Author's note: I would've preferred to call this Chapter 11 - Part One and the next Chapter 11 - Part Two. But it would be confusing because they would be listed as Chapter 11 and 12. But they belong together, so don't get upset in the end...it won't be all you get to see of this day. Enjoy! And I mustn't forget to thank VioletStella for her support!

11

Angela was sitting in front of her vanity. She gazed at the ring on her left hand. To her dismay she couldn't dare to wear it, for people would ask her about it; one person in particular - her mother! And she as well as Tony hadn't been willing to share their sweet secret with the family and friends, not yet. They hadn't figured out when the right moment might be, and of course with waiting for the right moment, time passed by and the moment never seemed to be right.

She always had difficulties taking the ring off, because she loved it so much and was very proud about it. It still gave her goosebumps to think about all the time it had been hidden in one of Tony's drawers. It made her realize that Tony had never been a hundred percent involved with Kathleen. Angela had never heard of a man who bought an engagement ring for a woman other than the one he was in a relationship with. It was just another extraordinary detail of their very unique history together.

Right now, something else drew her mind away from these pleasant thoughts: Jonathan had arranged his visit for today, and he would bring Emily and Alexander along. Finally, she'd meet her son's girlfriend and her little boy. She was very much looking forward to the afternoon. Tony had started preparing various baked goods this morning for the occasion. That of all men in the world, she had obviously found one of the few with the capacity to spoil her with homemade chocolate-laden pastry marveled her once in a while, but most of the time she simply enjoyed it to the fullest.

Just then, a delicious scent of freshly baked double chocolate chip cookies unfolded throughout the entire house. Like one of Pavlov's dogs, it made Angela's mouth water instantly. 'I have to get one of those,' she thought. They tasted best just out of the oven, only slightly cooled, still warm and chewy, the chocolate chips molten inside. Without caring for her appearance any further, she scooted downstairs to join the skilled baker in the kitchen. Not only was he skilled, but also incredibly handsome and sexy beyond words.

"Hello there, my adorable fiancé!" she breathed into his ear, coming up behind him and putting her hands over his eyes.

"Shhh, Angela, what if somebody hears you! They don't know yet!" Tony admonished her.

"When are we going to tell them? Today?" Angela asked, while trying to reach the tray with the chocolate cookies which Tony had placed on the kitchen counter to let them cool.

"Hands off!" he shouted, "These are for the kid! For us there's cheesecake and red velvet cupcakes."

"Not even one?" Angela pouted. "I need to taste them before we offer them to our guests!"

"Nice try, Cookie Monster, but they turn out perfectly every time I make them. No need of a pre-tasting!"

Angela stepped close, flung one arm around Tony's neck, ruffled his hair, and started to nibble at his earlobe. "Hmmm, you look so sexy in an apron, are you even aware of that?"

"I am, Angela!" He pulled her close with one hand, but grabbed the wooden spoon with the other. Angela's try was just too easy to see through.

"Ouch!" she exclaimed when he hit her hand with the spoon, despite the gentleness he had applied. She stamped her foot like a five-year-old and demanded, "I want a cookie!"

"But you're not getting one! I made them for Alexander. Now behave like an adult and leave them for the child! If he leaves some for you, you can have one later."

"Okay, okay," Angela pouted once again. She had a look at the cheesecake and the cupcakes, which also looked delicious, and asked, "So, are we going to tell the family today that we're getting married? They deserve to know, Tony!"

"They do, but today? We'll meet Emily and Alexander for the first time. Shouldn't they be the center of attention?"

"But I'd like to tell them all at once, and in person. I don't want to tell anybody over the phone. I have to see their faces when we tell them. When will be the next time we have all of them here together?"

"Well, let's just see how the afternoon turns out, okay? Should the occasion arise, we tell them, if not, we'll find some other day."

"Alright," Angela said, surreptitiously looking at the tray with the cookies once again.

"Don't even think of it!" Tony warned her.

"Phhhh," Angela replied, flipped her hair and left the kitchen with bounding strides.

"Thanks for the invitation, Harry, but I have other plans," Mona murmured into the phone.

