Make Me Part of Your League

Chapter 23

April 5, 34 Weeks Pregnant

Allison's POV

"Arabella! These decorations are amazing!" I say as I walk into the backroom of the fire house.

I look around and there are like 25 tables set up with diaper cakes and blue and pink booties as the toppers. There are enormous baseball, and castle balloons all over the place, on the table next to the big chair there's a single tier cake with mine and Alex's baby pictures on it and next to that is a huge cupcake stand filled with  some cupcakes that blue with baseball bat cutouts and the other ones are pink with edible glitter coating the top. 

To the right of the room there are several tables pushed together with more food than I could have possible imagined on top. She tells me that some of the food is catered and some of it is home made. 

"Only the best for my babies!" she says as she rubs my belly, "I have one more surprise!" she says as she runs away. Alex and I look at each other and Arabella walks in, nearly dragging a man with a camera.

"This is Jaqu, he's here to take pictures of you two! His studio is like literally across the street! The party doesn't start for another 3 hours which gives him just enough time to get the pictures taken and printed so that the two of you can have a signing board! Look! I even bought both of you clothes!"

Arabella hands me a bag with a blue Maxi Dress, a bathing suit and a hot pink button up shirt. For Alex, she hands him a blue polo, a bathing suit and a pink polo. Without a question both he and I shrug at each other and get dressed. The photographer tells me to put on the blue dress and he tells Alex to put on his pink polo. 

After all of the pictures are done the photographer shows us our pictures and Alex and I both agree on one of the pictures where I have on an unbuttoned pink shirt and he has his blue shirt on. In the picture I'm standing facing the camera, looking down at my stomach and cradling it on the sides while Alex is standing on the side of me holding my hands in the same position, our foreheads are touching in in, and there is a midnight black background to complement the bright colors. 

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Just as the first person walks into the room so does the photgrapher, I could not have asked for a better job done even if I wanted to. 

The first people to get here are our families, of course! My mom walks in with a huge box, my dad walks in with a smaller bag and Alex's mom walks in with a long box and Tito walks in with a few bags. One after another people walk in with all different shaped boxes, bags and cards. By the time it's time to open gifts my chair is surrounded by gifts! I sit down as Arabella hand out "Gift Bingo" cards. I start opening my gifts and when all is said and done, I got almost everything on my registry! My babies are already spoiled and they aren't even born yet! After opening my gifts someone starts chanting, "speech!" I figure I may as well, 

"Well, I guess what I want to say is thank you all so much for supporting me! This has been an extremely long journey and I don't think I could be happy about it without the help from my amazing support system. From my parents to Alex's to the girls on the team and the guys on the baseball team. Teachers, my coach and everyone I've met along the way I want to say thank you! Like I said these last eight months would have been beyond miserable without all of you! So thanks for the gifts! Now let's go back to partying!"

Everyone finds their way to the dance floor as do I and I enjoy my last hoorah before motherhood. After dancing for 20 minutes or so Tito comes over to me and asks for a dance. I follow him onto the dance floor and dance bachata to "Stand By Me" by prince royce with him. He's so eloquent on the dance floor as he leads me in circles and sways despite my big belly . He leans in and gives me a hug, "Alls, I need to ask you a question. Can we go outside?" I nod my head, he grabs my hand and leads me through the crowd of people to the outside of the fire house.

"Everything ok Tito?"

"Yeah, actually everything is great. I want to show you something." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small suede box with Kay Jewlers engraved on it. My eyes open wide as he opens it to reveal a 12 carat white gold ring, with a quarter carat diamond attached to the center of it. "What do you think?"

"Tito, that is gorgeous. What is it for?" 

"Ally, I'm going to ask Arabella to marry me."

"It hasn't even been a year yet."

"Allison, I know that. Listen to me. I knew that Arabella was going to be the one I was going to marry after two weeks with her."

"Then I fully support you Tito" I say as I give him a kiss on the cheek

"Ally, I wanted to know if I could make it big, can I do it now? Like with a mic?"

"I would be honored if you did."

We go inside and I ask the DJ to turn down the music. I grab the mic and say, "A very special person in my life has an announcement to make." Alex gives me a funny look, so before I hand over the mic to Tito I clarify, "My wonderful brother in law would like to share something with you all." I hand Tito the microphone and go over to Alex. I grab his arm and rest my head on it.

"What's going on Al?"

"Just wait and see."

Tito clears his throat, 

"Arabella can you come here fore a minute?"

She comes to the front of the room and she's nervously looking around. Tito begins to talk.

"I don't know how many of you know the host of this amazing baby shower. Her name is Arabella." she whispers at him,

"you don't have to do this Tito." he raises his finger to his lips and shushes her as he continues,

"Arabella, has been working on this baby shower for months because she is an amazing human being. I've known her about eight months now and I've never been so in love in my life. Seeing how she has been able to recover despite everyhting that has happened just made me fall for her harder. The first two weeks that we were together I knew that she was the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I found myself with her every chance I had and when I couldn't be with her I spent the day thinking about her. When I'm with her I'm a better person and I strive to make her happy." He takes a deep breath before continuing, "What all of this leads to is.. " He  pulls out the little black box from his pocket and as he goes down on one knee he places the microphone on the ground

"Arabella Will you marry me?"

It seems like the entire room is holding their breath until Arabella gives an answer. She finally convers her tear filled face with her hands and nods, Tito jumps onto his feet and lifts Arabella into a hug, he spins her around and they kiss. He puts her down and slides the ring onto her finger. "I love you!."