Forever & Always

Chapter One: Happy Valentine's Day!

"Spence, come on we're going to be late!" Toby called up the stairs. I was finishing getting ready for wherever it was that he had decided to take me. It was Valentine's Day and it also happened to be our two year anniversary, so he wanted to surprise me.

"Hang on babe; I'm almost finished, I promise! Just give me five minutes!"

"Spence baby, that's what you said fifteen minutes ago, we HAVE to go, we're going to miss our reservation!" HA! I got it! We're going to a restaurant!

"Okay, okay! I'm done!" I said as I rushed down the staircase, his waiting arms catching me when I got to the bottom. I locked my arms around his neck and stretched up on my toes to kiss those soft, pouty lips of his and he bent down to me so I didn't have to reach as far. I could spend the rest of my life kissing him, but unfortunately we had a reservation to attend to.

"You look so beautiful tonight. Even more than usual!" I giggled like a little school girl and my heart began to thud erratically. I couldn't understand how after all this time, he still had this effect on me, how one thing he says can make my bones turn to mush and make my knees weak.

"Hanna came over and helped me get ready, you know how she is! Little miss fashion! She wouldn't take no for an answer when I told her what was happening tonight, well what I thought was happening tonight!"

"I can tell, now come on. Let's go my beauty." He said, pulling away from my until just our hands were intertwined, I missed the connection already.

After about a ten minute drive, we came to my favourite restaurant, Bella Italia, Toby knew I loved it here so I should have known that we were going here. He opened the car door for me and placed his hand on the small of my back. I pulled the door of the restaurant open and it was dark.

"Toby, honey, there's no one here?" I stated, but it came out more as a question. The next thing I knew the room was filled with people shouting 'surprise!'

I took in my surroundings and saw my best friends; a very pregnant Hanna and her husband Caleb, Aria, Ezra and their son Malcolm and Emily and Paige. My parents were standing to the side, my mother with tears in her eyes, I wasn't one hundred per cent sure what was going on, it all happened so fast. Melissa came running up to me and threw her arms around me. "Happy Anniversary Little Sis!" she said as she kissed me on the cheek.

I know what you're thinking, why the hell is Melissa being nice to me? She had a random personality change about a year ago and we have been getting on so well since then. I hugged her back and made my way around the circle, rubbing Hanna's belly saying hello to my future niece or nephew, kissing Malcolm's head and hugging my girlfriends and their significant others.

My significant other, however, was still standing at the door; he seemed a bit off so I ran up to him and jumped into his grasp. This was a very difficult manoeuvre in the skin-tight dress that Hanna had put me in, but I managed.

He buried his face in my hair and I could feel him inhaling the scent of my shampoo, which meant one thing, he was trying to calm himself down. I peppered kisses all over his face and I could see the flashes of cameras all around us.

"Thank-you so much baby, you are the best boyfriend anyone could ever ask for," I heard a few coughs from the audience, from the guys no doubt, "happy anniversary my darling, I love you so much!" I said, finally kissing his lips passionately.

I heard an 'ew' come from the audience and I knew it was Malcolm. He wasn't really a fan of PDA, and usually neither was I, especially from Hanna and Caleb! But tonight was different! Tonight I didn't care. I was surrounded by my loved ones on a very important day for me and I couldn't be happier.

The party was in full swing after a few hours of my chatting with the girls, catching up as though we hadn't seen each other for months. I was talking to Aria about how Malcolm was going at school when I heard a throat clearing in the microphone on the stage.

I looked up to see a very nervous looking Toby standing on the stage with a whisky in his hand. He only drank when he was nervous; it was making me nervous now. He tapped on the microphone to see if it was working. He cleared his throat one more time before he started; he ran his free hand through his tousled brown hair that I loved so much. I looked to my left to see an extremely excited Hanna bouncing up and down beside me.

"Uh…Hey everyone, I would like to first thank everyone for coming out tonight. Spence was thoroughly surprised, and we all know how hard it is to surprise her. Hanna I'm surprised you didn't blurt it out to her sooner!" the soft murmur of laughter from our family and friends carried throughout the restaurant before he continued. "Spence, can you please come up here for a second, my love?"

I was sort of dumbfounded, why would he want me to come up there? I made my way through the sea of our family and friends who all looked so excited. Toby held his hand out to me as I reached the stairs leading up the side of the small stage. Suddenly, I was nervous. I'm a Hastings, I'm not supposed to get nervous, it's not in my genetic make-up!

I climbed onto the stage as gracefully as I could manage wearing a skin-hugging dress and four-inch heels. Toby captured me in a bear hug that lifted my feet off the ground, there were more camera flashes. He put me back on the floor after a few seconds and slowly started making his way to the floor.

"What are you doing?" I asked him as he got all the way to one knee. There were gasps and 'aws' from the audience, but my mind couldn't comprehend what was unfolding before my eyes.

"Spencer Jill Hastings, I love you more than life in itself. These past two years have been the best years of my life. You are the love of my life and my best friend; I would go to the ends of the earth to make you happy. Spence, would you do me the honour of becoming my wife?" I gasped as I finally realised what was going on, I didn't even realise I was crying until I couldn't find any words because I was so choked up. I nodded my head eagerly while I tried to find my voice.

"Yes, Toby!" I finally answered, pulling him up by his hands and throwing myself at him. "Nothing would make me happier than becoming your wife, I love you so much!" I said as I kissed him with as much passion as I could muster.

He pulled away from me for a brief second so he could put his grandmother's ring on my left hand. I hugged him again, showing him just how happy I was at that very moment. There were screams, yahoos and hollers from the audience, I could tell that our friends and family were extremely happy. I held up my left hand and there was an eruption of applause.

I climbed down the stairs with Toby in tow so I could show the girls my ring.