Actually, now that she thought about it, she pitied them more then her. And with a sigh, and the image of her strangling Richard pushed into her memory bank of what to do tomorrow, she banged her head against her desk.

"Something wrong?" Larry asked. He was leaning against the doorway, his suit jacket over his shoulder, very casual looking.

She raised her head. Looked at him, and gave him one of the rare smiles she reserved for only him. “Hi!”

“Hey sweetie.” Larry walked in front of her desk, sat down and gave her his attentive poker face. He knew that when she was like this, the only thing that he could do was to listen and shut-up.

She looked at him suspiciously, and then one of her crazy ideas came to her head. “This is perfect” Ally thought.

“How much do you love me Larry?” Ally asked sweetly.

“Oh! Do I love you?” Larry asked with a twinkle in his eyes. But he changed his mind about teasing Ally, because he didn’t want any harm on his ear. His woman sure can pinch.

“I love you like I love making sweet, slow love to you” Larry said with a seductive look.

She ignored him and continued on with her probing “HOW much am I worth to you?”

“Ally, what is it with these questions?” Larry asked. He was getting annoyed and frustrated now. All he wanted to do was go home and snuggle in bed with the love of his life.

“Oh all right” Ally said with an exasperated sigh. “Richard has this ingenious idea to have a fundraising dinner, and he wants to auction some of this lawyers off to make money”

“Oh! Really?” Larry said with a new interest. “Is Nelle going to be auction off?

Ally looked at Larry and gave him a glare, and tried to force a Ling growl out of her throat. But unfortunately the sound that came out was of a wounded kitten.

Larry looked at Ally, and burst out laughing. “Oh Ally.” he said. He got up and walked over to the other side of the desk. He picked her up, so that she was standing and gave her a hug.

“OOOWWWWWW!” Larry screamed. In the midst of his amusement over Ally’s “growl” he didn’t notice the dangerous look on her face. He sure did notice now, because she had his right ear pinched between two of her fingers.

“Sweetie, sweetie…oww, oww. I was just kidding.” Larry tried to reason with her. But Ally wasn’t a person to forgive and forget that easily.

“You just wait Larry Paul... wait until we get home”

Ally stood in the back of the stage. Ling had just gone out there. “How am I going to top her?!” Ally thought with a frustrated sign. The bid for Ling was up to 10,000 dollars now, and Ally can only imagine her ego stick rising straight up into the sky.

Ally had refused to wear a bikini. Richard had finally stopped begging her when John had commented that why didn’t Richard go up there himself wearing a Speedo. That had shut him up plenty.

Instead, she had gone shopping with Larry and picked out a beautiful evening gown. It was off white, and set off her natural colors.

She peeked behind the curtains, looking into the audience. Larry was nowhere in sight. Ally had made Larry promised that he would come and bid on her.

“Alright, Gentlemen, we have...” Richard tried to finish his speech signifying for Ally to come on stage, when he heard a women in the audience clear her throat as to say she disagreed with his opening.

“Well, err ummm...” Richard cleared his throat and started again.

“Alright, Gentemen and ladies. We have a treat for you. Our next auctionee, is one of the top lawyers working at Cage & Fish. She has kissed a woman! And had an orgasm while drinking coffee! Give it up for Ally McBeal.

Ally walked on to the stage, clearly embarrassed. Not only now will she strangle Richard, but she was also going to kill him!

She looked around the stage. “Where is Larry?” Ally muttered. He was nowhere in sight, and she was beginning to get nervous.

Just as she had predicted, most of the men in the audience were desperate looking men, who clearly had no love life.

“Okay, let’s start at 500!” Richard boomed from where he was standing on the side. The bidding went up to 1000 when out a deep southern voice yelled out “ 2,000 dollars”

Ally sharply turned her head to search for the high bidder. He was tall, with baby blue eyes, and a body that could turn solid chocolate into liquid.

Then she heard another voice that she knew very well “2,500.”

It was Larry, Ally realized. She looked around for him and found him at the doorway. He had just come in, and heard the latest bidder. He wasn’t going to let his girl go out with a complete stranger.

“10,000.” The mysterious blond yelled again. And Richard knew that this was to good to be true. And so he banged the gravel, and yelled, “SOLD!”

Ally was in the dressing room at the back of the stage, trying not to go crazy.

“Richard! RICHARD! Ughhhhhh, I can just kill him right NOW!” Ally screamed. She was losing her self-control, and she didn’t care.

“Wait, until I see him” Ally said out loud. “I’m gonna... uggggghhhh”

“I hope you’re not planning to voice those noises when you go out with your date” Larry smirked in the doorway.

Ally turned a full 90-degree and glared at him. This time her growl was a little louder, but it didn’t intimidate Larry the least.

“Ally” Larry said, trying not to lose his self-control and laugh, “don’t pinch my ear.”

