Matrimonial Surprises (9b/?)
X-X-X-X-X
Jeff walked into the diner with his hands buried deep in his coat pockets and glanced around. He quickly spotted Shirley and Abed sitting in a booth near a window and crossed over, sliding in beside Abed. “Hey, thanks for coming, guys.”
Abed took a sip of his milkshake, “No problem, Jeff.”
“Not that I’m not happy to spend time with you and Abed, but why did you ask us here, Jeffrey?”
Jeff leaned forward and dropped his voice a bit, even though it wasn’t at all necessary. “I need your help. But first, Shirley, I need you to swear you won’t tell anyone else, okay?”
Shirley nodded, her interest instantly piqued, “I won’t, I promise.”
“Good. So here’s the deal, I want to ask Annie to marry me. Or re-marry me, stay married, whatever it is.”
“Ohh, Jeffrey!”
“I need you guys to give me advice on the best way to do it. Shirley, because you’re a woman who knows Annie well and isn’t Britta, and Abed for obvious reasons.”
Abed’s lips quirked up just the slightest bit. “Nice, we’re your brain trust. I’ve always wanted to be part of a brain trust.”
Jeff clapped him on the back, “Exactly, buddy. You’re my brain trust. Given our situation I have no idea how to do it. I mean we’ve already been married for over a year.”
“You’re going to get her a ring, right?” Shirley asked. “Because no matter the circumstances every woman wants her man to get down on one knee and give her a ring.”
“Of course I’m going to get her a ring. I’ve been looking at them online and I’ve narrowed it down to a couple I think she’ll like.” Jeff pulled out his phone and brought up a few pictures of rings he had saved to it then handed it to her.
Her jaw dropped, “Damn! You can afford these?”
“Now I can. I tried to find ones that would go with the band she already has. What do you think?”
“I think she’d like any of them, but this is the one that’s the most her style.” Shirley pointed to the ring that had a cushion cut diamond with a halo of small diamonds around it and more on the band. “It’s classic and feminine but still modern.”
Jeff smiled, “That’s the one I was leaning towards.”
Shirley put her hand on his wrist reassuringly and handed the phone back to him, “She’ll love it, pumpkin.”
“I hope so. How should I ask her though? I’m not good at this kind of stuff.”
“Annie used to be the type of girl who wanted grand romantic gestures and would have had ridiculously high expectations for a proposal. But now she’ll just want to know that you’ve put effort into it and show her how important she is to you. She knows you’re not a grand romantic gesture kind of guy,” Abed said.
“But I still want to do something special for her, I feel like she kind of got cheated out of this moment the first time around. I know I can’t compete with Andre’s song and dance number but there has to be something that’s not a total cliché.”
“Mmm, Lord knows you can’t dance. There’s a deaf boy at my church who has more rhythm than you.”
Jeff rolled his eyes, “I know, I suck at it. On the few occasions Annie got me to dance she said I looked like a baby giraffe learning to walk.”
Shirley squealed with laughter, “She’s right, you do! It’s just limbs all over the place!”
“Yes, ha-ha, Jeff can’t dance, hilarious. Can we please move on?”
Shirley cleared her throat and composed herself a bit, “Okay okay, I’m sorry. Do you have any ideas of what you might like to do?”
Jeff sighed and leaning back in the booth, crossing his arms over his chest. “I don’t know. I mean she’s six and a half months pregnant, that kind of limits my options and I don’t want to just take her to a fancy dinner or anything like that.”
“You should include the baby in it,” Abed suggested. “Make it personal. That will mean the most to her.”
Shirley nodded, “Ohh, he’s right. Annie will absolutely melt if you include her.”
“How do I do that? I don’t wanna have to wait until after she’s born.”
Abed suddenly snapped his fingers, “I have an idea.”
X-X-X-X-X
Annie walked into the dark apartment and flipped on the kitchen light. “Jeff? Honey, are you home?”
Jeff came out of their bedroom and smiled as he went over to kiss her, “Hey, babe.”
“Hi.”
“I have a present for you,” He said excitedly.
Annie smiled up at him as she took off her jacket, “You do? Where is it?”
“You have to find it.”
She cocked her head to the side, “Do I get any hints?”
Jeff gave her a lopsided grin, “It’s in the apartment somewhere.”
“Jeff! That’s no help!” She huffed.
“Sure it is. It eliminates every other place on Earth it could possibly be.”
“Will you at least tell me if I’m hot or cold?”
Jeff crossed his arms and tapped an index finger against his chin as he rocked on the balls of his feet and pretended to think about it. “Hmm…okay.”
Annie stepped further into the kitchen and looked at him expectantly. When he didn’t say anything she opened the pantry door. He shook his head, “Cold.”
She closed it again and opened the cabinets under the sink across the kitchen.
“Cold.”
