To Follow you or To Lose you

Chapter 19: Twenty-four.

On the day of my twenty-fourth birthday Camila said she had prepared a big surprise for me. She bought identical T-shirts for us to wear, gave me the record of a German singer that I didn't know but somehow managed to love and, just when I thought there was nothing else, handcuffed our wrists.

"Today we'll be together all day" She laughed at my expression of bewilderment.

"What if we have to go to the bathroom?"

It's strange that my concern didn't focus on that horrible orange shirt I was wearing or the loss of freedom.

"Well, we'll go together." My girlfriend replied as if it was completely obvious.

And it was.

I decided not to argue with her anymore and leave the apartment like she asked. I didn't know where she was planning to take us, but I didn't ask her because I knew she wouldn't answer or I'd hate the place.

I'd rather risk it.

She didn't say anything when we had to go up to my apartment again to make me feel good, nor when we called three different taxis because to my mind the first option was never the right one.

Camila, to be honest, seemed to have fun with my madness. At the same time, I enjoyed hers.

Maybe this is why we were perfect together.

"Can you take us to the fair?" She kindly asked the driver of the vehicle, who smiled at us warmly as soon as we got into her car "I want to win a huge bear for her."

The driver nodded happily. I could see how delighted Camila's presence had left him, and I felt lucky to have her by my side.

I was sure she could've gotten any guy or girl in the world, but she had chosen me.

And I had chosen her.

"Most of those games are tricks," the man warned "so don't get sad if you don't win anything. I'm sure your girlfriend will be happy if you just try."

"And I'm sure I'll win."

The driver had been kind enough, but Camila looked really angry when she answered him. She ignored him the rest of the way, and I even had to hug her to calm her anger, which only vanished when we got out of the vehicle.

"I hate him" Camila told me with exasperation as we searched in that fair full of small children the plush bear that I liked the most.

"Why? He was kind enough, Camz."

"I know, but I hate it because it looks like everyone else," she huffed as she held our hands together. Apparently, the handcuffs weren't enough for either of us "He thinks it's impossible. He thinks I'll fail even before I've tried... He's like everyone else, because he's got his feet on the ground and I was born to fly."

For her this last sentence was completely literal.

"I like that one" I told her when I noticed a huge bear in one of the nearby stalls. I had to drop a pile of bottles on it, and I thought it was the easiest game to win.

I knew she wouldn't give up on making me happy, so I was trying to make her happy too.

Camila won three little bears before she got the one I wanted, and I swear her joy was much greater than mine. I called him Eclipse and Camila loved it. She said he was our son.

She also called the taxi driver to brag about her achievement and to tell him with some mockery that her pessimism hadn't affected her at all. He ended the call a little angry while we both laughed at his idiocy.