“Ahhhhhhhhh! Larry! Aren’t you the least worried at all?” Ally said. “I’m going out on a date with a man!”

“Well, uhhh haha” Larry chuckled. “I just talked to him outside, and I hope that he was a man. Or else his touching my arm should have turn me on”

Ally had nothing to say anymore. “He obviously doesn’t care” Ally thought. He doesn’t care that his girlfriend is going out with somebody that isn’t him. She threw her hands up in the air, and flopped on the couch that was in the dressing room.

“Ally” Larry beginned. He sat on the couch next to her, and took her hands. “It’s nothing honey, why are you so upset? Do you realize that somebody just bid 10,000 dollars on you? Heck, all Nelle got was a 5,000 bid”

Ally looked at Larry and sniffled. He too sniffled, and sighed with relief when she cracked a little smile. Heck at least it was a smile.

“Larry, how come you didn’t bid more on me?” Ally asked childishly.

“Well” Larry smiled. “I just don’t have that kind of money”

Ally looked at him, and started to say something. But Larry took a finger and pressed it against her lips.

"I don’t have that kind of money” Larry repeated again, “Because I spent to much on your engagement ring”

“Wha…what?” Ally exclaimed with surprise.

Larry smiled at Ally and got down on his knee, leaving Ally to sit on the couch.

“Well, I was going to propose on the date tonight. But since I wasn’t the highest bidder, what better then now to claim you as mine?” Larry said with a grin.

“Ally McBeal, will you do me the honor of spending your life with an insignificant twit?” Larry proposed.

Ally looked at Larry, and beginned to cry. “Can we have insignificant twit children together?” Ally said through tears.

“Ummm...how about we have a princess that has your eyes, your smile, and best of all, your beauty?” Larry said.

“Then yes, I will marry you Mr. Paul”

With those words spoken, Larry slipped the ring on to Ally’s fingers and bought his lips to hers.

Ally couldn’t believe it, he had proposed, she was now his fiancée. The word just sent chills up her spine. And in a few months she will be his wife.

“I think I’m going to faint” Ally whispered.

“Are you okay?” Ally’s date asked her. He had gone looking for Ally, and found Larry and “his date” in the dressing room making out like teenagers.

He grimaced with pain. He had bid so high on her, because for one, he thought she was so stunningly beautiful, but the other reason was that he was told that she wasn’t going out with anyone. The host of the fundraising dinner, Richard, had told him that all of his lawyers were unattached.

All of them accept one.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine Gary” (Authors note: “yuck”)

Ally felt bad. She must be the worst date in the world. But she didn’t care, she was engaged, and wasn’t looking for a man.

“Um, yeah” Gary shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He had many women friends who just got recently engaged. And when they were away from their fiancé, they were the worst dinner date in the world.

“ I got to go, I hope I’m not being to rude.” Gary said. “I’m uhhhh a fan of you’re law firm, and was just trying to do a good thing, so that’s why I bided so high on you”

Ally looked at him and raised her left eyebrow.

He sighed and said. “Okay, the truth?”

Ally nodded her head for him to go on.

“I’m a man, and you know how we have to keep our ego and dignity intact. I obviously went to the auction to look for a date. But since you are obviously not single as I was led to believe, I don’t think I can be in your company any longer”

Ally was in shock. “A handsome guy like you can’t find a date?”

She was trying not to laugh, but it came out anyway.

Gary looked at her for a second, and joined her in laughing. “ She was so beautiful when she laughed.” He thought.

He was going to tell her that he changed his mind and wanted to know if she wanted to go grab a cup of coffee with him, but the ring of her cell phone interrupted him before he could speak.

“Hello” Ally happily said.

“Hi sweetie” a deep sultry voice said to her on the other line.

“Larry!” she exclaimed.

Gary realized that she was talking to her fiancé, and looked so happy and beautiful, that he took one of the napkins on the table and wrote her a note telling her that an emergency came up and that he had to leave.

As he walked out of the restaurant, leaving Ally happily talking on the phone, a single tear fell down his face.

He wondered if he was ever going to find somebody as special as Ally had found Larry.

“EEEEEEEEEEE!” Renee screamed over breakfast the next morning.

Ally had just shown her the hunk of rock that Larry had given to her. She honestly thought that Larry wasn’t going to do it. He after all in her mind, was a chicken of a man. What kind of person wrote a note to his girlfriend, attaching it to a snowman? But she didn’t dare tell that to Ally.

“I know, isn’t it beautiful” Ally gushed.

“I think I’m going to be sick” Renee replied. She literally meant it. The egg Ally had made her didn’t taste right.

“Oh gee Renee” Ally snapped. “This is one of the most significant milestone in my life, and you want to throw up. Honestly”

Renee looked at Ally, gave her an innocent smile, and got up to throw away the hideous eggs.

