Kariana taught the class with barely enough breath for the whole class. After working on the computer printer for almost four hours, she was exhausted, yet relieved. After the class she was tidying things up, when Danny walked in.
"Hey, you off work?"
She looked up and smiled.
"Yeah."
"You wanna go for some dinner?" he asked. "My treat."
"With an offer so convincing, and over three hours of fixing printers, how could I refuse? Just let me freshen up."
"You look fine." Danny said.
Kariana smiled, pointed at a huge brown coffee stain on her white shirt, and shook her head. Danny smiled and escorted her out the door. If someone who didn't know them, were to see them together, they never would have guessed that they were engaged. It was obvious something was going on, but never that they were engaged.
Kariana went home, greeted Alanzo her new white kitten, and then changed into a dark red shirt, that matched her dark blue jean skirt. She applied a thin layer of light colored makeup, and was ready when Danny came and picked her up.
They arrived at the last place Kariana exspected.
"An apartment complex?" she asked, in sudden shock of the situation.
"Yeah. Oh, don't worry. I'll only be a minute. I want you to meet a few people." Danny escorted her to a door marked "104". He knocked, and a young woman, about Kariana's age opened the door.
"Danny!" she screamed, and wrapped her arms around his neck. With a kiss on Danny's cheek, the young woman led the two inside. The room was filled with people Kariana didn't know. She felt uncomfortable and out of place. Danny was greeted by everyone, Kariana left standing in the kitchen.
"Oh, Kari! I want you to meet...my sister." Danny led the woman that had opened the door into the kitchen.
"Toni, this is Kariana. Kari, this is Toni, my younger sister."
"Actually Kariana, he's only older than me by a few minutes." Toni said smiling.
"Danny, I never knew you had a twin!" Kariana said.
"Well, she's not exsactly my twin. She's my unidentical twin." Danny said.
"Same difference." Toni and Kariana said in unison. The three laughed, and had a great time celebrating Danny and Kariana's engagment.
As Danny drove Kariana home, they talked.
"I hope you didn't mind the suprise. You told me about two years ago, that you'd always wanted an engagment party. So, I decided that we'd have an engagment party. I hope you didn't mind."
Kariana was silent. She didn't know what she felt. She was grateful for Danny thinking of her, but there were two things bugging her.
"You okay?" Danny asked, parking the car.
Kariana, not wanting to start crying, smiled her thanks said goodnight and got out of the car. Danny did the same.
"What's wrong?" he asked pulling her aside. Kariana couldn't speak, for fear of letting her sudden tears escape.
"Is it something I did?" Danny asked. Kariana shook her head. Tears rolling from her eyes.
"I was just overwhelmed at how I was imediatly accepted into your family. Not that that's a bad thing, I really enjoyed it. But it just wasn't the same without my family there. It reminded me of the times my mom would tell me stories of her wedding party, and how she'd promised to come to my wedding party. Of course she didn't know what would happen to her, but I still wished that my family could have been there. I felt welcome in your family, yes. I've never felt more welcome, but my family is what was missing. Escpecialy my sister. She'd always tell me how she'd suprise me on my engagement party and arive when I'd least expect it. And I told her that it wasn't a suprise wince she'd told me already. But she insisted that she'd suprise me somehow. That's realy all that's troubling me. A few broken promises." Kariana said, sniffling. Danny nodded his head, and pulled her close. Another wave of emotion swept over her, and another sea of tears flew out her eyes and down her cheeks. Danny held her softly, as her feelings flowed through her tears. After a few minutes Kari backed away, and wiped the tears from her eyes.
"Kari, I love you. And I'll always be here for you. That's one promise you can count on. Remember that." Kariana smiled through her tears. They shared one last embrace before Kariana walked up the small flight of stairs to her apartment. She watched through the window as Danny got in his car, and drove off. She went to her room and saw a small, wrapped gift on her bed. She picked it up and sat on the bed. She read the note out loud.
"I promised you along time ago, that I would suprise you on your engagment pary night. Here is my gift to you. Mom said to give this to you on your big day, so that you'd always remember her.
Your loving sister."
Kariana opened the small gift, and inside was a a black velvet box. She opened it, and inside was a gold locket. Inside the locket was a picture of her mom and dad. Another note was in the box.
"Mom promised to be there on the big night, and now she is. And she brought dad to." Kariana said through tears.
Her family had kept their promise after all.