Will you marry me

I knocked on Mr Harkins door, apartment 1A, and I heard the tv turn off, and his feet sliding across the floor.  The bolt unlocked and it echoed in the hallway of 72 North Belvedere.

"Hello there friend, come in, come in. So good to see you," he said.

I walked in and sat down on an old wooden chair.

"Yes sit down, sit down."

He sat in a filthy huge recliner with two tall plastic book shelf leaning over him. There was a 2x4 keeping them from crashing down and he could easily access the books from either shelf from the chair. Papers and bungee chords hung from the structure.  I looked through the books before and it was mostly theology and stuff about the Catholic Church. Nothing I was interested in.

His feet were bare and his toes were hideous.

"Well I asked her, I asked her to marry me," I said.

"Oh Ray, this is wonderful, of course she said yes?" he asked.

"Yeah, she said yes," I was smiling, "she started crying."

"Oh just wonderful. We need to celebrate. Can I get you a diet Coke?"

"Yeah, I'll take one."

We were friends. The only thing we wanted from each other was friendship and we both had something to offer the other.

"How did you ask her?"

"Well you know how she loves her dogs" --

"Yes, I know."

--"I put bowties on both of them and