chapter 21:
as adam is driving through town, rose moves the heavy bags of gifts from her lap to the backseat of the car.
"is it heavy?" asks adam. she nods before directing her attention to the buildings through the window.
the town his sisters live in looks very high-priced.
white, mint-green, lilac, and beige buildings follow rose's field of vision.
pink and orange cafes follow adam's field of vision.
he hears rose ask him what do his sisters' husbands do for a living.
"paul works in finance and theo works as a pilot" answers adam.
"makes sense" she mumbles.
adam looks at her before she tells him, "their neighborhood looks nice."
she stretches her body before adam giggles. "I don't like it." he shakes his head. "why?" she asks.
"it's too loud, where's the quiet?" he mumbles.
"when we get married, where will we live?" she shyly asks him.
he tilts his head to the side and says, "it's all your say, love. where do you want?"
he stops the car when an old man comes into view and motions for him to walk.
"I like my place but yours is nicer. it's big and your neighborhood has lots of pizza and burger shops" she chuckles.
he follows and chuckles loudly. "you want to move into my place?"
she nods. "dodo will love your balcony, it's bigger than mine" says rose before she continues, "we'll take dodo with us, you know that right?" she asks adam to make sure.
"of course, we will. are you crazy? dodo is like our child" says adam.
"you consider him your child?" she asks him with her eyes teary.
"of course, I do. we'll even put a swing for him in the balcony. what do you think?"
luckily for rose, they stop at the red-light, hence why she hugs him.
she nuzzles her face in the crook of his neck, muttering, "thank you, thank you. do you know how much this means to me?"
he tucks her hair behind her ears. "I want you to be happy, sweet girl. that's all I want for you."
when rose becomes silent, he asks, "what's wrong?" he toys with her fingers.
"I don't know how to act in front of new people, and these aren't any people, they're your family" admits rose.
"I promise you, you'll be fine, sweet girl."
"do you think we should have gotten flowers?" she asks, her tone worried.
"love, there's no need for that. we'll be fine. what we brought is enough. quit worrying."
he hears her sigh before she goes to fix the strands of hair across her face.
"ready?" asks adam before he presses on the doorbell.
he stands tall beside rose and hovers his arm over her body.
the sound of footsteps is heard before a beautiful-looking woman approaches adam and rose.
the woman looks older than adam and is wearing a purple dress, almost to her knees.
she smells of calvin klein perfumes and is wearing a dark-colored lipstick.
the corners of her lips tug up at the sight of her brother. "A.D!" his sister exclaims before throwing her arms around her brother to greet him.
