good things only last a little while, Chloe knows. It's what makes them so important.
Chloe suddenly snorts, remembering the look on Frank's face when Max pulled the trigger. He tried to hide it, but there was this brief flash of...panic. Terror. Disbelief. Max just looked terrified throughout the whole thing, of course. But...but Max stood her ground. She didn't run. She didn't even blame Chloe much for all the insane shit Chloe dragged her into.
Max is back. And it's such an intoxicating feeling, having her here, having her support, having her turn out to be such a badass, having her turn out to be so fucking pretty...
Chloe blinks down at her phone. In her daze, she's typed 'Max, the boss with the gun.' Chloe snorts. "If you like her that much, Chloe, why don't you marry her?" With a few taps of her restless fingers, Chloe invites Max to do just that. She snorts again, grinning. "This'll freak her out. Wish I could see her face. Bet this'll make her nose scrunch up! Heh."
Chloe sends the text.
As soon as she has, she thinks of Rachel, and guilt and confusion coil behind her ribcage, constricting her heart and lungs. It's not like Chloe has given up on Rachel. It's not like she's stopped loving her. But it all feels so distant, so abstract. She's gone from basking in the bonfire of Rachel's presence to burning memories of her to try to stay warm. The more time goes by, the more Chloe is weighed down by the fear that memories might be all she'll ever have of Rachel again.
The idea that memories are all that Rachel might be is not one that Chloe wants in her head, so it's a giddy relief that Max texts her back so quickly. Max is supposed to be in class, but here she is, texting Chloe back immediately. Even if Max is saying no, it still makes Chloe grin.
Of course...Max didn't actually say no. She just pointed out that it's illegal in Oregon, and even then she said it was illegal for now. Chloe texts her back, pointing out the possibility of eloping. There's nothing more behind it at this point than a desire to tease, and Chloe is only a little disappointed when the minutes stretch out and she doesn't hear anything else from Max.
The urgency Chloe felt five minutes ago is gone, carried away with the last of the smoke that escapes her lips as she finishes her joint. In its place she finds herself leaning back on the bench, stretching out her arms along the top of it. She finds her mind leaning back, and she finds so many memories at her fingertips, memories of when she and Max were kids and the world's teeth were still hidden from her.
Chloe lets her mind wander through the past and finds herself back at the moment that she first proposed to Max. Past and present slot together with an almost audible click as Chloe realises that she's still looking for a way to kiss Max. For all the anger and the pain and the dread she's been living with, the idea of kissing Max Caulfield has been burrowing its roots in Chloe's mind since almost the moment Chloe laid eyes on her again.
Or perhaps the idea has been there for the last five years, needing only Max's return to flourish.
"Need to up my game, though," Chloe muses. "I think I can come up with a better scheme than marriage proposals to kiss Max."
Chloe snorts and giggles, her laughter drifting out over the bay, vanishing into the same horizon that swallowed her smoke. She feels loose and languid and sun-dappled and...happy.
It feels strange to feel happy.
It's strange to be able to remember her past and for it not to hurt. In the time between her father dying and Rachel coming into her life, Chloe found herself living with the past and the present tangled in her mind. The joy of her memories was rendered into pain by the pressure cooker of the reality she returned to when her daydreams ended. But now, thinking about her old scheme to make Max kiss her, Chloe finds herself smiling. An ache settles into her chest, but it isn't an unpleasant one. It sits sweetly in the space the smoke has opened within her, and for once it feels like there are possibilities in front of her.
It isn't the last time Chloe gets to be happy that week, but the best that can be said for it in the end is that Chloe survives it. Chloe and Max both survive it, even if for a little while it barely feels that way and for a long time surviving is all it feels like.
It's five years later and her face is full of hair the next time Chloe proposes.
