The Viscottis’ Tales at Pesky Peek
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE:The Surprise Of a Lifetime
The following morning Liz found a letter addressed to her with untidy familiar writing scribbled on it. She ripped open the envelope and out fell a single crimson rose petal. Liz picked it up in her hand and smiled to herself. Her boyfriend sure knew how to charm her back. Next she took out a thin, see threw, parchment like piece of paper. Curious and excited she read:
Dear Liz,
Meet me tonight at the Sim Center North. I will explain everything while we walk to Londoste.
Wear something nice. A surprise will be waiting for you, mio fidanzata.
Ti amo con tutu il mio cuore.
Vince.She read the letter through several times, not understanding what it meant. What was with all the simtalian––if that was what it was. One thing that she did know though, was that Vince was inviting her on a date. But why did he want to take her somewhere as special as Londoste if he was just going to explain why he had been flirting with that woman? And what was this surprise about?
When Liz showed Lily the paper (they told an eavesdropping Daniel that it was strictly girls business and that he should shove off before he should get what was coming to him) she couldn’t help getting excited.
“What’s with all the spamnish crap?” Lily said, raising an eyebrow. “I mean, doesn’t the dude know simlish?”
“It’s
simtalian, Lily, and isn’t it romantic?”
Lily gave a loud snort which made her gag slightly on her cereal.
Liz spent the rest of the day getting ready for the date with Vince. Liz tried to tell herself that this was jus a get together to talk about what had happened that day in 290 Main Street but Liz couldn’t help getting the tiniest bit excited anyway. After all this was
Vince. The man that might be the father to her baby––no scratch that. The man that
would be the father of her baby.
***At six o’clock she was ready to go. She took a cab to Downtown (Vince might like to drive her home afterwards) and found Vince lurking by the hedge looking nervous. He put on a smile when he spotted Liz.
“You look fantastic.” He said, walking over to greet Liz.
Liz felt her face grow hot.
“You too.” She said bashfully to Vince.
“So are we ready to go,
mio fidanzata?” he said with a dazzling smile, holding out an arm.
“Yeah, you got a lot to explain. Like what’s with all the simtalian? How come you never told me that you were Simtalien?”
Vince laughed as they walked arm in arm out of the park.
It was a long walk to Londoste, longer than Liz had thought possible. But the conversations they had, kept them busy. One by one all the secrets were out in the open––except for the father of the baby problem. She loved Vince too much to see him get hurt because of something like this. Now that he had told her everything about his childhood (both his parents had died when he was young so he had been raised by his Simtalian Aunt in Veronaville) made the thought of hurting him even more unbearable, if that was possible. No, she wasn’t going to tell him that just yet––if ever. She was at least going to wait until the baby was born.
“Vince, there’s something I don’t understand. If that was your sister in the shop then why did you flirt with her?” Liz said unexpectedly, disturbing the peaceful silence that had washed over them.
“Sorry?”
“You heard me.” Liz said coldly and she was surprised at the harshness in her voice.
Vince’s cheacks turned red and he avoided her eyes.
“I... ah... wasn’t flirting with her.” He said bashfully, still not looking at her. “I was telling her my plans of... of... a date that I was planning to have with – um – you.”
Her heart was doing summersaults inside her chest. She wanted to reach up and kiss him. But when he looked at her, she felt shy and embarrassed of accusing him of something like this.
“Boy, am I embarrassed now.” She said, trying to laugh it off. “I thought...”
“I know what you thought.” Vince said kindly.
They didn’t say much during the rest of the walk and luckily Londoste wasn’t far off now.
They were seated at a table for two next to the kitchen. It wasn’t the most romantic spot and Liz kept getting hit by the kitchen door every time it swung open. Vince was more annoyed at this than she was and she had to persuade him that it was fine so that he wouldn’t spoil the dinner by complaining to the host. He didn’t look convinced but didn’t bring it up again. She knew that it was hard getting a table at Londoste so she tried to enjoy the luxurious dinner and ignore the door that kept slamming into her chair every second.
Vince seemed very nervous during their dinner and he kept glancing down at something under the table, which irritated Liz beyond belief. He had no doubt planned this night out to be romantic so why was he making it so uncomfortable?
Finally it got to the point where Liz couldn’t stand it anymore. He was obviously not listening to her conversation about Lily’s dad coming to visit at all!
Liz took a pile of the mashed potato in her hand and chucked it at Vince. She let out a hoot of laughter when she saw his shocked face, now smeared with mashed potato.
“Glad to have you back from space or where ever you were, Mr Daydreamer.”
Vince smiled and licked his lips.
“Mmm. Mashed potato. Nice. Does it suit me?”
He bashed his eyelashes at Liz and she laughed. They got most of the mashed potato off his face with napkins but Liz didn’t tell him that some was still stuck in his right eyebrow. She sniggered to herself every time she saw it and besides, it was cute.
Vince reached for her hand on the other side of the table and gazed into her eyes, the laughter gone from his face.
“Liz, you mean a lot to me.” He said seriously. “When you thought I had... well when you were mad at me after the incident at Main Street, I thought I had lost you and I couldn’t bare it. Liz, what I’m trying to say is...”
Her heart was beating fast and her insides where squirming.
“I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
Before she had time to think, he took out a black velvety box from under the table. Her eyes widened as she realised what it was.
“Will you marry me?” Vince said, pushing the box towards her.
Liz picked it up, the velvet soft against her skin. She was so excited she could hardly sit still. No one had ever proposed to her before.
“Of course!”
She opened the box and took out a sparkling gold ring with a small diamond on it. It was nowhere near as big as some of the ladies wedding rings in Pesky Peek but it was far prettier than any of them. It was perfect.
“Vince, this must have cost you a fortune!” She said breathlessly as she slipped the gold ring onto her finger, admiring it in the candle light.
“That’s nothing compared to how much the honeymoon will cost.”
Liz smiled and put her hand on her fiancé’s and looked into his brown eyes, the ring sitting comfortably on her finger.
“Uh, I don’t want to spoil the moment,” she said with a cheeky smile, “but you have some mashed potato stuck in your eyebrow.”
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