Guess That Is How I Know You

Chapter XXXIV

December 31, 2017

We had managed a smother year than the one before, and at least this year I did not have to spend the holidays drowning myself in sorrow and self-pity.

No, this time I had gotten to spend it with Cecilia, just the two of us. We had ditched our respective families and by the beginning of December I had convinced her to go on a sort of road trip.

Not really a road trip though, considering it only took us an hour to get to our getaway.

I did not often ask for any kind of favors from my father's family, although my mother knew all about my sexuality the same could not be said about them.

After his death I did not feel like I had much of a bond to his family anymore. I still talked with a couple of my cousins, and every now and then I would visit my grandparents, but that was about it.

I figured since everyone usually spent the holidays together, no one would be using the family's beach house and so I asked my grandmother for the keys so that I could spend the end of the year there.

I had not been back since before my father passed.

I remember the uneasy feeling I got back then, deep down I had a feeling that would be the last time I was there. Years later and I was glad to prove myself wrong.

The beach house had once been a huge farm, with horses going around every day and people working on all those different kinds of tractors. Now most of the land had been sold and all that was left was the big house, the pool and a few of the former workers' homes which my grandfather had given to them.

The place did not seem half as full anymore and only a couple could be seen as we crossed the faint blue gate and entered the dirt road that led to the main house.

Cecilia had been nagging me to know where I was taking her, and I had held on to the information up until the moment we crossed the gate.

"It is my family's beach house, my father's family's actually." She knew that was a sensible subject to me and I could see how surprised she was by the information.

"Stay in the car for a second, okay?" I said turning off the engine before leaving to greet the couple my grandmother had surely warned about my stay and send them on their way.

The last thing I needed was two of my grandfather's most loyal employees to snitch on me.

I wondered what Cecilia must had thought as she watched us from the car, while I made small talk long enough to not seem rude before telling them to let us to fend for ourselves.

Sure, enough the woman proudly told me she had fixed two of the bedrooms, one for myself and one for my friend before leaving with her husband.

"You ready?" I said opening the passenger's door to help her out.

"I'm a secret now?" She let out with a laugh as we gathered our things from the car to enter the house. It was an old but well conserved house. I could smell the wood foundation and furniture all over the place.

As we entered Cecilia took notice of the family pictures on the wall to our left, positioned right in front of the exaggerated large dining table which my dad and his father had made out from scratch.

"Wait, is that you?" Cecilia ran to an old picture of myself from when I was around six or seven and had just lost my front baby tooth, I was so annoyed at my father for wanting to take a picture of me in that moment.

I smiled to myself remembering that memory and thinking I should not have given him such a hard time.

"Yeah, that one too." I pointed to another picture, one of my father and myself in matching pink outfits, and realized I really had been a daddy's girl.

"You two seemed so close, why is it you never talk about him, love?" I knew she did not mean to trigger any bad feelings, but all the reasons why I had gone from daddy's little girl to absolutely distancing myself from him as a teenager came back to me.

"He was my hero up until the moment I realized he would never love me for who I was and who I ended up loving. After that I just decided to distance myself from him so it wouldn't hurt as much whenever I did decide to come out to him, just I never got the chance to do so before he passed. The truth is, I lost my father years before his death."

I do not think I had ever shed a tear about it before that moment.

She apologized for asking but I assured her I was glad to have been able to share it with her. She was someone I intended to share my life with, and I was glad I could share those moments and thoughts with her as well.

Once I was done reminiscing, we went on our way to one of the two rooms which were prepared for us. I joked about how we each got a room and Cecilia fell on the bed laughing after we had chosen the room with hot water in the bathroom.

"You think your grandparents would flip if they knew who I really was and what I intended to do with their granddaughter on this bed?" She said playfully yet seductively as she pulled me to fall on the bed with her.

"All I know is, I hope you are not restricting yourself to this bed, after all we do have the whole house to ourselves." I said straddling her.

"And the pool." She reminded me wrapping her arms around my waist, and I agreed, "And the pool."

It would not be long before the last day of the year got to an end and I intended on spending its final hours in the pool with my girlfriend as we watched the fireworks which would undoubtedly been displayed closer to the beach. For once, I would have my New Year's kiss.

Remi

I remember that night, it was just you and I in that pool, the fireworks going off over the both of us as we kissed, and all I could think was it didn't matter which direction the wind blew, we would always be together.