DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything. This disclaimer applies to all chapters.

It was harder than Sandy and Kirsten thought to find an apartment. They ended up living in a mail truck for a while which despite not being their ideal apartment, ended up being more fun and exciting than they thought it would be. Eventually they found an apartment close to school and got settled into it in early October.

That summer Kirsten hadn't visited her parents like she was planning on. She was too busy with work and school and her home life with Sandy. She talked with her mom at least once every two weeks. During the last conversation, Mrs. Nichol insisted that Kirsten and Sandy attend her and Caleb's 25th wedding anniversary party that was coming up. Kirsten felt obligated to go only for her mother because she knew how much it would mean to her. Her mother was never really fond of Caleb inviting all of Newport to their personal affairs, yet with the big 25 she knew he would have everyone there even though she wanted a small party. Mrs. Nichol would be a lot happier if Kirsten came to make the event more personal.

Throughout the last few months, Sandy had been thinking about proposing to Kirsten. In fact, ever since he angrily left his mother's house it had been in the back of his mind. He knew that if he had any doubts about whether or not Kirsten was the right person for him he'd be sure to find out by their living together. He came to the conclusion that he had absolutely no doubts in his mind about Kirsten being the one. Living with Kirsten was wonderful and he loved seeing her all the time and sharing household responsibilities with her.

He wondered, though, how he was going to afford an engagement ring…how they were going to tell their families if, that is, they got engaged…how the planning of the wedding would go…and the biggie…how asking Kirsten's father for permission would go. He knew Kirsten didn't care if he asked her father or not, but Sandy wanted to be proper and make their two very different background families come together for the two of them. He wasn't worried about the wedding itself because he knew that he'd be the happiest guy alive on that day. He was just worried about everything up until the wedding. These upcoming months were sure to be some stressful months for him he thought.

It was ironic because even though they lived together, they saw each other less than they did when they weren't living together. Kirsten went right from school to work full time everyday. Sandy had a lot of law classes at night, and when he wasn't at school he was working full time. Whenever he could put in overtime at work he would because he had to save as much as he could for Kirsten's ring and the wedding. He knew he was jumping ahead a bit because he didn't even ask Kirsten yet, but he was sure she would say yes and he knew that the sooner he started saving the better.

Day after Mrs. Nichol calls to invite Kirsten and Sandy to the party

Kirsten did get bit suspicious as to why Sandy was working so much and she felt like they never spent time together anymore. She tried to look at the bright side of her mother's invitation and figured that going to the party would give her and Sandy a chance to getaway from school and work for a few days. When Sandy got home from class that night, Kirsten was waiting for him in the living room.

"Hey baby…how was your class discussion?" she asked cheerfully, giving him a kiss on the lips.

"Not as easy as I thought it would be…that's for sure. Work wasn't any better. I'm so tired."

"I know. You've been working way too hard. You need a break."

"What is it Kirsten, you look like you want to ask me something," he said tiredly as he sat down on the couch.

"Umm…yeah…well actually I don't know if this is much of a break but it's definitely a getaway. Umm…my mom called and is insisting that we go to my parents 25th wedding anniversary party."

Sandy was silent. The first time he met Kirsten's parents it didn't go too well and he was sure this wasn't going to be the right time to formally meet them, not to mention he was in no mood for talking about it now.

She continued, "It's the week before Thanksgiving. It's at my dad's favorite country club."

"Why would they want me to go? They haven't even met me…well…not formally yet."

"Well my mother knows so much about you from what I tell her and she knows that I wouldn't go by myself…without you…so…what do you say? Come on, we can take a break from everything for a few days."

"How long would we be gone for?"

"Umm…well…that's the other thing…since their anniversary is the Saturday before Thanksgiving my mom was hoping we would stay for Thanksgiving."

"Thanksgiving?" He was taken by surprise. He had to go home for Thanksgiving because he was going to tell his mother he was going to propose to Kirsten. He still hadn't told Kirsten he was going home. Quickly, he responded, "Kirsten I have to go to my mom's for Thanksgiving. My cousins are coming in from upstate and I don't see them that often. Believe me I don't want to face my mom, but I don't want to cut off the rest of my family."

Kirsten's face showed surprise and sadness. She couldn't believe Sandy wanted to go to New York for Thanksgiving.

