ALLY:

I got up and found a seat beside Austin. I asked his mom,

"Do you need any help, Dr. Moon?"

Dr. Moon smiled.

"You don't need to call me Dr. Moon, Ally. You can call me Mimi. And yes, please, a hand would be very much appreciated. Can you help me carry in the salad?"

"Sure, Dr.- I mean, Mimi."

"Thank you so much, Ally."

"You're welcome."

After all the platters were on the table, Mike turned to Mimi.

"Everything looks amazing."

He kissed her head. Mimi asked,

"Where's Cadence?"

He looked at his wife.

"Our little princess is in the bathroom."

I heard the clanking of high heels. Cadence walked out, now sporting pink bands on her braces that matched her dress perfectly.

"Hi everyone! I was just changing my bands for my braces!"

Mimi looked at her daughter.

"Good girl. That reminds me, I need to call the orthodontist because a certain missy miss is due to get her braces off very soon."

Cadence lit up.

"Yay! These things are a pain."

Mimi said to her,

"But you've had them since you were twelve, you must be used to them by now."

"But Mom, they hurt at times."

Mimi looked at her daughter.

"But every time you get them tightened, you like the ice cream and chocolate pudding you get."

Cadence said,

"Yeah, that's the only part I like. But I'm about to get my braces off! Oh yeah!"

Austin poured me a sip of champagne and I said to his younger sister,

"Cadence Dawn, I still think you're beautiful, with or without braces."

Dawn was Cadence's middle name. It was her middle name on her Facebook page. She took a sip of her sparkling apple cider and smiled.

"Thanks, Ms. Dawson."

I laughed.

"You can call me Ally. I could be your sister-in-law one day."

Austin put his hand on my hand again, giving me that tingly feeling and blushed. I swear him blushing was one of the cutest things I'd ever seen in my life. Cadence smiled.

"OK, Ally."

She was sitting on the left side of me, with Austin sitting on the right side. Austin picked up his glass.

"Why don't you try some champagne?"

Mimi seemed to take umbrage with this.

"Austin! Don't give your sister champagne!"

Randy, sitting next to Alanna, piped in.

"Come on, Mom, I had my first nip of wine at fourteen. And Cadence is sixteen, I'm sure it's fine if she has a small sip."

Mimi sighed.

"OK, OK."

Mike took out his phone.

"I've gotta get this on video, my baby girl having her first sip of champagne."

Cadence asked,

"Is it recording?"

Mike laughed.

"Yup. Go ahead, pumpkin. Take your first sip."

The only daughter of the Moon family smiled.

"OK, Dad."

Austin whispered to me,

"He's always called her pumpkin. Cadence is Daddy's little girl."

She took a sip of the champagne.

"How is it?"

"Most bitter thing I've ever tasted."

He ended the video and put Mimi took a sip of her red wine.

"You know, Mike, this isn't her first time. Her first time was at Randy and Alanna's wedding, we let her have a half a glass of Sangria."

Cadence started laughing.

"Much sweeter than the champagne."

Alanna said,

"I think that's because Sangria is more of an alcoholic juice."

Austin took another sip of his drink.

"You guys remember my buddy, Jace? His girlfriend Trish loves Sangria!"

Mike asked,

"The Tony Hawk friend of yours who you went to college with who owns the skatepark?"

I said,

"Well, he does love Tony Hawk and Trish loves her Sangria."

Austin asked me,

"How do you know Jace and Trish?"

I said,

"Trish has been my best friend since I was five. We went to elementary school, middle school, high school and we were part of the same sorority together at University of Miami. My mother is a professor at University of Miami so I had easy access. And Jace met her on eHarmony."

(AUTHOR'S NOTE: I know Ally really went to Harvard on the show, but in this story, she went to University of Miami.)

Austin said,

"That's so funny! My friend Dez and I went to high school and college with Jace! Now they have a two-year-old together-"

We said in unison,

"Named Isabella!"

"She calls me Uncle Austin."

I laughed.

"She calls me Aunt Ally!"

Alanna smiled.

"She sounds adorable."

Austin and I said in unison,

"You have no idea!"

I wanted to get to know Austin's sister-in-law, Alanna, a little better. I asked her,

"Well, I know Randy is a soldier in the Marine Corp. What about you, Alanna, what do you do for a living?"

Alanna took a sip of her drink.

"I'm an accountant. I've always loved math, since I was in school, it was my best subject in school. What's your job, Ally?"

I said,

"I'm an english teacher at Kinloch Park,"

I started to say and I narrowed my eyes at Cadence.

"I used to be this one's teacher in fact when she was in middle school."

The blonde girl dressed in high heels and the pinky-red tight dress giggled.

"She did."

"But my salary is horrible so I have a second job at Starbucks four days a week."

Randy asked,

"How'd you two meet?"