That she would put off a gorgeous man for an afternoon with her daughter and her party would've never seemed possible to Mona. But things between Tony and Angela were on a razor's edge, Mona sensed it with every receptive fiber of her being. She had noticed a slight easing of tension inside the house recently though, as if decisions had been made. To her complete dismay she couldn't tell what these decisions were. It was simply obvious that issues between Tony and Angela had been worked out, the remaining question was in which way. Did they agree on not getting married or were they engaged already?

Mona had waited for Angela to confide in her, but she hadn't made a move, and Mona hadn't wanted to invade her daughter's privacy. Normally, showing restraint wasn't exactly her style, especially when it came to Angela's love life, but this time the matter was too sensitive and Angela was so very insecure about it. So Mona had kept her mouth shut, even though she longed to find out about the status of Tony and Angela's relationship. She was quite sure that today was not the day Angela would pour her heart out to her. Today Jonathan was to occupy center stage, introducing his girlfriend and her son to the family.

Mona wasn't surprised at all that her grandson had fallen in love with a mother. He had always been solicitous, even as a little boy, when he had kept a snake as a pet. It had been a cold-blooded friend, but Jonathan had been all warm-blooded about it. He was sensitive, he had a big heart, and he had a role model in Tony who had shown him that a man could still be a man even if he was emotional and giving. Tony had remained a man even while he dusted and vacuumed. Mona grinned and gave herself an appreciative pat on the back for having grasped so quickly the wonderful opportunity fate had thrown at her feet the day she had met that job-seeking Italian hunk in the hall of her apartment building so many years ago.

No matter how the relationship between Angela and her former housekeeper turned out, Tony and Samantha had enriched all of their lives, and they were about to welcome two new members to the family. Mona assumed that things between Jonathan and Emily were quite serious. If they weren't, he wouldn't bother to officially introduce her at a family afternoon. So she was looking forward to the hours ahead, silently hoping that she would get at least a clue on her daughter's future marital status.

Lynnie was standing in front of her closet. Her father had sent her back up to get changed. She had wanted to attend the family event in a worn-out pair of jeans and a hoodie, but Tony insisted he had a say in this.

"What about a nice dress, Lynnie?"

"Come on, Dad! A dress? Seriously?" She hated dresses and had always preferred smart casual clothes.

"Alright. How about a nice pair of slacks and a blouse then?" Tony thought his daughter was beautiful and liked to see her nicely dressed. But he also didn't want to impose a fashion style which didn't suit her.

So Lynnie rummaged through her closet once more, held a white frilled blouse in front of her torso and checked her appearance in the mirror.

"Nah! That's not you, Lynnie! That's Gwendolyn! Blech!"

Then she pulled out a red-and-blue checkered blouse and a nice thin blue scarf to go with it. She put on her new denim pants she had gotten on her last shopping trip with Angela. The look was flawless, contrary to the worn-out one she had chosen earlier, so she assumed this outfit would pass her father's inspection. She brushed her blond long hair and put it in a pony tail.

She sat on her bed and wondered what the afternoon with her family would be like. Looking at it intently, it could be said that only two of all the people sitting around the big dining room table would be members of her family in the true sense of the word - her father and her half sister. Well, that made it one-and-a-half persons. Lynnie sighed. Who else would be there?

Her father's girlfriend.
Her father's girlfriend's mother.
Her father's girlfriend's son.
Her father's girlfriend's son's girlfriend.
And last but not least ...
Her father's girlfriend's son's girlfriend's son.

She chuckled. What a gathering of people! Lynnie was wondering whether Angela's status was still that of her father's girlfriend. Maybe it had already changed to that of fiancée? After their last talk it had seemed possible that Angela would accept her dad's proposal. It had been such a good talk - open and honest. She had told Angela that she'd love for her to become her official stepmother, and it had been the truth. Even though stepmother sounded so odd, for it made you think about all the wicked stepmothers in fairytales. But Angela wasn't anything like this. She would be a terrific stepmother - warm, protective and caring. Exactly the opposite from what her biological mother stood for. And Lynnie would be thrilled to have a mother like this, even if she was only a stepmother.

She had always loved the family gatherings in Fairfield, since the first time she had been invited. She remembered how her mother had once spoiled a wonderful dinner by showing up unannounced to pick her up for the weekend. She had been too young to classify the incident for what it was - one of her many attempts to make her father's life at Angela's side miserable. Lynnie had always longed for a huge family and envied her best friend Emma to this day for her siblings and picture-perfect parents. She was looking forward to meeting two new people - Emily and Alexander, Jonathan's new girlfriend and her son.

