Prologue
A lot can happen in a few short weeks.
The media attention of the solution of the demon case in Los Angeles had provided another boost in clients and revenue stream and Scooby Doo Investigations hit the half-year mark of their existence having run in the black for five out of the six months and putting away a rainy-day fund equal to two months of operating expenses. The backlog was solid and the overall utilization rate for the Gang was just under 80% (even after Velma's final exam week and Shaggy and Scooby's grand re-opening of the restaurant to full capacity). The percentage of repeat clients was hovering at 50%. For being in operation half a year, that was phenomenal. They had applied for reciprocity of Scooby Doo's PI license in three additional bordering states. They still had not heard about the state board's review of Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy's licenses. It would be nice to be fully licensed and not associates. But the bureaucracy moves as the bureaucracy moves.
With health insurance now provided by the agency and the client and case backlog looking better than anticipated, Daphne had put in her two-week notice at the department store. Her last official shift would be Saturday night and she was booked solid with appointments. What she didn't know was that her best customers had all gotten together and booked her entire shift so they could throw her a going away party. There was just something about the bond between a cosmetologist and her clients. If there was anything that Daphne was going to miss… Strike that. There was nothing she was going to miss, and she would walk through those doors for the last time with a smile on her face. If those customers wanted to continue the relationship as friends, then she would gladly do so… for four of them. As far as the other two, she would always be just a little too busy to squeeze them into her schedule. Not even Daphne Jones likes everybody.
Fred negotiated with his boss a return to part-time as soon as the agency was providing insurance coverage. He kept the week-end hours which was where the biggest bonuses were but gave up weekday hours. This apparent favoritism made neither he nor his manager popular with the staff. But his sales were more than double the next best salesman on the floor. Management compromises were sometimes necessary to maximize a profit in a very competitive hardware and white goods market.
The first month of the restaurant being back up to post-Covid full capacity had been a breakeven but that was good since Scooby had projected they would be slightly in the red due to restocking, licensing, employment, and training costs. Scooby was now projecting that Shaggy would be able to pay himself a salary the following month for the first time since Covid had hit. That plus the agency salary would give him a financial cushion for the first time in months. Scooby would continue to forgo a salary from the restaurant since he had the agency and the Government sending him checks every two weeks.
Velma remained a full-time student on top of the investigative work and would continue to do so until she either had her PhD or they pried the textbooks from her cold, dead fingers. She had almost given up on this dream once. Never again.
With things going so well, Fred pulled the trigger and they had signed a 12-month lease on office space. It was nothing fancy. It was an old storefront in a strip center about five miles outside of Crystal Cove on the Riley Highway. That put it relatively near to Shaggy's restaurant and on the way to Shaggy, Velma, and Scooby's apartment…
Wait... What?...
A lot can happen in a few short weeks.
The trip to Los Angeles a few weeks earlier had been a pivotal point in Velma and Shaggy's relationship and it had pivoted. Since Velma was involved, there had been a process. The initial phase had been to change their relationship from 'not sexually active' to 'sexually active'. This occurred within a week after the return from LA. Details will not be shared with the exception of the following:
The event did not unfurl like a scene from Lady Chatterly's Lover. To get a sense of it, the sounds emanating from the boudoir were slightly more likely to be the phrases "Sorry" and "Excuse me" than they were to be cries of passion.
Both parties were, however, extremely pleased with the outcome.
This led to a conversation regarding the future. This conversation did not occur in an afterglow moment over glasses of wine at Velma's apartment but rather while they were in a supermarket. The pivoted relationship allowed for her to include Shaggy in domestic tasks such as grocery shopping which effectively added 20% to her product options due to his being able to reach the top shelves. This had, in turn, added three new seasonings into her diet.
Shaggy was pushing the cart and trying to keep it from veering right. The squeak it made was noticeable but not so loud as to be unbearable. The discussion started out as a fairly normal effort on Shaggy's part to expand Velma's culinary horizons, "Why not?"
"Baked goods and pastries are not in the cards."
"With as much as you exercise, you could sneak an occasional Danish."
"My diet and exercise regimen is strict, but necessary."
"You only think it's necessary because when you look in the mirror, you don't see what everybody else sees."
They were walking casually down the aisle and passed a woman trying to reach a particular brand of brown sugar which was just out of reach. Shaggy reached over and casually pulled a box off the shelf and handed it to her. The woman looked at Velma and said, "Thank you."
Shaggy assumed she was thanking Velma for loaning out her tall boyfriend.
Velma responded to Shaggy's statement, "Thank you. I love you. I trust you. And, for the first time in my life, I am happy. But that does not instantly eradicate a lifetime of self-image issues and obsessive/compulsive disorder. So, I will continue to obsessively exercise and maintain a strict diet until such time as you, me, and an on-going string of therapists get me past that."