I said,

"Well, it was last week, and I had over a hundred papers on Oliver Twist to grade, and I needed some coffee. He had just moved in down the hall from me and I saw him coming home from getting his hair cut and then he joined me for coffee."

Austin laughed.

"Did you also get a scented candle and gift cards to and Victoria's Secret in your mailbox?"

I said,

"Yes, in fact, I did. How do you…. Wait, was it you who got me those gifts I saw in my mailbox at Kinloch Park and at home?"

He blushed.

"Guilty as charged."

I said,

"That was really sweet. And on Monday, I was released from Starbucks two hours early because my boss had to go see her sister who was having twins, and he invited me over for some drinks and Panda Express."

I could see Cadence covering her mouth with her hands and her smiling and I could even see her cheeks turning pink. She was fangirling so hard- I had seen this before. Trish, Kira and I used to fangirl over boy bands in Middle School and High School, and I had seen girls I taught and the kids in the hall fangirl over certain boy bands.

Randy giggled.

"She's blushing."

AUSTIN:

Dinner was delicious. My mom was an amazing cook. Later, Cadence and I were helping her serve dessert- my mom had bought a vanilla cake covered in chocolate icing from Zak the bakery, one of the best that I loved growing up and still did to this day, vanilla ice cream and coffee with half and half and sugar.

(AUTHOR'S NOTE: When I go to my grandma's house for dinner, we often have ice cream with coffee for dessert. I was kind of inspired to put it in this story.)

Cadence asked me,

"Austin, when are you going to tell Ally how you feel about her?"

I said,

"I'm still getting to know her. But the gifts in her mailbox were kind of clues that I really like her."

Cadence said,

"You broke up with that fruitcake girl Brooke. She was drank, smoked weed, used pot, coke and heroin and even worked as a hooker. I've even seen her a few times working as a hooker, extorting people and doing something involving drugs when I go to see Eliana."

Eliana Carranza-Russell was Cadence's best friend since kindergarten. She was half african-american, half mexican and a quarter colombian. She lived in Liberty City- a very sketchy neighborhood. When she was younger, my parents always drove her because the area was so sketchy. In the past I'd even gone down there a few times to pick her up, and I had been approached by drug addicts.

"Yeah, she'd checked herself into the loony bin, and after she got out, she was emotionally unstable, and a doctor from the hospital called me, and he said, I should get a restraining order. She's not emotionally stable. I think she's in jail now."

"Austin, if I can fix Eliana up with the guy she has a crush on, she has a date with him tonight, they're going to see Titanic in the park and get pizza, and if I can fix up Randy and Alanna, I set up his profile on Eharmony where he met Alanna, I can fix up you and Ally."

I messed up my sister's blonde hair that matched mine and my mom's. She was my mom's mini-me.

"I didn't doubt you for a second, Little Miss Sunshine."

Everyone in my family called my sister Cadence "Missy Miss." Because she was the only female, besides my mom, in my family. My parents had started the trends of calling her lots of nicknames them, and calling her those were rubbing off on even Randy, Alanna and I, and was starting to rub off on Ally. My dad had always called her Princess and Pumpkin (you know how fathers are with their daughters, especially if they're the only daughter of the youngest) and my mom had done the same and called her anything with the word "Missy" or "Miss." What can I say, we loved my little sister, she was a sweet, artistic, creative, tech-savvy, generally happy and smart little girl, even if she could be pretty sassy at times.

She said matter-of-factly,

"And you got your hair cut for her."

I laughed.

"To be fair, Cadence, I got a haircut because my hair was too long. I didn't know I was going to pick up a girl that quick. But she did like it."

My little sister chortled.

"I saw the pictures and video Dez took of you."

I said,

"He wanted to go with me to record it."

We sat at the table to eat dessert. Ally had eaten her slice of cake and I was feeding her her scoop of vanilla ice cream. After dessert, I brought her back home to her apartment. I joined hands and looked into her gorgeous brown eyes that made her look like either a doe or a puppy- I wasn't sure which I liked better. Ally said,

"Austin, thanks for bringing me over to meet your family. I had a great time."

I smiled at how beautiful she was.

"You're welcome. I was glad you got to meet my family, too."

I leaned in and we kissed on the lips. Perfect end to an amazing date. My sister Cadence, the matchmaker was right. I needed to tell Ally how I felt about her. Love was stronger than anything else in this world.

I would tell Ally how I felt if it meant coming up the fire escape leading to her apartment with roses when it was raining cats and dogs. I realistically might catch pneumonia doing that, but it wouldn't matter. I just wanted to see that gorgeous smile across her gorgeous face.

Ooh, Austin and Ally realize they like each other! I wonder when Austin's going to ask her to be his girlfriend ;). Because let's be honest, we can feel their romance blossoming like a crocus in spring. I hope I gave you guys some feels :).