“Drop the phone Nina and back away.” Trevor’s voice echoed over the mall’s speakers, causing Nina to jump.
“Trev?” She looked around the food court. “Trev?”
“Just do it. Nina, do it now.” His urgent voice continued to bounce around the large room.
It took another few seconds of glancing around to see if she could spot him before she set her phone down on the table.
“Thank you!”
“Where are you?” Nina called out.
She was met with silence. And if she wasn’t in a public place she might have screamed his name. However, she was currently surrounded by a large crowd of strangers, so she was going to keep the screaming to a minimum if at all possible.
As she searched the faces around her, her frustration grew. Trevor was nowhere to be found. “How did he even get access to the speaker system?” She groaned.
When she turned to sit back down and finish her lunch she found him sitting there across from her. Plopping back in her seat, she laughed. “Hello my sneaky friend.”
He sat up with mock outrage on his face. “Sneaky? How could you call me sneaky?” He gestured around him. “I basically announced to the entire food court that I was here. And you knew it was me because you were calling my name.”
Kicking back in her chair she folded her arms. “Sneaky and bold. The oddest combination in a friend.”
“And the best.”
Nina shrugged. “I might reserve some judgment on that.”
“Aww why?” His face transformed once again to form a pout.
“My phone for a start.” She reached out her hand.
He laughed. “What phone?”
“You can’t give me that innocent look and honestly make me forget about it. I want my phone back, Trev.” She tried to look stern and not laugh at his antics.
“I am sure you do. However, I won’t be handing it over.”
All of the inclination for laughing vanished. “Say that again?”
Trevor laughed even harder. “Aww your face! You look hilarious.”
“And you still have my phone.”
“I need it, Nina.”
“Why? You sneak up behind me, steal my phone, and refuse to give it back. I’m beginning to not feel so happy to see you.”
“Don’t be like that.” He groaned. “I promise it’s a good thing. It’s a surprise.”
“A surprise that requires my phone?”
Apparently he didn’t catch the sarcasm. “Exactly. Now you get it.” He stood. “I’ll be right back.”
“Trev, no.”
He didn’t stop. She couldn’t gather up her things fast enough to chase after him. He was gone and out of sight as she moved to grab her purse.
With a groan, she sank back into her chair to pick at the rest of her cheese covered gourmet burrito. If he didn’t come back in the next 15 minutes she was going to leave and contemplate murder.
“Nina.”
Looking up, she saw Ian across the court. Immediately she was up and running over to him.
“Hey! I thought you had to work today.”
“I know I said that. Someday, in the grand scheme of things I hope you’ll forgive me.”
“Forgive you?” Nina took a step back.
“For telling you that I had to work so I couldn’t meet up for lunch when I didn’t actually have to work.” Ian shrugged.
“Why?” Nina hugged herself. People were definitely watching now. “And why are you telling me this here, with all of these people watching?”
“That’s another thing I hope you’ll forgive me for.”
Music blasted over the speakers causing Nina to jump. At the same time several people nearby jumped up and started dancing around the two of them.
Laughing she leaned into him, practically yelling in order to be heard. “It looks like we’ve been caught in the middle of a flash mob. I’ve never seen one live.” She twirled around once, a huge grin on her face. “I’ve always wanted to see one. Can we talk about you lying to me once this is done.”
Ian laughed. “Yes, definitely.”
Going to grab his hand she moved in to have him hold her while she watched but he wasn’t there. She looked sharply over to where he had stood only moments before but he gone.
“Ian?”
By this time even more dancers had joined in and somehow she had managed to stay in the middle of it.
“Ian!” She called out again. She even moved to stand on a chair to get a better view. Nina could see all the dancers so much better. So much so that she was momentarily distracted from finding Ian.
Caught up as she was in the music and the dancing she almost missed him. He was dancing. He knew she had seen him because he threw her a jaunty salute as he continued to prance around.
Then the song morphed into another and she clapped. It was one of her favorites. Ian must have had a hand in picking the music for this flash mob. Her smile widened even further.
Maybe this was why he had been lying to her. He wanted to get her here to see the flash mob he was in.
But why lie? He could have just come with her and started from wherever they had been eating.
In another minute the tempo slowed and morphed once again, now into a slow song. It almost seemed like one of those cheesy romance theme songs. Best flash mob ever!
She was momentarily distracted when she spotted Trevor holding up her phone like he was recording the dancing. But there was no way to get to him, as much as she wanted to tackle him and force him to give her her phone back.
All thoughts of Trevor disappeared completely when she realized Ian was standing right in front of her, not dancing. His smile said he was excited but his eyes looked nervous.
She didn’t understand why until all the dancers stopped in unison and he knelt down on one knee.
“Nina Octavia Florez, will you marry me?”
Gasping and looking around at all the flash mob dancers doing jazz hands in her direction had her near swooning. She looked back down at Ian. “Yes.” She squealed.