It's a Saturday morning, notable for nothing more than the fact that Chloe wakes up spooning Max in much the same state they fell asleep in. As her awareness seeps out into the world, Chloe finds herself not quite disturbed, but...puzzled. Something feels off. It takes another minute of waking, of listening to Max's deep, even breathing, of gently pulling Max more snugly against Chloe's body and letting her warmth soak through her before she realises what's wrong.
What's wrong is that nothing's wrong.
They've been living in their own place in Seattle for a couple of months now. They both have jobs they can at least stand, Max's shutterbug habits are in the ascendancy again, Chloe's been embraced into the Caulfield clan, and in spite of the worst that life can throw at them, Chloe and Max are together. But what really stands out about this morning is what happened the night before.
"No nightmares," Chloe murmurs, pressing her face into Max's hair, hunting for skin to kiss. She leaves her face buried in Max's hair, her lips pressed to the back of Max's neck. Max's hair tickles her with every word when she adds, "We both slept the whole night through."
It doesn't occur to Chloe to pull away again. She breathes Max in and hides her smile in the fragrant thicket of Max's hair. It doesn't occur to her that she might wake Max, either; considering before doing has never been one of Chloe's core operating principles.
Max stirs and mumbles something inaudible. She reaches up and curls a hand loosely around Chloe's neck, her fingers threading through the ends of Chloe's hair. She mumbles, "Wha's goin' on back there?"
Chloe turns her head, careful not to dislodge Max's hand. It's at the forefront of her mind to say any number of things. That nothing is going on, that it's a good morning, that she's happy, that she's horny, that she loves Max and that waking up beside her hasn't gotten old, will never get old, no matter how old they get, but that isn't what she says. What Chloe says is: "We should get married."
And then she tenses, waiting for Max to tense.
Max chuckles. Her body stays loose and easy. Her fingers tighten their grip on Chloe. "We aren't?"
"Uh..."
Chloe blows some hair out of her face. She decides that maybe this is a conversation best had with something other than the back of Max's neck. She props herself up on one arm so she can look at Max. Max releases her, shifting so that she's lying on her back, looking up at her. Max's eyes are half-closed and her face is puffy and she's so pretty Chloe has to kiss her. So Chloe does, pressing close, tangling their bare legs together, feeling Max wake up fully from her mouth outward.
When she's satisfied the eternal need to kiss Max enough for now, Chloe eases back and locks eyes with Max. "I'm serious, dude. About the, uh, the marriage thing. Us. Doing that. For real. We should. Shouldn't we?"
Max blinks up at her, her parted lips pursing, her flushed cheeks cooling. She slowly nods. "Yeah, so...we need coffee."
"Huh?" Chloe blinks back at her. There's an 'oh shit' kind of feeling robbing her of the warm lassitude of moments before, slowly squeezing her guts. Everything was fine, everything was actually good, so of course Chloe had to instantly fuck it up. Chloe puts on a grin and clamps down on the thoughts threatening to unravel her. "Uh, I'm down on my knees here, Maxine, and this is the response I get? 'We need coffee'?"
Max raises an eyebrow. But one of her hands settles on Chloe's hip and gently squeezes.
Chloe's grin eases into something more genuine. "Pfft! You know what I mean. I'm metaphorically on my knees!"
Max raises another eyebrow.
Chloe sighs. "Fine, god! Sorry I called you Maxine!"
"Better." Max rears up and kisses the tip of Chloe's nose. "Hey. I love you, Chloe Price. But, if we're going to talk about this..."
Chloe watches Max yawn and barely fights off one of her own. "Okay. Sure. Coffee."
"Yeah."
"Whiiiich you want me to make?"
"I was going to, but then someone had to call me Maxine..."
"And let me guess, you're going to stay in bed while I go do it?"
"Oh, obviously, yeah!" Max stretches, arching her back. Her sleep shirt has ridden up a little, exposing a sliver of her stomach. She smiles lazily when she notices Chloe noticing. Chloe feels another flutter in her stomach, though it's altogether more pleasant this time.
