Story of my Life

2018- December

"I'm sorry baby, I know tonight was date night and that you wanted to go to the consultants' ball but the babysitter just called me. She's sick and can't come tonight." Connie told Jacob as she walked into living room, where Jacob was sat watching children's TV with the twins. Jacob turned slightly to see Connie, who was standing behind the sofa taking out the earrings which she'd only put in ten minutes before.

"I'm sure Zoe and Max would take them." Jacob thought desperately for someone who would be able to take the twins at such short notice.

"The same Zoe and Max who recently took home their two month old daughter from the hospital, because she had been addicted to drugs from her birth mother and was incredibly ill?" Connie asked, wondering how Jacob had forgotten the panic that constantly came from their close friends, or the many nights that they'd cared for Rory Walker whilst his parents had been with his younger sister, Holly.

"Point taken. What about Charlie?" Jacob asked, as he stood up, being careful not to disturb the girls before he walked over to Connie.

"What are you up to?" She asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Why must I be up to something?" He asked as he wrapped his arms around Connie, who was significantly shorter than him without her heels on. "You look stunning, what's wrong with me wanting to go out with you beside me?"

"Fine. Ring Charlie, but if he says no then we're staying home. You are not just dropping our kids with anyone." She finally gave in and then left the room, she knew that Jacob was up to something, she always did. For some reason, this time she didn't care what he was doing, perhaps it was the awareness that it was unlikely that they would be going out.

----------------------------------------------

"Are you ready?" Jacob asked not long later as he poked his head around the living room door.

"Charlie agreed?" Connie asked, turning her head to Jacob to try and figure out if he was teasing her.

"Yep, who could resist spending time with our princesses?"

"You've misled him somehow. Quinn may be asleep just now but that probably means she'll be grumpy when she's awake and I can't get Bea to stop crying, she's decided that she now misses that toy that she lost last week." Connie sighed, still unsure of whether she could leave Charlie to deal with that.

"Charlie loves them like grandkids, they may as well be his grandkids Con, they call him granddad. He knows what they're like and he knows how to calm them down. He's been through the terrible twos with his own son, he knows what he's getting himself into. He'll be here in the next ten minutes, I set the guest bedroom up for him to stay. Now I'm ready, are you?" Jacob asked, Bea's cry disturbing him as he finished talking.

"I need to touch up my make up." Connie admitted, but she felt more like she needed to fix Bea first.

"Stop thinking." Jacob scolded, "I'll get Bea sorted and you do your make up."

------------------------------------

"I swear every year there's less people that I recognise." Connie whispered to Jacob as she stood looking around at the room of consultants and their partners. "I'm not even sure anyone from the ED were coming, Zoe's got a newborn and Dylan hates socialising as does Lily."

"We don't need to know anyone to have a good time though sweetie. Now let's grab a drink and then find a table and mingle." Jacob suggested as he to found that he recognised very few people in the room, except for the lead singer of the band who were performing. Connie nodded and then grabbed two glasses of champagne from a passing tray, handing one to Jacob as she did.

After an hour or so, they were both still sober and were now both enjoying their evenings. The dance floor was beginning to fill up as the flowing alcohol loosened the crowd of consultants, and it wasn't long before Jacob had persuaded Connie that they should join them. For a while they danced to songs that neither of them recognised before the first lines of I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing by Aerosmith began to play. The clearly in love couple swayed back and forth in each other's arms, in time to the music until the last chorus came to a close. Without warning, Jacob pulled away from Connie and bent down to the floor. The music stopped as Jacob reached into his pocket and produced a small black box. The once noisy room seemed to silence as they realised what was going on, leaving all eyes to fall upon the couple. Connie was left in shock as she stared at the man she loved, who was down on one knee.

"Connie Beauchamp, what can I say? I've known you for a few years now, you've turned my whole world upside down. You gave me the two greatest children in the world, you gave me the life I've always wanted and more love than I ever deserved. You gave me the greatest gift ever when you gave me your heart. I can't imagine a day without seeing your stunning face, I can't imagine a day where I'm not able to reach out and touch you, just because I can. I can't imagine a day when I'm not head over heels in love with you, and honestly, I don't want to. So Constance Beauchamp, will you do me the honour of marrying me?" He asked as he opened the small box, leaving Connie in shock at the perfect diamond ring that he's chosen for her.

"I don't want to spend a day without you either Jacob, of course I'll marry you." She replied, giving him the answer that he'd hoped that he'd hear. Carefully he slipped the ring onto her finger before he stood up and enveloped his fiancé in his arms. The crowd that surrounded them broke out into applause as the couple finally kissed, but both were oblivious to what was going on around them.

"I knew you were up to something but this never even crossed my mind." Connie told him as they made their way out to the car, both desperate to get home now.

"What can I say? You're engaged to the master of surprise." Jacob teased.

"If that was supposed to be a play on your surname then it was awful." Connie replied, but still a smile rested upon her face.

"Maybe, but it'll be your surname too soon."

"Ah yeah but I won't go making terrible puns with it." She laughed as they headed home, both even more content with life than they'd imagined they could be.