Sandy continued, "Come on honey, that would be a bit awkward if I was there with all your relatives."

"Well its not like it's going to get easier as time goes on."

"I know. Trust me next holiday we'll pick one of our family's houses to go to and go together. No more separate family holidays. Trust me on this one." He so badly wanted to explain to her that the whole reason for him going to New York. "Well we'll go together to the anniversary party. Okay? But Kirsten, please, understand, if there was a way I could stay here for Thanksgiving I would, believe me," he said trying to reassure her.

"I know," she said dryly. What she really wanted to know was what it was going to take to not let what their parents thought of them get in the way of their relationship. She wanted to take their relationship to the next level. Little did she know was that it would be at the next level soon.

The Saturday before Thanksgiving

Sandy and Kirsten got an early start on Saturday morning with Sandy driving as they headed to Newport Beach. There wasn't much conversation in the car as both of them were in their own little worlds thinking about how the party would go. He feared to see what Kirsten used to live like. He was afraid she might get too easily adjusted by just staying here for a few days. He also feared being introduced to Kirsten's dad. She feared coming here after not being in Newport Beach in almost a year but her biggest fears were seeing her father, formally introducing Sandy to him, and seeing Jimmy.

Kirsten promised to give Sandy the tour of Newport Beach, including driving past her home. After a few hours, they pulled up to a very high-class community, complete with guards, a gate, and fancy landscaping. After Kirsten told the guard who they were, he let them in, where Sandy saw homes in sizes he never thought imaginable. After traveling down a hilly, windy road, they finally arrived at the Nichols' home.

"Kirsten! You didn't tell me you lived in a mansion?!"

"Its not a mansion!"

"Yes it is! I…I…I can't believe how big it is!"

"It's too big."

"Easy for you to say, you lived here. I've never been in a house this big. Wow, I can't believe how big it is. This is unreal."

She hated how fascinated he was with the size of her parents' home. It just wasn't a big deal to her. She had lived here for 18 years and when she finally moved out, she couldn't wait to move into something small…like…their apartment or even the mail truck. Anything was better than this she thought. Well, maybe not to the naked eye, but had it seen what life really was like for her, it might have had a different opinion.

"So now that you've seen their house…can we get going? I want to introduce you before my father gets sidetracked with all his stupid friends."

"Okay. Man, I was hoping for a tour," he said smiling over at her. Seeing that she was not amused with his comment, he got serious again saying, "Kirsten how come you never told me you lived in such a huge house?"

"Because what does that matter? You would have thought I was a snotty rich girl and would have probably never spoke to me ever. I told you my father is obsessed with money. Isn't that enough? Couldn't you put it together that if he's so rich and money hungry that I would have grown up living in some ritzy high-class area in a house bigger than the size of our entire apartment building?" she snapped back, realizing that she had reacted too strongly. "Sorry," she said quieter, "I'm just not happy to be here, I just hate coming. It reminds me of what life was like…before you."

"Kirsten…" he said softly, reaching over and giving her a hug. "It's okay…"

They arrived at the country club. Kirsten spotted her mother conversing with some relatives. Kirsten led Sandy over to her.

"Kirsten, you made it! I'm so glad to see you." Mrs. Nichol reached out and gave her daughter a hug and a kiss.

"Mom, this is Sandy Cohen, Sandy, this is my mom."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Sandy, I know we briefly met before but we didn't really get to talk, although I feel like I have known you for years from hearing so much about you from Kirsten," Mrs. Nichol said smiling while shaking Sandy's hand.

"Oh, isn't that nice. It's very nice to meet you, Mrs. Nichol. Happy Anniversary, these are for you!" Sandy handed her a bouquet.

"Sandy, you are too kind. Thank you. Let me go get my husband, hold on."

After Mrs. Nichol left, Kirsten said, "Oh I don't want to talk to him," as she saw him coming over without her mother, who was approached by another guest.

Kirsten took a deep breath. "Sandy, this is my father, Caleb Nichol, dad, this is my boyfriend, Sandy Cohen."

"Oh…the guy in your dorm room a few months ago."

"Yes dad, that's him!"

"Yes, that's me. Sandy Cohen. Pleasure to formally meet you Mr. Nichol." Sandy reached his hand out.

"Sandy Cohen. So you think you've stolen my daughter's heart?"