The more, the merrier!

Sam had taken the train out of the City and stood in front of the station at Fairfield looking for a cab. She knew that her father would've picked her up as he had done for years with Angela, and still did today every once in a while. But she also knew that he would be preparing a feast with all kinds of baked goods, and she didn't want to stress him, so a taxi would do. Besides, it would give her a few more minutes of quiet contemplating, something she had done a lot of in the past few days. Actually since Lynnie had told her about her problems with Kathleen and that she wanted to emancipate herself officially from her.

It was so unfair, she thought. While there were daughters who wanted to get rid off their mothers, she would've given her right arm to be able to talk to her mother just once for a few hours; to tell her how her life had worked out and to show her how she had grown into a woman. Samantha didn't miss her mother daily; she had been gone far too long and Samantha had learned to manage her life without her. In Angela she had found a mother-like confidante she could always rely on when she needed one. But whenever she reached a milestone in her life, she regretted that her mother wasn't there to witness it.

'She only knew me as a little girl,' went through her mind in moments like these. He mother had missed her first date, her first hickey, her junior prom, her senior prom, when she graduated from college as well as when she got her first job. Marie would never meet her husband, nor her children. Cancer had taken these experiences away from her, and it made Sam angry. Wasn't that what motherhood was all about? Watching your children grow up and thrive? Observing how they turn into adults, becoming evermore independent from their parents? And then one day, your children become parents themselves, turning their mothers into grandmothers. Marie would miss all this, she would never be a grandmother, and she would never be able to see her daughter as a mother.

And Sam wanted to be a mother someday. She just hadn't found the right man yet, the man she pictured as the father of her children. Tony had set the bar very high, of course. He had not only been a perfect father to her, and still was, he also was the best surrogate father Jonathan could've had. Sam envied Jonathan because in a way he had two fathers, and she envied her half-sister who still had her mother in her life, despite Kathleen being a devious bitch.

Sam knew from Lynnie that their dad had proposed to Angela, and although she loved Angela very much and had always wanted it to happen, she felt cheated by fate once more. Her father had lost his first wife, and struggled with being widower for a long time; but with getting married again - this time to one he really loved - he would be a husband again. His new wife wouldn't replace the first in his heart, she knew, but she'd make him equally happy. He got a second chance for a happy marriage, whereas she had lost her mother for good. She was half-orphan and would always be one.

Her painful musings were interrupted by the cabbie, "3344 Oak Hills Drive, Ma'am."

"Ah, perfect. Thank you."

"That's 14 dollars," the driver told her.

Sam handed him a 20 dollar bill, telling him to keep the change. Then she exited the taxi.

She was looking forward to the afternoon with all the people she considered to be her family. They would heal the wound thinking about what she had lost with her mother's passing always left behind.

Jonathan looked over to the woman in the passenger seat. She had long brown hair, a friendly face with a winning smile, and bright blue eyes he lost himself in every time he had a look at them.

He grabbed her hand. "Nervous?"

"A bit," Emily admitted, "Meeting the parents is a big step. And your mother...I mean, she's famous."

"No, she's not."

"She is! I read articles about her agency in the paper. And a few days ago there was an interview with her on Bloomberg TV. If you google her name, you'll get like a million hits!"

"She's a normal person just like you and me. She's my mom, for heaven's sake!"

"And your father?"

"I told you Tony is not my biological father. My father lives in California with his second wife and my half sister Rebecca."

"I thought your half sister's name was Samantha."

"No, Sam is Tony's daughter. We grew up like brother and sister, but we're not siblings, not even half siblings."

"I don't understand anything anymore."

"I told you we were a complicated family. Are you convinced now?"

"Yes, and a little anxious to be honest. What if I mix them all up?"

"Wait until you meet them. They are all okay, ... well, more than okay. You'll love my grandmother! She's unique. I bet you've never met a woman in her 80s who is anything like her!"

"Are we there yet?" was yelled from the back seat where Alexander was securely buckled up in his car seat.

"Nearly there, Buddy!" Jonathan informed him and could see from the corner of his eye how Emily inhaled deeply to calm her nerves.

