It's Quiet Uptown

Chapter Forty-Two Part One: We're Engaged!

The Next Day

    It was a beautiful - but cold - Monday afternoon in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In the Centro de Bellas Artes, the hit show Hamilton was currently in Act One, singing its way through Satisfied.

    When one Renee Elise Goldsberry, playing Angelica Schuyler, held out her hand for Lin-Manuel Miranda, playing Alexander Hamilton, to kiss, she expected it to be a routine move. All she would have to do was look excited and resist the urge to giggle as his whiskers tickled her hand.

    Little did she know that the move would make her inner fangirl go catatonic.

    As she watched him take her hand, she saw a sparkle in the corner of her eye.

    Disbelief made her look twice. And sure enough, gleaming brightly on his left hand, was a silver band studded with a blue diamond the exact shade of Groff's eyes.

    Internal screaming ensued.

    When it came to her turn to sing, "Where's your family from?", she could barely repress the urge to scream her happiness to the world. 

    Somehow, she made it through the rap and The Story of Tonight (Reprise) before she made it offstage.

    Scaring almost every one of the ensemble and cast members that weren't needed for Wait For It, Renee proceeded to scream into the couch's pillows for a straight thirty seconds.

    "Renee, are you okay?"

    "Ohmygod, what's wrong?"

    "Renee?"

    "Did you hurt yourself?"

    "Do I need to tell Sabrina she's subbing for the rest of the show?"

    When she finally finished, she looked up, her eyes just glowing with glee. "Ooooh, you have no idea."

    Oak gasped as an idea hit him. "You broke your ankle?"

    Pippa screeched as an idea of her own hit her. "Is it....?"

    Renee gave her a look filled with reproach and excitement but held her silence. The whole group pestered her with questions, as it was obvious she wasn't hurt.

    "I can't say," she said finally. "But I can tell you it will have you all screaming."

    "Come on!"

"Tell us, Renee!"

Even Daveed got grumpy. "Uhh, you can't just scream and not tell us why."

"We're your best friends!" Thayne chimed in, pulling his best puppy dog face.

    But Renee held firm, shaking her head though her brown eyes sparkled with glee. "Nuh-uh. Not my secret to tell. But you guys will probably know soon!"

    Lin, who had been running back from the bathroom, heard the commotion and slowly blanched. He stared at his ring, trying to shove down the wave of glee and shock that the sight of it invoked every time he gazed at it. "She must've seen it during " he whispered. But his mouth firmed. "Well, I'm not taking it off. They'll know when we decide to tell them."

    A silly grin crossed his face as he went to the other wing for his Stay Alive entrance. "Oh my god, I'm getting married," he whispered in disbelief.

    "You bet you are," said a familiar voice.

    Lin whirled around and beamed, throwing himself into the arms of his fiance. "Groffsauce!"