Emily and Samuel ✔️

TWENTY-FOUR

I'm so glad that I found you

Groaning, I squeezed my eyes tighter to force myself back to sleep instead of succumbing to my alarm ringing. Why didn't anybody switch off my alarms? Better yet, why is my phone blaring so loudly in a hospital?

As though the ringing wasn't bad enough, the tickling itch on my nose was slowly trailing towards my ear. It's crazy how uncomfortable the hospital gets once you feel that you're all recovered. And I guess I was beginning to outstay my welcome in the hospital because I honestly cannot wait for Dr Gabriel to bring the discharge papers over.

I love being around you

The infuriating singing carried on as though I've given it permission to carry on singing when all I wanted to do right now was throw my phone out the window and continue sleeping.

And it was like the lightbulb in my head flickered into a bright glow when I realised something. I never once changed my alarm's ringtone. It has always been Aerosmith because it was the only thing strong enough to pull me out of my slumber.

You make it easy

My eyes snapped open when my brain started to process the soft singing and strumming of a ukulele that sounded nothing like the Plain White T's coming from the foot of my bed.

To say that I was surprised wouldn't even be able to cover what I was feeling as my eyes widened at the sight of Samuel standing by my bed with a ukulele in his hands. With his eyes trained on me, he took a deep breath and continued the next verse.

It's easy as one, two, one, two, three four

But my eyes couldn't bring itself to stay on him because of the helium heart-shaped balloons hanging around in the room with little notes hanging on it. Noah who had been holding a feather – no doubt the reason behind the tickling on my face – when I first opened my eyes was now holding onto a big card that has the words 'Happy Valentine's Day' sprawled across.

The card has been decorated in such a way that it had made my heart flutter seeing Polaroid pictures of us as the border, the drawing of us in the middle just below the golden wordings on the top. Despite the piece of paper that has the word 'Belated' pasted in between the words Happy and Valentines, the card looked perfect and my heart swelled at the lengths he went to make this happen.

There's only one thing, two do, three words four you

Depositing the ukulele on the armchair, he walked over towards me in a fresh flannel shirt and a pair of jeans that fitted him snuggly whilst he continued singing. Staring into his sincere and loving green orbs, I couldn't believe I had been so insecure before to believe that he didn't love me enough or that he was leaving me behind.

As though sensing where my thoughts were headed towards to, he sent me his signature heart-stopping smile where the sides of his eyes crinkled a little before he bent down and retrieved a large bouquet of red roses.

I love you

Even though I knew the lyrics like the back of my hand, the way he sang it had taken me by surprise and left me breathless with my heart trying to escape the confines of my ribcage. It was illogical seeing as he had already said it to me back when we were in Ubbin Falls but it still managed to steal my breath away as though it was the first time he was confessing his love for me.