He couldn't help but thinking back to the conversation with his mom on the phone a few days ago. She had told him that she wanted to marry Tony. Finally! Jonathan was flattered that she had asked for his advice. He had always been very close to his mother, especially after his father had left them; and even before that he had been with them so rarely that it had mostly been just the two of them - mother and son. Only when Tony and Samantha had entered their lives, had their symbiosis been loosed a bit - to the benefit of both of them. Each had gained a peer, and it had done each of them good.

Jonathan couldn't think of anything that would make him happier than his mother and Tony getting married; maybe only if he himself married the woman of his dreams. Whether Emily was that woman, Jonathan didn't know for sure yet. He loved her very much and he enjoyed their relationship to the fullest. He had never been so sincere with a woman before, and his love and devotion to her became stronger every day.

He was surprised about how well he got along with Alexander. Until now, he had never been particularly fond of children, but this little one had captured his heart in no time. He was cute, he was honest, he was reckless, he was just fun to be with. Last Thursday, when they had been sitting on a bench in the park, Alexander enjoying his ice cream cone and Jonathan still marveling about what his mother had told him, the boy had warmed his heart, holding out his sticky hand and asking him, "Wanna try? Best ice cream ever, Tojatan!" When he had been a little boy he had often asked himself whether Tony could truly love him as much as he loved his own daughter. Now he experienced firsthand how he was getting evermore involved not only with the mother but also with her son. Obviously just like it had happened to Tony all those years ago. He was looking forward to introducing Emily and Alexander to his folks. He didn't call them his family yet, but the three of them were on the right track.

Jonathan threw a quick look at Emily and smiled at her. She smiled back, then closed her eyes and tried to picture how meeting Jonathan's family might turn out. It was the first time she met a boyfriend's mother with her own child in tow. How would the woman react upon seeing him care for a child who wasn't his. Parents longed for grandchildren, but they wanted their children to have their own kids and not the ones some other man had left behind. What would these people think of her, a woman who got knocked up and couldn't bring the father of the baby to marry her? She knew she would find out soon. There was no way of backing out now. On the other side, she loved Jonathan and she wanted to find out about his roots. He was such a gentle, loveable and polite person. She felt that he came from a good home, and she was looking forward to meeting the people who had raised him to be the man he was today.

"There it is!" Jonathan proudly announced. He pulled up the driveway and parked his car right behind Tony's jeep. He still had a black one, a Range Rover by now.

"Wow!" Alexander exclaimed, "What a cool car!"

"Oh!" Emily breathed, "What a beautiful house!"

"They're here," Angela shouted through the house. The door bell had rung and she could hardly wait to answer the door.

"Welcome! Come on in," she ushered Jonathan, Emily and Alexander inside. The little boy had a small bouquet in his hand and held in out to Angela. "Are you Tojatan's mom?" he demanded to know.

Angela bent down to be able to talk to him at eye level. "Yes, I am. My name is Angela. And you must be Alexander."

"Yes. This is my mom," he pointed at the woman at Jonathan's side. "Her name is Emily."

"I know," Angela had to smile about this cute introduction. She had already fallen in love with the little boy. "Hello Emily. So nice to finally meet you!" Angela shook the young woman's hand and hugged Jonathan.

"Thank you very much for the invitation, Mrs. Bower," Emily said very formally. She was a bit intimidated - by meeting her boyfriend's mom in general, by Angela and her successes in the business world in particular, by this awesome house, and last but not least by the warmth they had been welcomed with.

"Oh, please call me Angela!"

When Tony, Mona and Lynnie joined them, Jonathan introduced Emily and Alexander to everyone. Sam arrived just a minute later; the front door hadn't been closed yet. After the first bits of small talk Tony ushered everyone into the dining room and invited them all to sit at the huge mahogany table. He served coffee and tea, and Angela dished up all the delicacies Tony had baked, peering at the chocolate cookies while she placed them in front of Alexander.

"Oh wow! Chocolate cookies. My favorite," the boy exclaimed happily.

"I hope they taste as good as they look," a pining Angela couldn't hold back.

Tony threw her a mocking grin. "Of course they do!"