"Yes dad Sandy has stolen my heart," she interrupted. Then quieter she said, "He holds it," while smiling at Sandy.

Sandy didn't know what to respond so just stood there glancing back and forth.

"Sandy, come on, let's go get an appetizer," Kirsten said, wanting to get away from her father.

After they left, Caleb mumbled, "We'll see how long he holds your heart" as he watched them walk giddily hand in hand over to a waiter who had appetizers.

The rest of the evening went pretty smooth. Kirsten was relieved to find out from her mother that Jimmy and his family couldn't attend the party as they were spending Thanksgiving week in Hawaii.

After the party ended Sandy and Kirsten stood by his car to exchange goodbyes.

"Oh," Kirsten began as she leaned into Sandy's chest, "at least you will only be gone for a few days."

"I know…" he said as he stroked her hair.

So that was it. Once again they were spending the holidays alone with their families that disapproved of their relationship. It was like their families were winning because never did Sandy and Kirsten spend the holidays together in fear of someone bringing up their different family backgrounds or that the family that Kirsten and Sandy weren't spending the holiday with would cause a commotion that their son or daughter wasn't spending the holiday with them.

Monday Night

Kirsten regretting her decision to stay at her parents' house without Sandy for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was still three long days away and Kirsten didn't know what to do with her self. She desperately tried to avoid her father, who had kept telling her that Sandy wasn't the right guy for her. Kirsten insisted that Caleb didn't know Sandy and would love him if he got to know him.

Meanwhile Sandy had just gotten settled after flying in and adjusting to the time difference. He was stressed out because he wasn't sure how his mother would react to his telling her he was going to propose to Kirsten and he doubted that his mother would attend the wedding.

Phone ringing. Sandy hoped it was Kirsten.

"Sandy oh I wish you were here," Kirsten said sounding upset.

"Tell me about it, I do too. You okay?"

"No. I think I'm going to go home, I can't stay here any longer."

"Why? What's wrong? Do you want me to come out?"

"No its okay. I just miss you and if I'm home at least I have our apartment and our pictures to look at and stuff. Here I have nothing. I'm lonely that's all…and Sandy…I just wanted to make sure we are okay. I mean you have been stressed lately and with school and work we haven't really had a chance to spend a lot of time alone. I just wanted to make sure our relationship is good…I mean you went home for Thanksgiving and I thought you weren't on speaking terms with your mother so I thought maybe you were avoiding me because our relationship isn't working or something. I just want to make sure me and you are okay."

"Oh Kirsten…our relationship is fine. Honey I'm sorry if I have seemed so stressed lately. We do need to spend more time together, just me and you. Please don't think I came here to avoid you because that's not it. Believe me. I wish I was home with you right now. I love you Kirsten…our relationship is great."

"It is. I love you Sandy. I'm glad we talked about this."

"Me too. And honey…don't go home. You'll be in an empty apartment."

"I know, I know, I won't. So I'll talk to you tomorrow?"

"You bet."

"I love you."

"I love you."

The next day Sandy told his mother that he was going to propose to Kirsten. His mother said she wasn't surprised, considering how she had never seen Sandy stand up for or defend anyone to his mother like he did for Kirsten. Sophie told her son that even if she tried she wouldn't be able to stop him from marrying Kirsten because she knew how strong their relationship was. She also said she wouldn't want to stop him because after he left she realized that Kirsten made him happy and she wanted her son to be happy.

Sophie agreed to go to the wedding as long as it was an interfaith ceremony. While Sophie finally accepted Sandy and Kirsten's relationship, she did not accept any of Kirsten's rich family members and told Sandy not to expect her to speak to them at all. Sophie then curiously asked her son why he wasn't spending Thanksgiving with his future wife to which he replied that they both decided that since their two families aren't quite accepting of their relationship they haven't started celebrating the holidays together. To Sandy's surprise, Sophie encouraged Sandy to leave right after Thanksgiving brunch so that he could be with Kirsten's family as well as his own. She reminded Sandy that she raised him right and that meant showing what a good future son-in-law he was by coming to holiday celebrations to be with family.

Sandy was thrilled! One third there he thought to himself. Now he just had to tell Kirsten's father and then ask Kirsten. He couldn't wait to get home.