Chloe sighs. "...you're refusing to get up with me so you can perv on me when I go to the kitchen, right?"
"You've seen right through me." Max's smile softens. "Hey. We're good. I promise. I just need a minute, okay?"
"Okay." Chloe swallows. She's the one who feels transparent. She almost hopes that she is, so that Max can explain to her what the hell is going through her own mind. "Okay. Coffee coming right up."
It's more than five very anxious minutes before Max joins her wearing sweatpants and a hoodie and fighting another yawn. Max smiles at her, though, and shuffles into Chloe's space, pressing her face into Chloe's shoulder while Chloe pours water into the caffetiere. Chloe puts the kettle back on its stand and wraps an arm around Max, feeling stupid and grateful.
A few minutes later they sit facing each other on their battered couch. Max has her knees drawn up to her chin. She hugs her legs, cradling her cup in her hands. Chloe folds her legs under her and leans her arm along the back of the couch.
Max gulps down some coffee. She chews her lip. She says, "I don't know why, but it makes me anxious."
"Getting married?"
Max nods.
"Or marrying me?"
Max scrunches her nose. Chloe is an expert on Max's nose by now, so she understands that this is an irritated nose scrunch. "Chloe."
If Chloe were a nose-scruncher, hers would be a nervous scrunch right now. "Uh, yeah?"
"It's always going to be you," Max says patiently. "I only want you. I love you."
"Well, yeah. Obviously!" Chloe puts on a grin she doesn't quite mean, but the tension ebbs from her. "It was just an idea. Don't worry about it, Max."
That prompts a different nose scrunch. "What? No, Chloe. This is important to you. It's important to us. We can talk about this."
"It...okay." Chloe sighs. "I mean, it was just an idea. A dumb one. We've barely settled in here and unless you have any hidden treasure squirrelled away, it's not like we can afford to get married."
"Nope, no treasure." Max frowns into her coffee. "What sort of wedding would you like? Something...big?"
Any kind where we're married at the end of it, Chloe thinks.
"Nah. I mean, I guess we'd have to have your folks. And I guess some of the rest of the clan. I don't think I'd be inviting anybody from the garage, but you'd probably want that, uh, Parsnip girl--"
"Persephone!"
"Her parents hated her enough fresh out the womb to call her Persephone. She must be evil. Even if she wasn't from birth, I don't think you should underestimate what a name like that can do to a person, Max."
"Shut up! She's nice!
Max kicks her in the thigh. Which is a serious strategic error because it puts her foot in tickling range and Chloe is quick to seize both the opportunity and Max's ankle. She flexes the fingers of her other hand and waggles her eyebrows at Max.
"Chloe, no!" Max is a little breathless, as if in anticipation of the giggles to come."I'll spill my coffee!"
"Hmm. All over your sweatpants, too. And then you'd have to take them off..." Chloe brings her tickling fingers into range. "I am failing to see a downside here , Max."
"How about the one where I won't have sex with you if you spill coffee on me?"
"Fiiiine!" Chloe releases Max's ankle, pouting.
Max chuckles. She puts her cup on the floor beside the couch, then she shifts around, stretching her legs out and putting her feet in Chloe's lap.
"I'm trusting you here," Max says lightly. She wiggles her toes for emphasis.
Chloe grins. "Dangerous move, Caulfield. I'm not sure how that one's going to work out for you."
"Pretty well so far," Max whispers. "I hope I tell you that enough."
That sits between them for a while, until Chloe has finished her coffee and trusts herself to speak again. "Kristen and Fernando are a must."
"Huh?" Max blinks. "Oh. For the wedding. Yeah."
"What about Kate?"
And now Max does tense. Chloe curses herself. She sometimes wonders if Max has stayed in touch with Kate Marsh out of friendship or masochism. Chloe thinks it's a little of both. Kate doesn't know about That Week. The week when Max had powers and she used them to save Chloe and doom a town. Kate made it out, and she's stayed grateful to Max for saving her life.
