FROM THEN ON

Chapter four

''Sabrina?'' I asked into the phone with a ting of hope in my voice. ''Oh no I get that a lot. It's her mum, Cecilia,'' she replied. ''Oh,'' I said disappointed. ''Well this is the coffee and bake shop delivery service, how may I be of assistance?'' her mum asked. ''Actually I was wondering if I could get Sabrina's number?'' I asked with anticipation. ''Um...who is this please?'' Cecilia asked. ''Oh I'm Robert, Sabrina's new friend,'' I introduced. ''interesting......well Robert, you seem like a nice person but if Sabrina didn't give you her number herself then she must've had a solid reason and I can't go against that,'' she said seriously. ''No it was an accident. She didn't mean to not give me her number,'' I tried to explain. ''Huh..,'' she said in a tone as if to say that I was lying. ''Well Sabrina isn't around so when she comes, I'll let her know that you called,'' her mum said. ''Well do you know when she'll be back?'' I asked. ''Unfortunately, no,'' she said. ''Okay thanks,'' I said sadly. The rest of the day passed by quickly with me doing nothing but thinking about Sabrina and figuring other ways to contact her. When it was around 5:00pm, I received a message from Ryan reminding me about the dinner at 6:00. After I read the message, I said, ''At least he gets a happy ending.'' And then I sighed and got ready to go for the dinner. When I was all dressed, I grabbed the keys to my range rover, and drove out of the underground car park and towards the other side of town where the restaurant was located. When I arrived, everybody was already there and seated. As soon as I entered, Ryan called out, ''Hey buddy, glad you could make it.'' I smiled and walked towards the table to greet the people sitting around it. ''Hi, you must be Serena's parents. I have heard a lot about you from both Ryan and Serena,'' I laughed shaking their hands. ''And we've heard a lot about the famous Rob Stenson,'' her mother said. ''And we've seen you on T.V too,'' her dad added. ''Nice to finally meet you,'' her mum continued. ''Hello Rob,'' Serena said as she stood up to hug me. ''Hi Serena, I see that Ryan is really treating you well,'' I laughed and hugged her back. She blushed and sat back down. Then I moved to Ryan's parents. ''Robert!! You've grown so much. How are you?'' Ryan's mum asked as she embraced me. ''I'm fine Mrs. Delgato,'' I replied. ''How are you my boy?'' Ryan's dad asked. ''Roger........still got a thing for baseball I see,'' I teased noticing the Yankees cap he was wearing. ''Of course, baseball for life,'' he said straightening the cap on his head. Everybody then burst into laughter. Ryan and I have been best friends since high school in this same town. We went to the same college in Albuquerque , and then we both decided to continue living life here where all our friends and family lived. Ryan met Serena a few years later, I got a promotion from news paper editor to on the field reporter and editor in chief, and things kind of took off from there. I sat down and we started chatting, cracking jokes and laughing until the food arrived. In the middle of eating, a young lady walked in. She was beautiful without a doubt but for some reason, I paid no attention to her. ''So sorry I'm late. I had an emergency at work,'' she apologized and then sat on the only empty chair left which was right beside me. ''We understand,'' Ryan's mum said and smiled at her. ''Robert I don't believe you've met Serena's beautiful yet single best friend, Ashley Thompson, who also happens to be a doctor,'' Ryan said stressing on the beautiful and single part and I knew exactly what he was trying to do. ''Hi I'm Rob Stenson,'' I said shaking her hand. ''Yeah I know who you are. I see you on T.V. Plus Ryan cannot stop talking about you,'' she said smiling and accepting my hand shake. ''Oh really?'' I asked looking in his direction. ''I may have told her a little bit about you,'' Ryan said laughing nervously. ''So, Robert how's Lucy doing?'' Mrs. Delgato asked. ''Oh Lucy and I broke up a few years ago, I'm surprised Ryan didn't tell you,'' I said eyeing my best friend. ''It must've slipped my mind,'' Ryan confessed. ''That's too bad. You two made such a cute couple. What happened?'' she asked. ''It's a....long story,'' I said shifting in my seat a little. ''Well we have time,'' she replied. ''I'd rather not talk about it,'' I said uncomfortably. ''Well alright,'' she said understandably. ''So who's the new girl in your life?'' she asked. ''Um right now, I just broke up with my recent girlfriend so I'm taking a break for awhile,'' I replied and before she could ask any more questions, Ryan stood up shifting all the attention on him and saving me. I let out a sigh of relief and whispered a ''thank you'' to him. He nodded and smiled in my direction in reply and then he announced, ''I have an announcement to make.'' He then looked at Serena and smiled, held her hand and lifted her up from her seat. Then he pushed their chairs a few inches back and still holding her hand and looking into her eyes, he said, ''Serena, from the first day I met you, I knew that I wanted you to be a part of my life; and being together all these years, I can't imagine my life without you. And....I've wanted