Buck arrives at the restaurant 20 minutes early. He called ahead to make sure Eddie's favorite table was available and asked them to add some candles, something he typically wouldn’t do, but he wants it to feel extra special after all. If everything goes well, this will be the last first date he ever goes on.
The owner of the restaurant Manuel meets him at the front. Buck and Eddie have been coming to this restaurant for years at this point and it’s become one of their favorites. It doesn't hurt that they receive extra special treatment for saving Manuel's life on a call.
“Ah buck it’s great to see you, you're a little early so the table isn’t quite ready yet.”
“That’s fine man, I'm just a little nervous.”
“That’s understandable. Can I see it?”
“The ring! What do you want to do with”
“I can put it in his meal before serving it or put it in his glass..’
“Manny there is no ring I'm not proposing.”
“Well why not? Eddie’s a great guy and so are you!”
“So why not… oh I get it you're gonna propose soon but not here!
“You think my restaurant is not good enough for a proposal. Is my food not good enough? Do I not create an intimate and romantic atmosphere?”
“No, the food here is excellent. In fact you’re probably Eddie's favorite restaurant in all of Los Angeles and the atmosphere is perfect for a proposal… or a first date that you really want to go well with, which is what this is.”
“Yeah so I finally got my head out of my ass and asked Eddie on a date.”
“Yeah apparently Eddie and I were the only ones in the state of California that didn't know we were in love with each other."
“Oh well sorry about that i um overreacted… it’s just that no one in the seven years that we’ve been open has ever proposed here.”
“No one? that’s insane. I've seen people propose in line for KFC before. Nobody?
Maddie is sitting on the wilsons couch sipping wine with hen and karen while chimney entertains the kids, helping jee participate in the game denny, mara, and chris are playing when she receives a call from eddie. The thing is Eddie never calls maddie directly. He either tells buck or chim to pass on the information.
“Hey Eddie, what’s going on? Is Buck okay?”
“Yeah maddie bucks fine. Wow we really should talk to each other more when it’s not the middle of an emergency.”
“No, I do need someone to… talk me out of doing something crazy.”
“Crazy like how?” At this point all of the commotion in the living room has ceased although they can only clearly hear Maddie's side of the conversation they have all attuned to the fact that Eddie Diaz is about to do something insane. Again.
“Crazy like proposing on a first date crazy.”
“What? NO! Eddie? You definitely CANNOT PROPOSE ON A FIRST DATE!” Everyone in the room looks horrified besides jee who has no idea what's going on, bertie who is somehow still asleep thank god and oddly enough chris. Who not only doesn’t look horrified he looks HAPPY.
On the other end of the phone eddie can definitely hear the voices of chimney, hen, and karen. He should have asked maddie if she was alone oh well.
“You can put the phone on speaker maddie I know everyone can hear us.”
“Really dad you weren’t going to tell me!” he hears chris say but he doesn’t sound angry just really annoyed.
“I haven’t decided whether or not I'm going to do it.”
“That’s it i’m calling bobby and athena!” announces chimney.
“Who is this woman that you’re planning on proposing to? Asks Karen calmly.
“Oh maddie buck didn’t tell you?”
“Tell me what? Where is buck anyway? How of all people is he not involved in this?
“Probably getting ready for our date.”
“You asked us to take Chris for the night and didn’t even mention it was so you two could go on a date?”
“Chris knows and I thought buck would tell maddie who would tell Chim who would tell everyone else.”
“So wait not only are you going on a date with buck but you want to propose to him.”
“Yeah, oh wait i’m getting a call from bobby.”
“EDMUNDO DIAZ DO NOT PROPOSE TO RANDOM WOMAN ON THE FIRST DATE! Athena admonishes in lew of a greeting. As Eddie adds them to the conference call.
“It’s buck.” Hen and Chim chime in.
“It's not some random woman Eddie is going on a date with buck and has also decided to ask buck to marry him.”
“Okay? Explain. Bobby sternly demands
“Well buck asked me to go on a date with him and i said yes ofcourse so buck planned to meet me at my favorite restaurant.
“Okay and that equates to getting engaged, how?”
“Well earlier I realized that it probably wouldn’t be that different from the hundreds of times that me and buck have been there over the years. I mean buck knows where my favorite table is and what i would order and it’s not one of those places that i order the same thing from everytime. And it also has a lot to do with how we even decided to date anyway.”
“It was a long story but I basically told them that when I was little I saw Buck as my bonus dad because they treated each other like they were married.” Chris interjects.
“Yeah that. This maybe our first official romantic date but we’ve been partners for years at this point.”
“You could have just said that you know,” chimney chides
“I was aware of how crazy it sounds. I need someone to stop me from doing something crazy and ruining my relationship with Buck.”
"You won't," Maddie promises
"I think you should do it," Bobby states confidently
"I second that, really?" interjects Athena
"I think that, as crazy as it sounds, you know what you want, and I think you're right, you guys have been than just work partners for a long time. I've seen you make decisions and weather storms together in ways that show just as much commitment and understanding of each other as any marriage vow.
