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Rudolph Stieblitz’ heart was beating out of his chest, for today would be the most important day of his life.
Rewind to around fifteen years ago, Rudy was paired up with a girl named Louise Belcher for a museum field trip. He knew who Louise was of course, almost everyone at Wagstaff knew about her and her wild pranks and other trouble she would cause. However Rudy had never really interacted with the girl personally, he could never have imagined back then that this girl would end up being the love of his life.
That leads back to the present day, where Rudy is sitting on his bed, looking at the ring he recently bought. Today would be the day he finally asks Louise to be his wife.
Rudy and Louise had been officially dating since their freshman year of highschool, and unofficially dating long before then, and they had even been living together for the last few years. Rudy had often been asked by friends and family when he would finally pop the question, which he always awkwardly laughed off. But he felt he had prepared long enough, today was the day.
Everything was set up, he had a date night set up at a fancy restaurant and everything, he just had to find the perfect moment. Rudy glanced at the clock, it read 6:45PM, their reservation was at 7. He hid the ring box in his pocket and walked into the living room where his hopefully soon to be fiancée was sitting on the couch.
“There’s the Rudester!” Louise said affectionately, “You were taking a while, I thought you’d fallen asleep or something.”
Rudy sheepishly scratched the back of his head, “Yeah, sorry about that. Are you ready to go?”
Louise simply smiled and stood up, Rudy couldn’t help but stare at her, she looked so beautiful in her green dress that she only ever wore for special occasions such as date nights, all these years later and Louise still had a fondness for the color green.
The couple got into their car and started driving to the restaurant. All throughout the journey Rudy’s mind pondered over how he should do this. Should he try one of his magic tricks to present the ring? No, Louise knew every trick Rudy had, when would even be the right time to propose? Before Rudy could come up with a coherent plant, they had arrived at the parking lot.
The parking lot was a decent walk from the restaurant, so the couple walked together side by side. The restaurant was in a much nicer place compared to their own restaurant, so they took in the sights such as the beach nearby.
The couple made it to the restaurant on time for their reservation and ordered their food, while they waited Rudy still pondered the best way to go about doing this, it needed to be perfect after all.
“You okay Rudes?” Louise said gently “You’re pulling that face you make whenever you’re in deep thought.”
Rudy was snapped out of his thoughts, “Oh yeah, sorry.” He said, “I’ve just… got a lot on my mind right now.”
Louise had a sympathetic look on her face. Whenever Rudy gets like this it’s usually a family issue. “Is it family related?” She asked, “You can tell me about it if you want.”
Rudy smiled, “I guess it’s sort of a family matter.” He chuckled, “It’s nothing too important, don’t worry about it.”
Louise wasn’t convinced but didn’t press him any further.
The rest of the date went on as any other, the couple ordered their food and talked about whatever crossed their minds. Once their meal was nearly over and Louise was just finishing her dessert, Rudy was mentally panicking.
“Oh god, it’s almost the end of the date and I haven’t asked her yet.” He thought to himself. He briefly considered scrapping the idea and just finishing the date as normal, after all what if she said no? If he just didn’t say anything they could go through their days as normal without the risk of any awkward situations…
No… he had planned it all out, and he was sure Louise was already suspicious of why he had picked such a fancy restaurant. It didn’t matter how nervous he was, it was now or never.
“L… Louise?” He said, ignoring the hammering of his heart from inside his chest, “Can I ask yo-“
“Here’s your bill sir.” A waiter said suddenly appearing and completely ruining the moment.
“Oh, thanks.” Rudy said, accepting the bill, cringing at the amount he owed.
“Ask me what?” Louise said curiously.
Rudy was suddenly thrust back into his situation, he had completely lost his confidence, the moment had been ruined.
“Oh, uh… I forgot…” he said quietly.
Louise frowned, not buying it.
Louise and Rudy walked out of the restaurant after paying, “Well Rudy, you failed miserably.” He thought to himself.
As the couple walked side by side once again, they both glanced at the beach, the light from the moon providing a beautiful glow.