“So what happened on the date with the guy that won you at the auction?” Renee asked curiously.

“Gary? Oh, he took me out to dinner; we spent the entire time talking. He is really sweet, handsome, and very intelligent” Ally said dreamily. I swear Renee, if I hadn’t just gotten engaged, I would’ve wanted him to…”

Ally stopped her sentence when she saw the face that Renee was giving her.

“Renee? What’s wrong?” Ally asked with concern.

“Hmmmhhmmm” The clearing of a voice came from behind Ally. She turned around and saw Larry standing at the doorway, looking not to please.

“Hi sweetie!” Ally waved nervously. “ I thought you were on your to work?”

“I forgot my briefcase” Larry said not to brightly. “But I guess I also forgot my fiancée”

He went into their bedroom, and came out carrying two briefcases. His and Ally’s. “Let’s go sweetie, I’m going to walk you to work.

And with those words spoken, he pulled her up and walked her out the door.

Renee sat there clearly intrigued. “ I wish I had a man,” she said dully.

Ally walked next to Larry, well actually more like behind him. He had taken a hold of her hand and was walking her down the street like a little child who refused to go home from the candy shop.

She stopped and tugged at his arm. “Larry! Baby, calm down.” She looked at him and pouted her lips. That’s how you get the man you love to do what you want.

Larry looked at Ally; she has got to be kidding right?

He pulled her aside, because he noticed that they were blocking early morning walkers. They can get vicious at times. “Ally, you’re my fiancée and you were sitting there talking to Renee about another man!” he hissed.

Ally looked at Larry with an exasperated look.

“Larry, you know it was nothing. Besides whose ring am I wearing?” She waved her left in his face for emphasis.

Larry looked at Ally clearly not convinced. He opened his mouth to say something to her, when somebody ran right into him.

“Hey! Watch it buddy!” Larry turned around to look at his attacker and who else did he see but….

“Gary!” Ally exclaimed in surprise. “What are you doing here?”

Gary looked at her clearly confused. “Um, Ally this is a public street…I was kind of walking.”

“More like running into people” Larry said under his breath.

“Well…um…yeah…hehe. Haha! I knew that” Ally laughed nervously, she was always giggly around a handsome man. Well make that two.

Larry looked at Ally, clearly not happy about the scene before him. His fiancée was laughing nervously with another man. That only meant that she was uncomfortable, and whenever she was uncomfortable around a guy, it meant she was attracted to them.

“So when’s the wedding date?” Gary asked Larry and Ally.

Larry put his arms around Ally in a possessive way. “We haven’t thought about the date yet, but it will be soon.

All Ally did was nod happily at Larry, she liked this green eye monster that had come out of him.

“You should have a June wedding.” Gary gushed; I always wanted one when I was little. I dreamed of an outside wedding by the beach, with the band playing softly on the side. And the beautiful scent of flowers in the atmosphere.

Ally looked at Gary with surprise. “AHHHHHH! That’s what I dreamt of when I was little!”

20 minutes later…

Larry stood at the counter top of Starbucks, impatiently tapping his fingernails. He was waiting for his third cup of coffee. This time the order was a long, dark, mocha. He needed all the caffeine he could get.

He looked over his shoulders and sees that Ally and Gary were still talking. They had been sitting there talking about weddings for almost 10 hrs. now. Maybe 10 hrs was a little exaggerated, but it felt like it.

“What kind of little boy dreamt about his wedding?” Larry mumbled to himself and shook his head. The topic of flowers, cakes, and wedding decorations held no interest to him.

He could have left along time ago but Ally was really happy about the wedding and he was more then happy to make her happy, by listening to her plans. The other reason being that he didn’t want to leave Ally alone with Gary.

This was not a guy that could be taken lightly. “I can see right through him.” Larry muttered to himself.

A girl behind the counter signaled to Larry that his coffee was ready. He walked over and picked up his coffee. He walked back toward Ally and Gary and sat down.

He looked at Ally with eyebrows raised, she was holding Gary’s hand.

“I was uh…. ehem…reading Gary’s fortune” Ally tried to explain.

He begins to open his mouth to speak when his cell phone ring.

"Hey! Your pants are ringing!” Gary joked. Larry looked at him with disgust, but Ally just laughed.

“Ahem…hello? Yeah, yeah (sigh)…. okay I’ll be there.”

Larry got up and kissed Ally on the cheek. “That was Coretta,” he explained. “A client’s waiting for me, so I’ll see you at lunch?”

“Okay sweetie, bye!” Ally kissed him back and as if he wasn’t there any longer she turned back to Gary and they again fell into a conversation about possibly having doves at the ceremony.

Larry stood there shocked, and huffily left…he needed to have a talk with his fiancée.

To be continued...