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“Sounds good to me,” I said. “Even though I feel guilty. I ate another tub of ice cream already. I’m going to be big as a house when this is all over.” I rubbed my stomach, which had just started to show.
Libby laughed. “Girl, this is the one time in your life when it is perfectly fine to eat what you want! Enjoy it!”
I laughed, letting her walk me around the office to greet our guests. A time or two, I could have sworn she glanced over my shoulder, making eye contact with someone and winking.
“Libby, what are you doing?” I asked, catching her in the act again. I tried to follow her gaze, but couldn’t determine who she was looking at. All I noticed was Anderson. He was wearing an equally goofy expression, making me think they were up to something.
“Oh nothing,” she said. “So, what do you want to eat? Want me to fix your plate?”
“Sure…”
“Okay, I think it’s officially time,” Tobias announced. He had Libby had pulled two chairs to the middle of the room for me and Anderson, after everyone had eaten and mingled for a while. “Can we get our guests of honor over here to take their seats?”
Anderson grabbed my hand, and we made our way over. He and I already knew the gender of our future bundle of joy, but it was exciting to watch everyone else eagerly waiting. He squeezed my hand as we sat, and Tobias and a couple of our co-workers began pushing a large box toward us.
“You do the honors,” Anderson said.
“Let’s do a countdown,” Libby said. “Ten…nine…eight…” she began, and everyone else joined in.
When they got down to one, I stood and pulled the top off the box, grinning ear-to-ear as pink balloons floated out.
“It’s a girl!” everyone shouted, and broke out into applause. I glanced around, my heart bursting with joy as people cheered and whistled.
And then something caught my eye…
One balloon in particular staggered behind, slow to rise with the others. There was a box attached to it. A small black box…
“Anderson?” I said confused, “was that there when you ordered the balloons?”
Suddenly, the room filled with gasps. I turned around, finding Anderson standing behind me on one knee. Grinning, he reached for the balloon with the box attached to it.
“Oh my God…” I said, cupping my hand with my mouth.
“I could think of no better time to do this. I can’t even put into words how happy you’ve made me.” He opened the box, and the biggest sparkling diamond I’d ever seen, surrounded by white gold, stared up at me. “Joanna, will you marry me?”
“Oh my God! Yes!!! A million times yes.” This was all I ever asked for and much more. I leaned away and gave him a goofy smile. “I love you, Mr. Lawrence. You’re the man of my life.”
“I love you too, future Mrs. Lawrence. You’re the love of my life.”
“I can’t believe you’ve done this.” I glanced at the ring, already in love with it.
Our lips met again, but this time our kiss was more passionate, both of us lost in each other despite being in the center of everyone’s attention.
“How about we go for a quickie somewhere?” he whispered with a mischievous glint in his eyes. “You know, to ‘celebrate’ this properly.”
I winked at him. “I think that’s a great idea.”
He caught me by my hand and led me away from the crowd. “We’ll be right back,” he said to Tobias.
I caught Tobias’s gaze, flushing when he shook his head. He knew exactly what was cooking, just like Libby, who gave me a satisfied grin.
“We aren’t going anywhere,” Tobias replied before he continued his conversation with one of the managers next to him.
“I feel we’re like teenagers who are sneaking around, trying to escape their parents,” I said, letting him take me to his office. Since everyone had gathered in the main office, the rest of the building was deserted, which provided us more privacy.
“Well, at least we don’t have to hide anymore.”
He locked the door behind him and backed me to his desk, already unbuttoning my blouse.
