[ thirty three ]
We had dinner on the terrace, which was the Christmas dinner my mom was going to cook for everyone, further confirming that she had used her supposed lack of ingredients to get me out of the house. James and I ate by candle light and had a nice conversation, and I was wearing the engagement ring around my finger for the first time.
The only thing that ruined my happiness was thinking that Giselle had one too and that James was currently still engaged. But my happiness was greater and I pushed the negative thoughts out of my mind.
Our parents arrived just minutes before midnight, and we made our way down the stairs of the terrace to greet them. My mother smiled when she saw me, she had been a big part in making the dream a reality. "How was it?" She asked us, looking from me to James. But I was sure she had her answer when she saw his arm around my waist, as well as the smiles on both of our faces.
The smile broke out onto my face in a second. I jumped towards her with excitement, showing her the ring around my finger, "We're getting married!"
Mrs. Rodriguez was the one to hug me next. "Welcome to the family, Arista!"
"Thank you, Maria." I hugged her back.
The next ones to congratulate me were my dad and James' dad. Our families were happy to see us together after so long because they knew, they could see it, that we truly loved each other. There were merely a few obstacles we needed to get over in order to finally be together again.
And the presents continued to come from James.
At midnight, my parents got me some gift cards to go shopping wherever I wanted. I got my dad a watch and my mother a nice necklace. Since I had gone shopping before getting back together with James, I had nothing for him, which made me feel bad because he had gotten me even more gifts than just the engagement ring.
The first was an envelope which he had me open in front of our parents. Inside were four plane tickets; two from Bogota to Cartagena, and the other two from Cartagena to Medellin. It seemed as though he had been planing all of this for a while rather than it being a spur of the moment thing. In addition to the plane tickets, there were hotel reservations at very nice places, and last he handed me a box which I opened to reveal a digital picture frame.
When I got it out of its box and turned it on, there was already a slideshow saved on it. There were pictures of us over the years, starting from when we were small children. And the last picture was one we took in Madrid, before going to dinner.
Since then we hadn't taken many pictures, but I was sure we would make many new memories together.
My eyes watered as each picture was shown. We were so happy before, and I wanted that same happiness again. James wrapped an arm around my shoulders and nuzzled his face into my hair, saying soothingly, "Don't cry, bonita. We're together now and I won't let anything or anyone come between us."
Laughing slightly through my tears, I said, "I'm also crying because you went all out to surprise me and I got nothing. How pathetic is that?"
"All I want from you is love." He reassured me.
"That I can give you." I nodded.
And my mom snapped a picture of us, I only noticed because I saw the flash come off her cellphone. "Another one to add to the photo album." She smiled at us.
"There will be plenty more." James grinned.
-
Four more were the blissful days I spent with James in our little paradise called home. On the morning of the twenty ninth, he got up very early because his flight would be leaving early. He wanted to get it all over with.
I went to the airport to watch him go, and there was an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach.
It was like something wasn't right.
"When I come back everything will be better." He promised as he gave me a final kiss on the lips. My hands held his in mine and as he tried to back away I refused to let go for a moment. I didn't trust Giselle, she had gone to extreme lengths to get me fired from my internship, and I knew I could only expect bad things when it came to her.
Maybe she would try to take James, prevent him from coming back to me. But he had made a promise and I believed him.
Still, when he left that morning, I felt like things were going to change for us.
-
i know this one is super short, much shorter than my usual posts. but i promise if im not super out of it, i will post another update for you all. TONIGHT IM GOING TO A BAR WITH MY UNIVERISTY FRIENDS. bc we didnt get to party all summer bc our university jobs. but this is the last week so we are gonna get wastedddd. okay maybe not wasted, but we're gonna have a few drinks.
and tomorrow we're gonna have a pizza and beer night. so that's exciting, really looking forward to it because i have only gotten drunk once in my life, and that was when i was seventeen. oops. bad example. dont drink people.
haha. thank you for reading.
i love you.
-clary xx
