The last couple of days had been a bit of a whirlwind for Paul, after booking the table they had sent out the invites to people and then had to field a lot of 'is there anything you want to tell me?' questions from people and Stephanie even had to deal with them at work which annoyed her immensely, nobody seemed to understand that they just wanted to celebrate their relationship moving to another level with their friends and family.

For Paul he had to fit in a secret visit to the restaurant as the chef had been thinking over the plans and had come up with an idea and wanted to run it past Paul in person but it had worked out and everything was perfectly in place ready for the meal on Saturday night.

Everybody seemed curious about the meal so nobody had cancelled meaning that it was going to be all thirteen members of their family and close friends. Paul was more nervous about proposing in front of the friends that they had invited as they were the ones that they had gone to College with and knew everything about their relationship than he was about proposing in front of their families.

"What do you think Paul?"

"What do I think about what?" They were currently getting ready although he was spending most of his time staring off in to space rather than actually dressing and now he had no idea what the hell his girlfriend had said to him.

"My dress, does it look alright?" If she didn't know better she would have said that he wanted to pull out of this dinner but he had been so excited for it all week that she quickly discounted that theory although his weird behaviour right now didn't seem to have any other explanation.

Lifting his head to look at her he couldn't help the genuine smile that crossed his face as she looked absolutely stunning. "You look so beautiful."

"Thank you." Although the look in his eye was genuine, the lack of joke about preferring to stay home and get her out of the dress following his comment unnerved her, something was going on and she was really worried about it.

The two finished getting ready in silence. Once he was ready Paul remained sat on the bed watching his girlfriend do her hair and makeup, to him she didn't need any of it to look beautiful but it made her feel better about herself so he wasn't going to tell her that she shouldn't wear it. As she finished up and moved to pick up something off the bedside table beside him he gripped her hips and pulled her back so that she fell in to his lap.

Squealing as he pulled her off her feet she fell in to his lap with a crash, "What the hell Paul?"

"I just wanted to hold you, just have a minute that is just for the two of us before we go and spend time with thirteen people who are going to monopolise your time and take you away from me all night."

So he really wasn't a fan of this meal because he would have to share her. "It was your idea to have this meal so I don't know why you are so mad about it."

"I'm not mad."

Pfft, could have fooled her. "Your behaviour tonight says otherwise, you are weird and distant and now possessive. Your mood swings are something else tonight and I can't keep up."

He felt really guilty for how he had been behaving tonight now, he didn't mean for her to feel like this. "I'm sorry, I just can't believe that somebody as beautiful and as amazing as you wants to be with somebody like me and you actually want to get both sides of the families to meet and try to make them get on."

"Somebody like me? I'm weak and flawed and you are so much better of a person than I am. I love you though and would be perfectly happy spending the rest of my life doing nothing but laying in your arms." Snuggling closer to him she held on tightly and rested her head on his shoulder, something was clearly up and she just wanted him to know that she was all in so that he would hopefully relax and be himself tonight.

The fact that his girlfriend just admitted she wanted to be with him forever, well sort of, made him feel a little more relaxed about his planned proposal. Placing his hand on her thigh he pulled her a little closer to his body, "Well when you put it like that maybe we should get a jump start on that tonight so how about I get you out of this dress and we stay home just the two of us?"

"Of course you would say that." Giggling she playfully slapped his chest gently, "You are too much. If we don't go to the restaurant then somebody is bound to lynch us, my money is either on your sister or my brother, they are all so convinced that we have some big announcement that they won't handle us not arriving."

"Oh well, it was a nice dream. Maybe I can get you out of this dress when we get home?"

"I'm not sure why you have an obsession with getting me out of my dress tonight but I can guarantee that as I won't be sleeping in it." She pressed a chaste kiss to his lips before she pushed herself from his lap to stand up, "Come on, we need to get going."

