Parachute [Book 4]

Chapter 2 - A Cup of Tea

Ryder and I were lying on the couch together that very night, six hours after we entered our apartment for the very first time.

After we had had sex on the couch and the bed (exactly like I offered), Ryder and I had started unpacking our things. We cleared out the boxes in the lounge room first before moving to the kitchen things and then the bedroom. Everything was almost in their places, besides my clothes, still piled up in a box at the end of our bed.

Our bed. I still got excited every time I referred to it as ours. Because it actually was ours. Everything in the whole apartment was ours, and it totally made me feel on top of the world. I never saw myself when I was growing up being with someone that I loved and sharing my whole life with them. It was something I never imagined for myself because I didn’t think I deserved to be loved like this.

But I did deserve it. Everyone deserved to be loved, and I knew that now. I didn’t back then, when I doubted myself too much.

The past didn’t matter anymore to me. It was all a bunch of sad events that led up to where I was now – crazy in love and happily married to the best husband in the whole entire world. Things may have been bad, but after the night the sun will always rise.

I must have been smiling, because Ryder looked down at me and raised his eyebrows questioningly. “You’re smiling? What about?” He asked quietly, smiling back down at me and brushing his lips over my forehead.

I dug my chin into his shoulder and looked up at him. “I was just thinking about you, and how we’re living together.” I wasn’t going to go into the detail about what I was thinking about, because saying it aloud was sure to make me cry.

Ryder let out a little laugh and tightened his arm around my shoulder, drumming his fingers against my arm. “That’s adorable.” He paused for a moment before leaning back to look me in the eye. “And I understand. I can’t stop thinking about this either.”

“I just still can’t believe it, Ryd. It feels like a dream. We got married, and we’re living together.” I shook my head in disbelief and let out a quiet sigh.

Ryder gasped quietly and pushed me off of him, sitting up. I sat up too and gazed at him, raising my eyebrow. “Marley, do you know what this means? Us living together? Us being married?” I shook my head, although a million (probably wrong) answers were running through my head. “This means… we’re official adults.”

I gasped too and put my hand on Ryder’s thigh again, my mouth hanging open slightly. “What should we do? Since we're adults?” I asked jokingly. I tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear and watched Ryder carefully as he thought – his face all scrunched up and his lips in a pout.

He looked down at my lap for a second before gazing up to the kitchen. “Adults drink tea!” He replied simply, standing up and walking past me to the kitchen, his leg brushing up against mine.

“Ryder, are you seriously going to make us tea?” I laughed, spinning around in my seat and wrapping my arms around myself.  Ryder was standing by the fridge and looking inside, and stayed there silently for a few seconds before slamming the fridge shut.

He shook his head. “Nah, I was going to make us hot chocolate because that’s what kids have and I don’t want to be an adult just yet, but then I realized that we don’t have milk or chocolate powder so…” Ryder shrugged and leaned against the side of the silver fridge, smiling over at me. “We have water and like, two old tea bags and a thing of sugar if you actually want tea, though.”

I looked down at my hands, catching the ring, and quickly back up at Ryder. My smile vanished slightly and as I looked back up at him, he looked at me sadly. He knew something was up and was about to ask when I began to talk again.