Max doesn't see it that way. She has a hard time handling gratitude from Kate. She has a hard time accepting gratitude from anyone, even now.
After what feels like a very long time, Max says, "I don't know. I mean...I'd have to, right? And..."
"And that makes you anxious."
"...yeah. It's not the only thing, but..." Max lowers her eyes. "It's not fair, is it? Not on Kate, or you. I'm sorry, Chloe."
Chloe shakes her head. "No, no, come on. You aren't ready. I get it. I...it's okay."
Max doesn't look up. "What if I'm never ready?"
"It's still okay. It'll still be okay. I just..." Chloe puts her hand on Max's knee and squeezes. "I woke up and I felt...good. We had a good night, and it felt like a good morning and I...I just wanted to hold onto that feeling. Me asking was...was trying to hold onto that. It was dumb. I don't even have a ring, or--"
"It was sweet," Max says, making eye contact at last. "You are hella sweet, Chloe Price."
"I'm not. Just sweet on you."
Max stares at her. She bursts out laughing. "Wowser, that was cheesy!"
"Hey, fuck you! That was charming!"
"Uh-huh!" Max makes a painfully insincere show of trying to stifle her laughter. "No, yeah! Very...charming!"
"Okay, you little shit! You wanna laugh?" Chloe attacks Max's feet, reducing her to a shrieking, red-faced state in a matter of seconds.
"M-mercy!"
"Hmm." Chloe pauses in her assault. "That'll depend on how you answer this question: who's the most charming person in this relationship?"
Max's nose scrunches up. "I mean, are we talking overall, or...?"
This time, Chloe strips Max's socks off for maximum tickling efficiency. Max breaks after less than ten seconds.
"Y-you! Y-you...are..."
Chloe relents, but she keeps a hold on Max's ankle. "I am what?"
"The most charming!" Max blurts, her chest heaving. "Th-the most charming jerk."
"Jerk?" Max watches her, fighting a grin, her eyes shining. It feels good to be able to make Max feel good this easily, so Chloe lets her go and grins. "I am definitely the most charming jerk you know, true."
"Oh, I think you're the most charming jerk I'll ever know!"
"Ever?"
Max smiles. "Ever."
Chloe pushes herself up and crawls across the length of Max's body to her waiting mouth. She kisses her, pouring every ounce of passion she can into it.
"Wowser," Max gasps.
Chloe props herself on an elbow and stares down at her. "I love you, Max. Forever. Okay?"
Max nods, her eyes huge and liquid and focused solely on Chloe.
"Okay." Chloe kisses brow. "Couch day? Movies?"
Max smiles. "Yeah. Yeah, let's do that. Takeout pizza later?"
"Hmm...it's a nice day. Why don't we collect it, and then maybe you could take some pictures?"
"Okay," Max says, after a pause that makes Chloe think she's bumped up against another line Max isn't ready to cross. Some days are easier than others for Max when it comes to picking up a camera.
Chloe kisses her again. "Just an idea."
"See how we feel later?"
"Yeah. That's okay, Max."
"Okay." Her voice becomes a whisper. "Thanks, Chloe."
"Hey, uh, for the record, though?" Chloe wonders if she's fucking everything up again, but Max meets her eye and nods calmly. "I'm not withdrawing the question. It's okay if you never change your mind, but if you do? I, uh, I'm yours, Max."
Max kisses her. It's answer enough for now.
A few lazy kisses later, Max clears her throat. She says, "So...are you putting pants on or am I taking mine off?"
Chloe grins. "Now that is a good question!"
They end up back in bed before they spend the rest of the day on the couch watching Marvel movies on Max's dad's Netflix account. They go out for food, and Max takes her camera, and even if she only takes pictures of Chloe, at least she's taking pictures.
It ends up being a good day. There are still bad days after that, of course, but there are more and more of the good ones in the years that follow.
Chloe lets the question stand. She never asks Max to marry her again.