"Yes Ma'am, I will be down now." He waited until he was certain that she had gone downstairs before he stood up and opened the bedside table drawer, rifling right to the back of the drawer he eventually pulled out the ring box and quickly slid it in to his pocket, he had his the ring there earlier today when she was in the shower so that it was an easy access for him to grab just before they left. Now to head to the restaurant and hope that what he and the chef had discussed came out as well as he had imagined that it would.

The final preparations were being put to their table so all fifteen people were crammed in to the foyer of the restaurant waiting.

Paul was half listening to Vince talk to his Dad but his real focus was on Stephanie and the excited chatter between herself and Sasha, she was so beautiful and he just loved her so much. Suddenly there was a tap on his shoulder and he jumped a mile, served him right for not completely paying attention. "Can I help you?"

"The owner wants a word with you please."

Oh no, this could not be happening right now, they could not be cancelling their booking because there was no way they were going to get one anywhere else. "Sure." Following the young girl as she weaved her way through the restaurant he soon found himself stood nervously on the edge of the kitchen as she spoke to the chef, after a few barked orders to the other members of staff in the kitchen he was making his way over to him, "Is everything okay?"

"Everything is fine, I just wanted you to see the dessert as I had an idea in the middle of the night and made a slight alteration to it so I wanted to make sure that it is perfect for you but if not we can go with the original idea." Making his way to the fridge he pulled out a tray and placed it on the top removing the cover, "I will be writing 'will you marry me' around the outside of the plate just before it is delivered to the table but what do you think?"

It was perfect; it was even more perfect than they had originally discussed, "So how much is edible?"

"All of it, every single part on the plate is edible. What do you think?" Anxious to know the final verdict he almost bit the head off one of the waitresses who went to get a bottle of water out of the fridge as that was not where they were meant to go.

"I think it is amazing, it is even better than I had imagined and I think that she is going to love it and be so surprised, thank you." Now to hope that she said yes to the actual proposal. "How are we going to get it to her if she says she doesn't want dessert?"

That was not something they had discussed but the chef was confident they could do it, "Leave it with me and I will come up with something. What is your girlfriend's name? I just need to make sure that the waitress marks all of her orders with the first letter of her name."

"It's Stephanie."

"Brilliant, thanks. I will let you get back to your girlfriend and families but good luck, I hope she says yes."

"Thanks, you and me both." As soon as the waitress carrying four plates left the kitchen he left behind her quickly spotting everybody sitting down at their table so he made his way over to the table, with every step closer his stomach began doing more and more somersaults, he was so excited and nervous that he didn't know how he was going to eat.

"You came back. I thought you had escaped out of the back door."

Taking his seat he leaned closer to kiss her cheek before he draped his arm along the back of her chair, "Definitely not. The chef/owner wanted to talk to me and make sure that we weren't going to order in little bits and that if we wanted separate bills rather than sorting the money out between us he wanted us to be upfront about it because he didn't want the staff being messed around, which is fair enough."

"Okay, just as long as he is done with you now as I would like to spend the evening with my boyfriend."

"Your boyfriend is all yours."

Pretending to gag Scott was becoming grossed out, "Leave this shit until you get home please, it's sickening."

The smack on the arm and the glare he received from his wife had Scott backtracking, "I am sorry, I shouldn't have said that."

The way that he backtracked after being hit and glared at by his wife had everybody around the table laughing which basically broke the ice and relaxed everybody.

Dinner was going well and everybody was enjoying themselves and the conversation was flowing but Stephanie had noticed that Paul was quite quiet and reserved, carefully and quietly putting her knife and fork down she leaned closer to him to whisper in his ear, "Everything okay? You're very quiet."

He didn't mean to be so obvious that his mind was elsewhere but his nerves were building as dinner went on. "I'm fine honestly; I just can't stop thinking about getting you out of that dress." Mentally crossing his fingers he hoped that she bought that excuse.