Luckily Sandy had left his car at the airport since he was going to pick Kirsten up so they could head home together. After arriving, he quickly grabbed his luggage and headed back to Newport Beach to surprise Kirsten. He told the guard at the gate that he was Kirsten Nichol's boyfriend, to which the guard let him through. When he arrived at the house, he nervously rang the doorbell hoping it would be Kirsten who answered.

"Hi!"

"Hi…umm…Kirsten's sister, right? We met the other night."

"Yeah…Hailey…are you looking for Kirsten?"

"Yes. She isn't expecting me."

"Oh okay, hold on." As Hailey ran to get Kirsten, Sandy noticed that he arrived in between meals as a lot of the Nichols were conversing with each other while watching football in the living room. He was thankful he didn't arrive while everyone was eating dinner.

"Sandy?!" Kirsten yelled excitedly.

"Surprise. Happy Thanksgiving."

"Yeah you too. What are you doing here?"

"I came to surprise my baby. Umm…is it okay if I came? I don't want to intrude on your family or anything."

"Sandy you were invited! Come on in! But what about Thanksgiving at your mom's?"

"Let's just say we're getting along again. She told me that I should spend the holiday with my family as well as with yours. She has finally accepted our relationship."

"Oh Sandy, that's wonderful!" She hugged him tight. When they let go she put her hands on his cheeks and gave him a long kiss on the lips.

While all of this was going on, Hailey had ran over and told her mother that Sandy had came. Mrs. Nichol came to the door to find her daughter in the middle of a long kiss to Sandy. When their lips came apart, Mrs. Nichol said, "At least wait until after dinner! Sandy, it's a pleasure to see you again! Come on in!"

Kirsten and Sandy walked in together holding hands. Mrs. Nichol announced to everyone that Kirsten's boyfriend Sandy just arrived. Embarrassed, Sandy just waved to everyone and said "Happy Thanksgiving". Caleb, who had been talking to some people in the dining room, came out during all of this with a glass of wine in his hand.

"Sandy, so you've decided to join us for Thanksgiving?"

"Yeah dad isn't that great?" Kirsten said excitedly.

"Don't you have a family to celebrate with?" Caleb asked sarcastically.

"Yes, actually I was there this morning celebrating. I caught a flight right after Thanksgiving brunch to be with Kirsten and her family."

This was one of the one times Caleb was speechless. He didn't expect that response. "Oh, well I hope your hungry for another meal. Dinner is in an hour."

"I'm sure I'll be hungry."

Thanksgiving dinner went well. Kirsten and Sandy were just happy to talk to each other while the rest of the family carried on with their conversations. Mrs. Nichol showed Sandy to the guest room to sleep for the night. After Sandy kissed Kirsten good night, he went to the guest room thinking about how to approach Kirsten's father about his intentions. He wasn't planning on asking Caleb so soon but after his mother's good reaction to him proposing and seeing how rather smooth his conversation went with Caleb tonight, he had a lot more confidence now. He wanted to hurry along with asking Caleb so he could just propose to Kirsten already.

He decided that he would offer to take Caleb golfing in the morning. After all, Caleb would be familiar with golfing as he did a lot of negotiating and business deals on the golf course. Surely taking Caleb to a place where he feels comfortable might be a good place to ask him for his permission to marry his daughter.

Sandy woke up early and went downstairs to find Mrs. Nichol preparing breakfast.

"Hi Mrs. Nichol…umm…do you know if Mr. Nichol is busy today because umm…well I'd like to get to know him better and take him golfing if he'd like."

"Sandy that's so nice of you. You are just the perfect guy. I'm so glad Kirsten found you. Actually today would be perfect. This is one of the only days that Caleb takes a day off from work. He was only planning on coming shopping with me to start Christmas shopping but he hates shopping so I'm sure he'd love to go. I'll go get him, he's outside."

Caleb walked into the kitchen saying, "Golfing, eh?"

"Yes Mr. Nichol. If you want."

"Golfing it is. But you should know that I've been golfing for over 20 years."

"I'll give it a try."

And with that, Caleb and Sandy headed to the country club. Sandy nervously thought of how he was going to bring it up. On the 15th hole, after talking about everything but proposing, Caleb said, "So why did you want to go golfing? I'm sure it wasn't to hear about my business. What is it?"

Now was the time. Sandy had to ask Caleb. He took a deep breath. "Mr. Nichol…"

TBC