Annie eyed him suspiciously. “Hmm, so probably not in the kitchen then.” She went around the counter into the living room and put her hand on the bookcase in the corner.
“A tiny bit warmer.”
She raised an eyebrow and took a few steps to the right, towards their bedroom. He shook his head, “tiny bit colder.”
Annie sighed and walked across the living room to the side table with the drawers next to the couch.
“Warmer.”
“Warmer than the bookcase?”
Jeff narrowed his eyes and considered the distance, “Yes. Just a little.”
“Okaaaay. You said colder when I went towards our room, which means it’s not in there or our bathroom. And it’s not the in the kitchen…” She turned away from Jeff and looked towards the spare room at the back of the apartment.
“Warmer.”
Annie walked in to the spare room, the room that was soon to be the nursery, and flipped on the light. Jeff came up so close behind her she could
feel his breath. “Hot.”
She looked back over her shoulder and craned her neck up to see him. There was an intensity in his eyes that wasn’t there just a minute ago. Annie swallowed and went further into the room, her eyes scanning the room as she stepped towards a dresser. She looked back at Jeff for a response.
“Hotter.” He could feel his heart pick up as she got closer.
Annie bit her lip as she thought about where her present could be, then went to a desk that was only in there because they had no place else to put it. She ran her fingers slowly across the top, leaving faint trails in the little bit of dust on the surface.
Jeff couldn’t stop the tiny quirk of his lips as he watched from the doorway. “Burning up.”
She smiled and opened the top drawer, inside was flat box that had obviously been wrapped by Jeff. Wrapping presents had never been his strong suit. She pulled it out and tore off the pink paper as he came closer. Inside was a tiny purple dress with little orange and a matching onesie. Annie lifted the dress from the box and held it out in front of her. “Awww!”
“Okay, so it technically wasn’t for you. But I still thought you’d like them.”
Annie clutched the dress to her chest and spun around to face him. “I love it! They’re adorable! She can wear the dress home from the hospital. Can you believe how tiny this is?” She held it against her stomach and giggled.
Jeff grinned and the corner of his eyes crinkled as he watched her. His stomach flipped and he prepared to put the second part of his plan into motion. “I have something else that is actually for you.”
Annie looked back up at him with surprise, “You do?”
He nodded and took a deep breath, the kind that pulled his shirt tight against his chest. “You know how much I love you, right?”
Annie smiled up at him and stretched to kiss his cheek softly, “Yeah, I do. I love you, too.”
“And even though I’m still not always great at expressing my emotions I try to make sure you know how important you are to me.”
She reached out and squeezed his forearm, “I know, sweetie.”
“Because you are. And the baby, too. I never expected to settle down with anyone, I didn’t think I wanted to, or was even remotely capable of it, but you changed that. Annie, you’re amazing. You’re the best person I’ve ever met and I still can’t believe that someone like you can love an emotionally stunted, borderline selfish guy like me but I’m ridiculously lucky that you do. You deserve everything you could ever want out of life, and I can’t promise I can give you everything, but I can promise I’ll try.” He pulled a black ring box out of his pocket as he got down on one knee, Annie gasped and her hand flew to her mouth when she realized what was happening. He opened the box, “Annie, will you marry me…again?”
Annie blinked back tears and a laugh escaped her. “Yes! Oh my God, yes! Jeff, of course I will!”
Jeff’s nervous expression dissolved into a huge grin. “Really?”
She laughed again and grabbed his face in her hands to tug his mouth up to hers. “Yes really,” She answered between kisses. “God, did you really think I’d say no after everything?”
“I was like 99% sure I knew the answer, it was just that 1% that was getting to me,” He said as he stood up to his full height and pulled the ring out of the box.
Annie squealed and held out her left hand so he could slide it on her finger. “Jeff, it’s beautiful!” She cried.
“You really like it? Shirley helped me pick it out. If not then…”
Annie cut him off before he could even finish the sentence and tugged him closer by the lapels of his shirt. “I love it, it’s perfect. You’d have to pry it off my cold, dead finger to get it back.”
Jeff grinned down at her, the corner of his eyes crinkling, “I did good?”
“You did very good.” She slid her hands up to his cheeks and pulled him down for another kiss.
He opened his mouth to hers and he grabbed her hips, pulling her against him as flush as he could. After a moment he felt a kick low on his abdomen from the baby, as he pulled back he barked out a laugh and moved his hand to her stomach. “We didn’t forget about you, baby.”
Annie giggled and put her hand over his, “You felt that, too?”
“Kind of hard not to.” Jeff caught her gaze again, they stood there staring at each other and Annie’s heart swelled at the look in his eyes. Every once in awhile Jeff opened himself up to her completely and she could always tell by the way he looked at her, so soft and full of adoration. She never mentioned it for fear it would embarrass him and he’d become overly aware of it, but she cherished those moments, both because nothing had ever made her feel so loved before and because she was sure he had never directed it at anyone else.