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Tasha heard herself saying, "Yes, it is..." and then Russ was jerking the door open, and sweeping her into a tight embrace. He brushed his mouth against her neck, biting playfully, and murmured, "Your surprise is waiting for you, love. Now let's go!" He leaned back from her, and winked at her before he turned to introduce himself to the gal who was replacing Tasha. The lady was quite shocked, and Tasha saw a befuddled look in her eyes, so she quickly suggested it was time to lock up. She wondered briefly why her boss wasnt here to see her off, but she gathered it may be due to whatever surprise Russell was itching to get to.

Russ was nice enough to sign an autograph for the gal, and after they had locked up and were getting on the motorcycle Tasha could have sworn she saw envy in the woman's eyes. Tasha grinned to herself, and climbed on back behind Russell. She wrapped her arms around him, snuggling into that wonderful back. They took off down the road, and soon found themselves pulling up at Stubb's. There was a huge crowd of people thronging the smallish restaurant, and a huge banner had been hung over the main entrance that read, "Goodbye Natasha - we will miss you!"

She could feel a lump rising in her throat as she spotted Kristen and Jake standing under the banner. When Russell came to a stop, she practically flung herself off the bike, and ran to embrace her friends. Russell leaned back on the bike for a moment, watching her hug everyone and wipe the tears from her face.

When she turned to him, her dark eyes were shining with liquid emotion and she walked slowly to him. Those eyes were promising to do naughty things to him, and his grin was as wide as the state of Texas. He stepped off the bike, and she reached up to pull his face down to hers. As her mouth met his, they heard cheers from the crowd, and he impishly leaned her back to smooch on her neck with the cheers getting more and more raucous.

She clung to him, happier than she had ever been in her entire life. He pulled her back up to him, kissing her lips again and she sought his ear to whisper a fierce, "I love you, Russell." He pulled back to grin at her, and suggested they get inside so they could get down to partying. It was apparent the beer would be flowing freely tonight as they made their way inside with already nearly drunken friends.

So many people were there, they moved outside to the concert area. There was great food, lots of drink, and much talking and laughing. Tasha thought of the turns her life had taken, and was choked with emotion as she looked out on the sea of faces come to see her off. Kristen clung closely to her all evening, whispering how much she was going to miss her. They promised to keep in touch, with Tasha giving Kristen her cell number.

In all, the goodbye party lasted well over 4 hours and the finale was an impromptu performance by Russell and some of the other guys in the lower stage area. A couple of the other guys from the Grunts were there, and they took requests, playing their hearts out while laughing, drinking, and having some fun. Russell dedicated a new song to Tasha, saying he had written it specifically for her. Calling her 'the essence of his being,' he nearly broke into tears halfway through the song, making her realize how lucky she was to have such a wonderful guy in her life.

As it was beginning to wind down, the crowd of people dwindled until there was only a few left. It was about 2am, when Russ and Tasha headed out the door. They clung to one another, and she whispered naughty things in his ear with him becoming more interested in each prospect. It had been a very fulfilling and emotional evening, and Tasha wanted to show Russ just how much she appreciated his surprise.

They returned to her apartment, which they had both decided to keep since they would be coming back to Austin from time to time, and made love on the couch, clutching each other tightly. He then hopped up, and carried her to the bedroom, where they made love yet again. She was incoherent with with exhaustion by that time, and dropped off to a dead sleep with him stroking her hair and singing to her softly.