After everyone had their plates and cups filled, Tony started to engage Emily in a conversation. He wanted to learn more about her. He still felt protective of Jonathan, like parents always do, even of grown-up children. Emily seemed to be nice at first glance, but he wanted to make sure she really was a good match. It was one thing to date a young, beautiful woman, but it was something else to date a mother. Tony, of all people, knew.

"I hear you're also a teacher, Emily. Like me."

"Yes, I'm a kindergarten teacher."

"I once attended what I thought was an easy observing course at an elementary school," Tony explained. "I remember the teacher, Mrs. Bunch. She made me teach instead of only observe, thus awakening the interest in me to become a teacher myself. Remember how we talked about how I taught Timothy to sit and Brandon to multiply, Angela? And how you made me go with a major in teaching instead of business?"

"Of course! But I didn't make you choose teaching, I only encouraged you to make the decision yourself. You were a bit insecure about it."

"You have to know, Emily, that I had already decided on business as a major. I joked around about becoming CEO of Micelli Industries and promised Angela a yacht named Sea Princess Angela. Then I chose this course I thought I could easily sail through, finishing a marketing paper in the meantime. But then I enjoyed teaching very much. It was totally unexpected, and without you, Angela, I would've never dared to change my major. You said you had always known that I would do important things. That you, the successful business woman who handled million dollar accounts on a daily basis, thought that teaching was important, gave me the support I needed. That's why I'm a teacher today."

Tony squeezed Angela's hand and smiled at her.

"Aaaww, that's so nice," Emily said. "My parents are both in education, so it was kind of clear from early on that I would become a teacher, too. My father is a tenured professor for math and physics, and my mother is dean at a college, so they were a bit disappointed that I became a kindergarten teacher. They are of the opinion that teaching children to recognize letters and the basics of addition and subtraction isn't as meaningful as telling them everything about the great American poets or explaining the Pythagorean theorem."

"That's too bad, and it isn't correct either," Tony said. "When I made Brandon multiply 7 times 8, and I did it with the help of baseball," he grinned, "I gave him a sense of achievement he benefited from for the rest of his life. He had already accepted that the couldn't multiply, but I showed him he was able to do it anyway. How can that be of minor importance? A child who never learned to multiply will never understand the Pythagorean theorem either. It's a lost child. John F. Kennedy already knew, and Mrs. Bunch made me understand."

"Thank you, Tony. That's very kind. Where do you teach now?"

"I started out at an elementary school after my graduation, and now I'm a history teacher at Ridgemont College."

He left out the fact that he was also co-chair of the History Department, mainly because it didn't have much to do with teaching in general, but also not to intimidate Emily any further. That her parents looked down on her because she taught at a kindergarten instead of a college or university made him angry. 'What's wrong with those people?' he thought, 'They should be grateful that their daughter had found a job she loved and meant something to her.' Some people were just not meant to be parents, because they didn't understand that parenthood wasn't about making your children fulfill the hopes you'd put into them, but teaching them how to fulfill their own hopes and dreams.

"Where did you meet Jonathan, Emily?" Mona now asked.

"At the dentist."

"At the dentist?"

"Yes, we have the same dentist. Alex and I were sitting in the waiting room, and it took quite a long time, so my little one got a little anxious. Eventually he wanted to leave, and when I said we couldn't he started to cry. Jonathan was sitting right next to us and he heard everything. He started to tell the story of his mother's housekeeper, a strong grown-up man, who also was afraid of the dentist."

Tony's jaw dropped.

"He told him that there was no need to be embarrassed about it, and that this man had managed to overcome his fear. He said that if he had done it, Alex could do it as well."

"Jonathan? Was it really necessary to tell that story?"

"Yes it was, Tony. It was an emergency. Of course I didn't know at the time that the two chickens would ever meet." He tried to hide his grin by biting the inside of his cheek, but failed.

Emily stared at Tony. "You were the housekeeper Jonathan was talking about?"

"Uhm, ... yes," Tony admitted feebly.

Emily wasn't so much surprised that this broad-shouldered man sitting at the table opposite her had been afraid of the dentist, but rather that he had worked as a housekeeper.

"You were a housekeeper?"

"That's how Angela and I met," Tony explained. "I needed a job and a better place for my daughter to live, and Angela needed someone to look after the house and little Jonathan."