She was sure that her face had gone bright red with his comment, if they weren't in front of their families she would kill him for it but thankfully he had whispered it. "If you don't start focussing on dinner you won't be getting the opportunity to do that." Pressing a kiss to his cheek she went back to her own dinner.

Once they had finished their main meals their plates were cleared and they were given a few minutes to let their meal settle on their stomach before their waitress arrived, "Can I get anybody dessert?"

Silently saying a prayer that Stephanie was going to say yes he was practically holding his breath but was disappointed when he heard her say 'no thanks', thankfully a couple of the others said that they wanted dessert so it wouldn't look weird for the special proposal dessert to be brought out. Whilst they waited for the desserts to be brought out Paul began playing with the ring in his pocket, he should not be this nervous about asking the love of his life to be his forever.

The conversations around the table came to an end when they say two waitresses walking towards them with what looked like their desserts, "Damn that food looks good, I'm so glad that I'm a pig."

Everybody laughed at Sean as the plates began being handed out. Everybody had the dessert that they had ordered when a plate that was covered arrived at the table, "The chef is trying out a new recipe and is picking a random diner each night to try it out." The plate was placed in front of Stephanie, taking a look at Paul she waited for the nod before she removed the cloche and quickly walked away.

So confused by it all it was a moment before Stephanie even looked at the plate in front of her and when she did she was even more confused, what sort of restaurant sold incredibly elaborate desserts that looked like a hand holding ring box with a ring in the middle of it with squiggles around the plate? It took a moment to realise that the squiggles were actually letters that made up words, specifically the words 'will you marry me?'

He waited until she seemed to be putting two and two together before he pushed his chair back and got down on one knee with the ring in his hand.

The thought that her boyfriend wanted to propose briefly crossed her mind but it left as soon as it had arrived because their relationship was so new in the grand scheme of things. Failing to register the shocked reaction of everybody else around the table she twisted slightly in her seat just to give her boyfriend a kiss, even though this marriage proposal wasn't for them she couldn't help but think of how grateful she was to have him in her life and how much she loved him but when she did twist he wasn't sitting beside her like he was a second ago, he was kneeling on the floor . . . holy shit, he was kneeling on the floor. Her hand flew to her mouth in shock as the reality of the situation began to sink in, "Paul?"

Using his free hand he reached for her left hand and held it gently, "Stephanie you are my everything and I couldn't imagine my life without you in it. When I let you go the first time I thought I was doing the right thing by you, by us, but the truth is I ran away without trying because I thought that it would hurt less that way and I was wrong. The day that we reconnected at your office was literally the best day of my life up to that point because fate did what I was too gutless to do, get you back in to my life. Now that I have you back there is no way that I am letting you go again, I won't make that mistake twice. You make me whole and I can't imagine living the rest of my life without you by my side so would you do me the honour of becoming my wife?"

It was real; he actually wanted to marry her. There was no question in her mind what her answer was going to be, "Yes! Yes I will marry you."

As he tried putting the ring on her finger her hand was shaking but he persevered and then stood up wrapping his arms tightly around her and ignoring the celebrations going on around them from everybody in the restaurant he pressed his lips against hers.

Melting in to the kiss she had completely blocked out everybody else but came back to reality when she heard her Dad clearing his throat. With a sheepish smile she reluctantly pulled back from the kiss, "Sorry."

"I'm not; I got to kiss my fiancée." Quickly glancing towards the kitchen he nodded in the chef's direction just before he slipped back out of sight and then he went to sit down but nearly fell on to the floor as Sasha practically shoved him out of her way so that she could get to Stephanie, "Charming, thanks for that Sasha."

"My pleasure, serves you right for being in my way."

He could only shake his head and step back allowing all of the women to crowd around Stephanie to congratulate her and to stare at the ring whereas the men's congratulations were much more sedate.

When the women finally went back to their seats he sat down beside his fiancée resting his arm back on the chair behind her, "You can eat all of that, the chef made it especially for the occasion."