“Wow, that’s a pretty great view.” Louise thought out loud before turning to face her boyfriend “No wonder the restaurant is so expensive, they probably had to pay an arm and a leg to get a place this close to the beach, huh Rudy.”
“Yeah… it’s so beautiful…” Rudy said enamored. But unbeknownst to Louise, he wasn’t talking about the beach. Instead it was his girlfriend bathed in the moonlight that he was infatuated with. Rudy couldn’t hold himself back anymore, he knew how he felt and we wanted Louise to know it no matter what.
“Listen Louise.” He said, a rush of confidence flowing through him, “I lied earlier, I didn’t forget what I wanted to say, I was just too nervous.”
“Oh?” Louise said, caught off guard by his sudden serious demeanor, “Well, what was it?”
It was now or never…
“Louise, back when I first met you on that field trip all those years ago, I never thought that me and you would get along so well. Before I knew it, I was completely head over heels for you. You’re more than just beautiful, you’re an amazing person who helps anyone in need, you always included me in anything you did, not caring if my asthma would hold you back, and you would always try to make people happy.” Rudy gushed out, unable to contain the words coming out of his mouth, “I’ve always loved you, since the day we shared our first kiss on the playground. I couldn’t imagine being able to live my life without you beside me… so please…”
This was it. Rudy got down on one knee and produced the box, opening it to reveal a beautiful ring adorned with an emerald.
“Louise… will you marry me?” Rudy said softly, his heart beginning to beat hard again.
Rudy looked at his girlfriend’s face, surprised to see her hands at her mouth, tears beginning to well up in her eyes.
Before Rudy could say anything, he felt Louise tackle into him, lovingly embracing him while giving him a tender kiss.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment since the day we started dating!” Louise exclaimed overjoyed, “Yes! Of course I’ll marry you! I wouldn’t want to live without you either.”
Rudy smiled, beginning to tear up himself. He took the ring which he had managed to not drop after being tackled and slid it onto his fiancée’s finger.”
The pair stood up and looked at each other lovingly. They embraced each other once more.
“I love you Louise…” Rudy whispered “I want to spend the rest of my days with you.”
“I love you too Rudy…” Louise responded before sharing another deep kiss with her soon to be husband.
Epilogue
The day after getting proposed to, Louise decided to get her family together to break the news. Although just outright telling them would be boring, she decided to have a bit of fun with this.
She had arranged for everyone to meet for lunch at Big Bob’s diner, which had since been taken over by her dad. Obviously Bob and Linda were already there, her Sister Tina arrived with her Husband Zeke a few minutes after she had arrived with her brother Gene showing up not long after. The family sat at a table, Louise making sure to hide her ring.
“Hey Louise.” Tina said “It’s not often you bring us all together like this, what’s up?”
“Yeah, the last time you had news for all of us was when you told us Fischoeder had invested a bunch of money into your restaurant after it gained a cult following.” Bob said, “I still have no idea how you managed to make the restaurant so popular in less than a year.”
“Yeah, sadly there hasn’t been another investment. But I do have big news!” Louise said “I came to tell you all that Rudy is no longer my Boyfriend!”
A loud chorus of “WHAT?!?” Filled the restaurant, drawing the attention of some of the customers.”
“But you two were perfect for eachother! You were the living embodiment of a friends to lovers romance!” Tina exclaimed, “What the hell happened?!?”
Louise was laughing internally at her family’s reaction, but she tried her best to keep a straight face. “Yeah, he just couldn’t stay as my boyfriend after what he did yesterday.”
“What did he do?” Linda asked, a slight edge to her voice.
“Did he steal your secret snack collection? You do have one of those right?” Gene said.
Louise couldn’t keep the act up anymore as a grin appeared on her face.
“He gave me this.” She said, presenting her engagement ring for all to see, “So yeah, guess he’s my fiancée now, not my boyfriend.”
The reactions of the Belcher family were a sight to behold. Tina and Linda were both squealing while Gene immediately offered to provide entertainment for the wedding. Zeke simply congratulated Louise on her and Rudy’s achievement, and Bob couldn’t help but cry, his little girl truly was all grown up.