"And you started looking after Angela right away!" Mona crowed over what she thought was a very funny pun.

"Mother!" Angela warned her.

"What? Have there or have there not been sparks flying around the house from the day Tony moved in? If I remember correctly, you started kissing only half a year later."

"I don't think Emily wants to hear all of this," Angela tried to silence her mother.

Emily, who had been listening with an open mouth, endorsed Mona, "Oh, don't mind me! Go on!" She wanted to hear more about it. Jonathan hadn't told her very much about his family, and what she had heard so far made her wish for more.

"See!" Mona displayed a satisfied smile. "The way you two danced around each other for years has always been very captivating. It was like a long-running TV series right in our house. Only sometimes I wished I could write the script. I wouldn't have waited until season 13 to let you go to bed together!" She chuckled.

"Very funny, Mother!"

"Mone!" Tony hissed, but Samantha and Jonathan, being first-hand contemporary witnesses, had to laugh as well.

"We were talking about teaching, how did we end up with a topic like this?" Angela asked.

"It's much more interesting, Dear!"

"No, it's not! It's off limits – at least most people would think so – and totally inappropriate for a family get together!"

"Angela, lighten up, would you?" Mona rolled her eyes.

"I won't, Mother! You stop it! Emily must think we're nuts."

But Emily was rather fascinated. This family was so out of the ordinary. It was better than going to the movies. Jonathan had told her that his grandmother was like no other 80-year-old she had ever met. And he was right. The way she was dressed, the way she was teasing Tony and Angela, the way she talked about sex… Emily wouldn't have minded to hear more, but she could also see that Angela wasn't very comfortable.

"What is the matter with you, Angela? You seem so tense! Does it have anything to do with the ring on your left hand?" Mona finally saw a chance to pop the question which had preyed on her mind ever since she had spied the piece of jewelry on Angela's finger the moment she had said hello to her.

Angela winced and quickly hid her left hand under the table. The freshly baked cookies and their seducing scent had made her forget all about taking off her engagement ring in time. Now it was too late. Her mother had seen it, and she wouldn't give up until she knew everything about it. However, Angela gave it a try and played dumb - "I-I-I don't know what you're talking about, Mother." - but it was useless, her mother had smelled the rat.

"I've never seen that ring on you before. Where did you get it?"

"Uhm...well...oh...you mean this ring?" Angela looked at it as if she saw it for the first time.

"Yes, that's the one! You know what's really interesting about it? My friend Ella once got one just like this as an engagement ring."

"Really?" Angela made a wry face. "How about that, huh?"

Mona raised an eyebrow and nodded. "Do you have anything to say to this, Tony?" Mona now directed her investigative questions to the man she now knew for sure was her soon-to-be son-in-law.

Tony choked over his last bite of cheesecake. "Me?"

"Yes! You!"

"Why me? What do I have to do with it?" he tried to play dumb just like Angela had done, equally in vain.

"Oh come on, you two! Don't take us for idiots! We all know that you proposed to Angela, Tony!" Mona put on her most satisfied grin.

"How come everybody knows?" Tony asked Angela, "You said you'd have to think about it, not broadcast it."

"I didn't broadcast it," she hissed.

"Yes, she did!" Mona once again intervened. "Even the pharmacist at the corner of the agency knows it."

"You told the pharmacist? That must be why he threw me that weird look when I picked up my prescription the other day." Tony remembered the sly grin on the pharmacist's face when he had asked for some vitamin pills in addition to his order.

"Of course I didn't tell the pharmacist! It was your ex-wife who rushed into my office and trumpeted it out loud!"

"Guys!" Lynnie interrupted somewhat annoyed. "You're behaving like three-year-olds here!"

"Hey! I'm three years old, and I know how to behave!"

"Sorry, Alex," Lynnie apologized to the little boy, whose mouth was all smeared with chocolate.

If Angela hadn't been under so much pressure because of her mother's interrogation, she would've been pleased to see that Alexander had eaten many of the cookies but not all of them. But she was distracted and looked at Tony helplessly, being observed closely by six pair of eyes. Even Alexander was curious, although he didn't completely understand what the fuss was all about. But of course Mona, Samantha, Jonathan and Lynnie knew exactly what was going on in front of their eyes, and Emily only had to put two and two together.

