As soon as he felt him shift in his arms Ashley let his grip go and let Ganymede stand back up. He wouldn't try to contain him. When he grabbed the dish to throw Ashley took hold of his wrist to stop him. It wasn't a tight grip, the intent was not to hurt him just get his attention.

"Ganymede." He said his name to get his attention. "Stop. Please. We were just fucking happy. I just asked you to marry me. You're letting him win. Letting him diminish you even though he is gone!"

Ashley swore right then he would find a way to ruin him. He could do it from a distance. Has the connections, the money and the power to make it happen.

"You aren't an idiot. You're fucking brilliant. You just fell for the wrong asshole and wanted it to be real. I did it to! But you're going to look back on tonight and beat yourself up for this. You're letting him win and he doesn't matter."

When Ganymede calms down or in a week or a month thinks back on this night Ash knows he'll be so upset with himself that this happened. It breaks his heart to not know how to help him through this. It also hurts to have a night that felt so wonderful and full of hope turn into this.

"I never wanted to be this guy. Never...but you have got to make a choice. Right fucking now. It's me or him. You choose us and let this shit go. Because. He. Doesn't. Matter. I'm here and I love you so much...but right now? You're letting him control you and ruining something really special."