The woman down the aisle was edging closer and obviously eavesdropping.
Velma leaned over past Shaggy to look at her, "Do you mind?"
The woman tried to pretend she was not listening while simultaneously looking sheepish.
Startled, Shaggy turned and looked over his shoulder and saw the look on the woman's face. He smiled and turned back to Velma, "Remind me, is this trip to stock up your kitchen or mine?"
"Mine. Which is evidenced by the much higher percentage of green in the cart than when we're shopping for you."
"Food should be brown. Green is for garnish."
She mulled this over for a quarter of a second, "To each their own. But, as long as we're discussing multiple kitchens, the commute from the center of Crystal Cove to school is putting a lot of miles on my car and taking a big bite out of my day. I'm thinking of moving closer to Riley to split the difference."
"That sounds like a good idea, but you've got a pretty good deal on rent where you are."
"You mean free? Yes, that is a pretty sweet deal. But if I can move out, then my parents can quit paying the insurance rider for the store downstairs and they'll make more money."
"That makes sense."
"So, if I moved out toward Riley, I would be out just past your restaurant."
"That might be convenient, I guess, except that Scoob and I would still be living in Crystal Cove."
"Unless you weren't."
The eavesdropping woman understood what Velma was saying before Shaggy did and coughed. He turned toward the woman which gave him another second to think and then turned back to Velma, "Oh, you're thinking about moving in together."
The eavesdropping woman nodded which Shaggy did not see and Velma tried to ignore. Velma continued, "It's logical. Pooling our resources, we could get a bigger place with a nicer kitchen and both have easier drives to work."
"It would be a long way from Fred and Daphne's."
"But we're about to move the agency into an office. It would be good to be situated before that decision is made."
That was an excellent point, but this was coming at Shaggy very quickly, "Umm, let me think a second…"
"Are you worried about Scooby?" This question was an emotional landmine based on past history.
Shaggy avoided it, "No. He's adaptable. We could sell him on a bigger kitchen and two baths."
His providing details for what the new apartment needed was good but then he didn't follow up and the silence began to stretch. Velma held her next question in as long as she could before, "Are you worried about us?"
This question came out flat and without emotion. Normally, Velma had to make an effort to show emotion, so when she really felt it the most, she didn't have enough energy left to create an expression or a tone of voice. So, when she was the most emotional, she expressed it the least.
Shaggy recognized the lack of tone immediately, "That is the one and only thing I am not worried about. I love you and that's not changing."
This also helped and it would have helped more if the eavesdropping woman had not sighed.
"Then what's the issue? Better apartment, better location, maximized cost efficiency. I don't see a downside."
"It's not really a downside, exactly."
The eavesdropping woman was mesmerized.
Velma continued to ignore her, "Then what is it?"
"There's more to it than cost-efficiency. This is moving in together. Maybe I'm old-fashioned but I always sort of associated moving in together with marriage."
"So, you don't want to move in together because we're not married?"
"Well, not exactly, but marriage should be somewhere in the discussion."
Velma was now caught up in the logic of the debate which caused her next sentence to be extremely Velma-ish, "I'm confused. Are you saying 'no' to moving in together or are you proposing?"
As the silence following this question stretched on, Velma had the opportunity to replay it in her head and realized the extent of her faux pas. She opened her mouth to retract the question.
But then Shaggy answered, "Proposing. I guess."
The woman sharing their aisle gasped.
Velma could ignore it no longer, "Lady, seriously, do you mind?"
The woman looked right back, "It's me and the four cats. It will always be me and the four cats. This may be as close as I ever get to a conversation like this. Throw a poor girl a bone."
Velma shook her head, "Fine."
She then took a moment to process what had just happened.
What had just happened was a big deal and so the moment was a long one. Finally, Shaggy interrupted her revery, "Uh Vel?"
"Yes, Shaggy?"
"I think I just asked you to marry me."
Her thoughts were already well past that point and planning into the future, "Oh that. Of course. If your proposing, then I'm saying yes. When do we do this?"
The cat lady came running in and hugged them both.
A lot can happen in a few short weeks.
That did not include a wedding. Daphne refused to allow anything as gauche as a courthouse wedding or, heaven forbid, a Las Vegas wedding, "That's so-o-o-o second marriage." Velma was indifferent so she turned this planning over to her mother and Daphne who were both very excited. They said it would take them at least a year to be ready. That was fine.
An engagement ring was purchased which was enough for Shaggy and they, along with Scooby who was paying a third of the rent, found and moved into an apartment the week-end before the agency moved into the new office.