She nods. “Of course not. But I don’t know why he can’t just take her out to a nice dinner and pop the question. That’s how Ryan’s father proposed to me. I don’t know why people these days want all this attention on them.”
“I think Tina is going to love it.” I intentionally leave out the fact that Tina is planning the other half of this proposal. I’m not sure Marjorie could keep that big of a secret. “Tina loves big things like this, and Ryan loves that about her.”
Marjorie purses her lips. “A restaurant proposal doesn’t have to be boring. It could still be a special surprise. Could you talk him into putting the ring in a champagne glass?”
I exchange a look with Oliver. He smirks. “Why?” he asks. “So she can accidentally swallow it?”
I elbow him. “Then Ryan will be forced to wait until she goes to the bathroom to pop the question.”
“I can picture that,” Oliver says. “Tina on the toilet with Ryan down on one knee in front of her.”
“Look into the toilet, babe,” I say, doing my best impression of Ryan’s voice. “Will you marry me?”
We both laugh while Marjorie rubs her hand over her face like she doesn’t want anyone to know we’re with her.
“Sorry,” I say, pulling myself together. “A dinner proposal won’t work, anyway. Ryan already has this whole big thing planned out at the fair this weekend. Oliver and I just wanted to tell you about it because we thought you might want to be in the flash mob.”
She crosses her arms. “Fine. Yeah. I’ll be in the flash mob.”
“Great.” I tell her the details of the last practice. I’m sure we can get her up to speed quickly. Many other participants have joined late in the game, and it hasn’t been an issue so far. Lana has reminded us multiple times that the dance doesn’t need to be perfect.
“I have to go up and sing now,” she says. She gets up and heads for the stage, where her two friends are waiting for her. The couple that was singing before is leaving the stage. I watch as they head over to the bar.
“You know,” I say to Oliver, “I was thinking about something Lana said a few weeks ago.”
“What’s that?”
“She said that the instruments your students are playing might clash with the songs on the stereo.”
He shrugs. “It is a little hard to avoid one of them overpowering the other. Please don’t tell me you want to cancel the band.”
“Of course not,” I say. “I was just thinking that we could have hired someone to sing instead of having the songs playing on a stereo.”
“Why can’t we?” he asks.
“I put it off too long and now there’s not enough time. We would have to find someone on short notice, and then also expect them to be able to sing both of those songs perfectly in the arrangement we have set up.”
Oliver looks around. “Why not ask someone here? I’m sure most of the singers here are dying for a chance at a paid gig.”
Just as he says it, Marjorie and her friends start singing on stage. Oliver and I exchange a look, and then we both snort, laughing.
“Not her,” he says.
“I’m glad we’re on the same page,” I agree. “Can you imagine hiring Ryan’s mom to sing a proposal song to him?”
Oliver shudders. “I don’t even want to think about it.”
“But what about the couple that was on stage before them?” I suggest.
“They were nice,” he agrees. He points over my shoulder at the bar. “They’re sitting over there.”
I stand up. “Let’s go talk to them.”
* * *
There are too many people to fit in Lana’s studio, so we meet up at the high school football field instead. Oliver’s school gave us permission to bring everyone here when it became clear that Lana’s studio wasn’t going to work anymore. We have high school students, parents, improv actors and their friends, and others who have heard through the grapevine about what’s going on and decided to join in. Marjorie is here, too, and so are the two singers we hired the other day. They’ve been practicing the songs they’ll be singing this weekend. This is the last rehearsal before the state fair.
“I got Ryan out of here just in time,” Oliver says. “I told him there was going to be a fire drill. He just pulled out of the parking lot when all the other cars started pulling in.”