It almost felt like a crime to break up the wonderful masterpiece but she didn't want the hard work to go to waste so raised her hand, as soon as a waitress came to the table she smiled politely, "Please may I have another fork?"

"Of course you can, I will be back now."

The confused stares she got from the people around the table had her shrugging, "What? I'm not eating it by myself; my fiancé will be sharing it." Just saying the word fiancé brought a bright smile to her face, her life was perfect.

Once they had all finished their dessert they asked for the bill and after a little confusion they all managed to put the money for their meal with it leaving a nice tip for the waitress as she had worked hard with people then leaving one by one until just Stephanie and Paul remained.

When the waitress came to collect the money Stephanie smiled politely at her, "Can we just have a quick word with the chef please?"

"Sure, follow me."

The night was ending the exact same way that it had started for Paul, stood on the edge of the kitchen waiting for the chef who this time was clearing up rather than cooking.

"What can I do for the two of you? Congratulations on the engagement by the way."

"Thanks. I, we, just wanted to come and say thank you for what you did for us tonight, it was such a special way to be proposed to that I will never forget it."

"You're welcome. As a chef I live to be pushed and inspired so I actually need to thank the two of you because my creativity had been in a bit of a rut and now I have had so many ideas that I've had to start writing them all down because I can't keep up. Hopefully one day the two of you will return to have dinner here but I wish you both the best, I hope that you have a long and happy marriage."

Stephanie couldn't help but cling to Paul just that little bit tighter, "Thank you, I hope that we do too. We will certainly be back so we will not hold you up any longer and will see you again soon. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

The entire ride back to the house Stephanie sat staring at the ring on her finger, she wasn't sure what she did to be so lucky to have Paul in her life but she was grateful for him.

As he pulled in to the driveway and cut off the engine he reached across and put his hand over Stephanie's as she played with the ring on her finger, "Everything okay?"

"Yeah." Finally looking away from the ring and towards her fiancé she couldn't help but smile, "Everything is better than okay actually. I have a job that I love, friends and family who are pretty cool and the most amazing fiancé I could ever ask for."

"Don't you like the ring?"

"I love the ring. Where is this coming from?"

Moving his hand from covering hers to cup her cheek stroking it gently with his thumb he shrugged, "You have been so quiet this entire drive back I just thought that something was wrong."

"Believe me when I tell you that there is absolutely nothing wrong, if you follow me inside I will show you how good things actually are. I was staring at the ring because I can't believe that you proposed, I just feel special."

"You are special, very special to me actually and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you." After a brief pause he smiled devilishly, "So about that offer of yours."

"I love you." Her laughter was swallowed by his mouth as he pressed his lips against hers.

He only kissed her for a minute before he pulled back, "Let's take this inside, I don't want there to be any chance that your neighbours will get a peep show."

Stepping out of the car she walked around to stand beside him allowing him the chance to lock the door before she slapped his arm playfully, "Please be on your best behaviour, this ring on my finger does not give you free reign to be bad."

Paul locked the door on the car before he turned to his fiancée, "You haven't seen anything yet."

Her mouth opened to respond but instead of words a scream of surprise came out as he picked her up and hoisted her over his shoulder, kicking her legs a little and slapping him on the back she wasn't happy, "Paul Michael Levesque, put me down."

"Nope, you're not going down until we reach the bedroom so I suggest you stop wriggling or you'll end up accidentally dumped on the floor."

"AHHH! I hate you." Slapping his ass she hated not being in control and not seeing where she was going.

Returning the favour Paul slapped her ass before he started walking towards the front door, "We both know this is not true but don't worry, I take it as a personal challenge to change your mind because I love you and can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you."

Despite all of the blood rushing to her head making her feel a little dizzy she couldn't help herself and she smiled whispering, "I love you too."

He heard her but all in the name of fun he pretended that he hadn't just so that he could spend the rest of the night showing her exactly how much he loved her as he tried to change her mind.