Great Minds Think Alike

Max looked up from the papers on his desk as he heard the short knock and saw the door opening. Bobbie popped her head around the door and smiled. “Are you busy, Max?”

“No more than normal, come on in, Bobbie.”

“You have a visitor, Max. I thought it would be okay to bring him right up.” Bobbie opened the door wider and stepped back to allow the visitor to pass her. Max grinned when he saw who was standing in his office.

“Ed! What are you doing here? Come and sit down. Bobbie, you couldn’t get us some coffee could you?”

“On its way,” Bobbie smiled, heading towards the staff room.

“Hey, buddy. Thought it was time I checked you out…make sure you’re really doing some work.”

“Is Bron with you?”

“Nope, she let me off the leash for once,” Ed laughed in reply. “I had to go see Toni at the clinic. One more visit and she says I should be out of her hair.”

“That’s great news, Ed; I think we should celebrate.”

Right then Bobbie came back in with a tray containing two steaming mugs and two enormous cream cakes. “Thought you boys could use a bite to eat,” she winked, putting the tray on the edge of the desk before going back to her work.

“She’s a good kid,” Ed remarked.

“She sure is. For a while I thought I was going to lose her when she sets up her surgery, but she still wants to do some hours here at the bank. Everyone adores her and it’s always a lot busier the three days she’s on duty.”

“I can understand that.”

“I had to take on a part-time secretary because of that. I was going to offer her the position, but I realised the customers would be up in arms if I took her away from the desk.”

They lapsed into companionable silence as they tucked into their cakes and drank their coffee. Ed got up and wandered to the window admiring the view of the centre Max had from his office. “You chose a good place for the bank, Max. You can see most of the centre from here.”

“Yes, although it’s growing quite fast now. The new butcher shop is coming along in leaps and bounds, and Ceri told me she heard it on the grapevine that someone is interested in opening a nail and hair salon. The way things are going we soon won’t need to drive to Coffs for essentials as we’ll have everything here.”

“Sure looks that way. We still don’t have a filling station though. Maybe Colin will think about adding that to his repair shop in the future.”

“Not a bad idea, Ed. Now, did you just want to share my coffee and cakes, or is there something on your mind?”

“Damn, you’re good at reading me. Okay, here’s the thing. Now I’m well on the mend I need to do something quite important, and I thought I’d run it past you first.”

Max sat forward in his chair, giving Ed his undivided attention.

“Max, I love Bron more than life…but I’m getting close to 20 years older than her…”

“Seventeen and a half,” Max interrupted.

“Don’t split hairs, that’s almost 20 in my book. Anyway, I want to spent the rest of my life with her, and for some unknown reason, I think she wants to stay with me.”

Max grinned at Ed’s earnest expression. “Go on.”

Ed cleared his throat and ran his fingers around his collar. “Be straight with me, Max. Do you think I’m too old to ask her to marry me?”

Max sat still for a moment just staring at his friend.

“You think it’s a bad idea?”

“Not at all,” Max replied, opening the top drawer of his desk. “I’m just amazed is all.” He handed Ed a small blue satin box. Ed opened it and looked inside.

“What…?”

“Looks like it’s not only the twins who get the same ideas, Ed. I’ve had that in my desk for about two weeks now, just waiting for the right moment to ask Ceri.”

Ed looked at the beautiful engagement ring one more time before closing and handing it back to Max. “I think we should do this right…make a big deal of it.”

“Good idea, Ed. How about Sydney?”

“You make the reservations, and I’ll suggest to Bron that we have you both round for dinner.”

Max stood up and hugged Ed warmly. “Consider it done, brother.”