Nine Months of Hell Chapter 25

'Will You Marry Me?"

Randy's POV

'Hey dad, why don't we go out tonight for dinner, since it is the ninth anniversary of Tool Time?' I ask dad when he gets home.

'Oh, I suppose so. As long as it's alright with your mom' dad says.

'Could we invite Lauren and Wilson too? It was actually Lauren's idea to go out and celebrate' I say, trying to make my case.

'I don't see why not' he says.

'Great. I'll go over and tell them' I say, already half way to the back door.

I have such a great evening planned. Lauren may think I'm just going to propose to her, but I'm not. I'm going to surprise her at every possible opportunity.

Later That Evening

Randy's POV

Right now everyone is at the restaurant, waiting to be seated.

'Right this way' the hostess says after speaking with the restaurant manager for a moment.

She leads us through the ground floor dining area, up a marble staircase, and finally out to the balcony dining area.

'There must be some sort of mistake. We didn't have reservations for the balcony' dad says.

'Yes we did. I called ahead and had them set this up to make the night special' I say. Hey, it's not a total lie. I do want to make the night special.

'Well…Okay then' is all dad says.

We all sit down, and begin looking over the menu.

After we decide what we want, and the waiter (not Antonio!) takes our order, mom excuses herself to the restroom. She tosses me a look that says "Come here! We need to talk". I do as the look tells me.

'What's going on here Randy?' she asks once we're out of everyone else's earshot.

'Nothing. Like I said before, I just want to make tonight special' I say.

'Special for who?' mom asks.

'For everyone' I respond.

'Okay' she says, then heads on to the restroom. I do so as well, so that way I don't make anyone suspicious by coming back to the table too early.

Everything goes normally after we return to the table until the food arrives.

All the plates and bowls have gold around the edges. The silverware is actual silver, and the glasses aren't glasses, they're actually crystal ware. Mom gives me a questioning look that goes unnoticed by everyone else. I give her a reassuring look that says "I told you so".

Nothing special happens for the rest of the meal. Then when the waiter brings out dessert (Red Velvet cake with butter cream frosting, Lauren's favorite), and I offer to cut the cake for everyone. I cut pieces for mom, dad, Wilson, Brad, and Mark first. Then I bend down to get a plate for Lauren's piece of cake. Instead I drop down on to one knee, and grab the small black box that I dropped off here earlier today. By now, most of the staff of Sorrentino's, including the manager and owner, has come up to the balcony.

'I'm just going to get straight to the point here. Lauren Wilson, will you marry me?' I propose.

Lauren bursts out crying. Did I say something wrong? I look at Lauren, then mom for help. Oh God, maybe I shouldn't have done this here. Maybe I shouldn't have- Well no, this was Lauren's idea. God, why is she crying? Maybe it's hormones?

'Imzohabbtohaffu' she says through the steady stream of tears.

'I mean, I'm so happy to have you' Lauren says after she regains control of herself. Thank God it wasn't something I did or said.

'Is that a yes?' I ask, just to be on the safe side. She nods her head, smiles, and starts crying again.

A/N: Yes, I know; another short chapter. But if you're thinking about chapter length at this point, what's the matter with you?

I owe Baxxie a huge thank you (and probably even more than that) for coming up with Lauren's response to Randy's proposal. Everything I tried to write just made me want to throw up, it was so awful. So I think everyone who's reading just needs to take a moment and thank Baxxie for keeping you from throwing up.

Please R&R.

Thanks for reading.

Oh, and by the way, the reason I'm updating all my stories today is because I have to have yet another surgery done on my nose. This is supposed to be the final one though.

-Yours truly, Randy Taylor