to do this for a very long time but I could never gather the courage to,'' he paused before continuing, ''and you've been nothing but patient and understanding with me and I love you more and more for that every single day. And even though I could never gather the courage to do this, I know that patience doesn't last forever and the fear of losing you to somebody else has overcome the fear of never having the courage to do this and has finally given me the boldness to ask you this....'' Ryan said. He then got down on one knee facing Serena, brought out a small box, opened it to reveal a ring with a diamond on it that shined throughout the restaurant and asked, ''Will you make me the happiest man alive and marry me?'' Serena started tearing up and Ashley passed her a tissue. ''Yes!'' she exclaimed through the tears and then we all clapped and cheered as they hugged and kissed each other. After they took their seats, Mr. Delgato got up holding a bottle of champagne and said, ''On this occasion, I would like to propose a toast to my son, and my daughter-in-law. We wish you nothing but happiness,'' he said popping the cork off the bottle and pouring a little into everyone's glass. After he had finished doing that, he rose his glass in the air and said, ''To Ryan and Serena,'' ''To Ryan and Serena,'' the rest of us chorused while lifting our glasses of champagne to join his in the air followed by the clanging sounds of glasses hitting each other and then we all drank up. For the subsequent hour, each one of us stood up and said something to Ryan and Serena including goodwill messages, jokes, compliments and teasers. By 10:00pm, we were all exhausted and our jaws hurt from laughing so hard. We each said our goodbyes and promised to continue our fun at the engagement party and at the wedding and then headed home. When I got home, I took a quick shower and then went to bed. The next day when I woke up, I remembered all the events that played out that evening and how much fun I had. I wasn't thinking about work, or Sabrina, I was thinking about me and I hadn't done that in a long time. I got out of bed, inserted my phone into my dock speaker, went to my playlist and selected the track, ''Happy by Pharrel Williams''. I increased the volume to the maximum and as I sang along and danced, I took my bath, got dressed and made my breakfast. As I sat down to eat my breakfast, I took my phone out of the speaker and scrolled through my messages. After, I went to instagram and saw that Serena had posted pictures of yesterday night. There was even a photo of Ashley and I sitting together. ''When did they take this?'' I asked confused, not remembering anybody taking pictures the whole time we were there. Just then, my phone started ringing and I saw that it was Ryan calling. I answered and asked, ''Hey man what's up?'' ''Hey Rob. I'm freaking out man. Serena wants us to get married next month and so there's so much to do yet so little time. Right now, I'm on my way to meet her at the wedding planners'. Plus she says I have to start planning for my bachelor party, we have to look at houses and all that stuff and in just a few hours, she has become extremely emotional,'' Ryan said worriedly. ''Relax man, you got this. You want this remember? All this planning and emotional stuff is totally normal for women but I don't blame her I mean she's excited. Aren't you?'' I asked. ''First of all, of course I am. But I'm not I-won't-eat-anything-but-fruits-and-veggies-from-now-on-or-else-I-won't-be-able-to-fit-into-my-wedding-dress excited. That's just crazy talk. And secondly, when did you become so good at giving advice about women and weddings? Don't tell me it's Sabrina,'' Ryan teased. ''First of all, you are marrying that crazy talker,'' I said. ''And I love her,'' Ryan cut in. ''And secondly, yeah it was from Sabrina. She was talking about how her cousin was about to get married and everyone thought she was going crazy,'' I continued. ''Well speaking of Sabrina. Any news?'' Ryan asked. ''Well I called the coffee shop delivery number and her mum picked up,'' I said. ''That's great. So she gave you her number right?'' Ryan asked. ''Let me put it like this. If you had a daughter who was extremely pretty, a Christian and most importantly a virgin, and a complete stranger who happened to be a guy called to ask for her number and introduced himself as your daughter's newly found friend who claims to have accidentally forgotten to ask her for her number, what would you do?'' I asked. ''Oh boy. I'm sorry man. But on the bright side, Ashley seems into you,'' Ryan said. ''Narh man I ain't interested. And what you did last night, was not cool,'' I said annoyed. ''Alright I'm sorry, I won't push you but I just thought you'd like to get to know her a little bit since she is going to be the maid of honour and she'll be standing by you the whole time. Oh and now Robert Stenson doesn't want to take a chance on a girl? She's changed you man,'' Ryan said worriedly. ''Well this is the new me,'' I said laughing. ''I'm happy for you man,'' Ryan said. ''Thanks,'' I replied smiling. ''Anyway back to me. I'm really gonna need your help from now till the wedding,'' Ryan said desperately. ''Don't worry. I got you bro,'' I said.