"So?" Mona prompted sugar-sweetly, "Is there anything you want to tell us?"

Angela looked at Tony again, trying to get a clue about what he wanted her to say. But his eyes were empty and he only shrugged. She connected eyes with each family member, one after the other, sighing heavily, then she couldn't hold it any longer.

"Alright, alright! If you insist..."

"We do! Spit it out, Missy! But I warn you! If you eloped, I'm going to delete you out of my will!"

"No, Mother, we didn't elope. But..." One more look around the table, then Angela stood up and told her family what she thought they had all been dying to hear for ages, "we're getting married."

Time seemed to stand still for a moment, because nobody moved or said a word. They even seemed to have stopped breathing. All Angela could see was their jaws dropping and eyes widening. Mona leaned back and only looked at her, pursing her lips.

"Now what?" Angela yelled, "I thought you'd be happy for us!" She glanced at Tony, who again only shrugged. "Come on, Tony, say something!" she demanded.

"What should I say? I proposed, she accepted," he said nonchalantly, once again shrugging.

"As if that was all there is to it, Buddy!" Mona threw in. "You've been keeping us in the dark about you two for ages. Make that decades! And now you think you can tell us so en passant and we'll jump up and down for joy?"

"As a matter of fact, we did," Tony admitted.

"How long have you been engaged? Why didn't you tell us right away, Dad?" Sam grabbed her father's shoulder.

"Yeah, Mom, why didn't you?" Jonathan chimed in.

"I live with them and even I wasn't told!" Lynnie complained.

Angela collapsed into her chair. This was not what she had pictured this moment to be like. She was on the verge of tears now. She was about to make that huge, life-altering step after what her mother had reminded her was decades of struggling with it, and her family had nothing else to do but argue about the way she had told them.

"I knew it," she cried, "it's too much, it's too late, it's overwhelming everyone..." She buried her face in her hand, "It's too late!"

"Angelaaaa! Dummy!" Mona rose from her chair so quickly it almost tipped over. "Would you stop talking nonsense!"

She slowly walked around the table to where Angela was sitting.

"Of course we are happy for you! Do I have to remind you when you and I first talked about whether or not you were in love with Tony?" She raised an eyebrow.

Angela squirmed. "It...was the night of our second anniversary," she said.

"Second anniversary, exactly! So...that was in 1986 then! Let me calculate...hmmm, well, that was more than two decades ago. And did I or did I not try to convince you to take a chance with him?"

"You did," Angela whispered.

"Excuse me? I didn't hear you!"

After all those years of insecurity over whether Tony and Angela would ever end up together; after countless mother-daughter-talks about it; after crying together hours-long many times, Mona felt she deserved to tease her a little now.

"You did, Mother! You told me that we should talk about our feelings."

"Yes I did. But, being the stubborn daughter you are, of course you thought you knew better."

"Mona," Tony now piped up, "give her a break! We both decided to wait, and it was the right thing to do."

"You were both stubborn! And stupid! Stupid masochists! And I'd love nothing better than to pull you by your ears for making us wait that long, but..." Eventually a huge smile started to develop on her face, "I couldn't be any happier than I am right now! Come here!" She embraced Angela and gave Tony an affectionate pinch. "I've waited a long time for you to be my son-in-law, Tone! Well, I think I have to be grateful that you decided to get married before I started pushing up daisies!" she joked.

"Mother!" Angela moaned and rolled her eyes.

"Hey Mom, I'm going to walk you down the aisle." Jonathan turned to Tony and with his index finger lifted he enjoined, "And you better make her happy, otherwise you'll have to contend with me!"

"I'll do my very best!" Tony reassured. "As a matter of fact, I've been trying to do that for the past ten years." He put one arm around Angela's waist and placed a tender kiss on her cheek.

"Oh, you did, Honey, you did!"

Angela beamed at her fiancé. The tension which had seized her body and mind until a few moments ago had completely dissipated. She was glad the news was out and that despite her mother being her mother, Mona had shown them her true emotions. Angela looked at everybody's face once again and only saw affection and joy in them. Even Emily and Alexander seemed to share the bliss.

One more thing needed to be said though.

Angela sought eye contact with Lynnie, and with tears in her eyes and warmth in her voice she said, "And I'd love to have you as my maid of honor!"