T E X T → snowbarry

irl 4.3

ONE WEEK LATER

SNOW

Barry and I left the house in a hurry and made it to the shopping mall to buy all our Christmas gifts.

Upon arrival, Barry stuck with me to the stores I walked into to help me buy presents. He, obviously, trailing off to search for his own.

Being the very prepared person I am, I made a list of all the people I'd get gifts for along with some preferences they gave me.

After some time, I had gotten to the last person on my list, Barry. We parted ways to buy our gifts for one another. I already had something in mind.

ALLEN

After Caitlin and I went our separate ways, I made my way to the jeweler.

Looking through the glass of engagement ring options, the woman behind the counter came up to me.

"Are you popping the question, this Christmas?" She said enthusiastically.

I looked up at her and smiled, "Yes, I am," I paused, reading her name tag, "Naomi."

"Well then, we have a wide variety of them. Choose one that speaks to you the most and we'll have you out of here with it lickety split!" Naomi said with a nod going back to her desk.

I took a deep breath and began the search for a ring perfect for Caitlin.

SNOW

I shuffled the bags of presents I had gotten between both hands as I grabbed the box from the pharmacy near the mall complex.

One week ago, Barry and I had sex completely unaware we used no protection. I put my hand on the box and sighed, taking it off the organized shelf.

I made my way back to the food court, the place where Barry and I finally agreed to meet. I waited by the McDonald's until he came. In the meantime, I fumbled with the box in the bag.

ALLEN

Looking through the glass, I found the perfect one. It wasn't too much for her taste but it was fancy.

I told Naomi about the chosen ring and her face lit up, "That one is my personal favorite! She must be such a very lucky girl!"

I smiled, "You have no idea how special she is to me."

She bagged it up quick, or as she would say it, "Lickety split".

As soon as I walked out, I made my way to the busy food court to find Caitlin. She was sat in front of the McDonald's on her phone and eating fries.

I approached her and she looked up with a smile, "Hi, Barry! Ready to go?"

Smiling, I nodded and took her hand, leaving the packed mall and back towards our apartment.

As we arrived, Caitlin set up a gift wrapping station and forced me to make some snacks. She held her portable speaker in hand and started to play Christmas songs.

We hummed to the tune of "Jingle Bell Rock" while I made sandwiches and she prepared some drinks.

Afterwards, I set the plates down and grabbed my bags of presents, most of them were hers. She sat across from me and we started wrapping our gifts.

I kept one gift out of view from her the entire time we sat there together and I noticed she did as well, but I couldn't quite see what it was.

SNOW

As I sat there on the carpet floor, I noticed Barry staring at my one of my presents that I haven't wrapped yet. He didn't say anything, luckily, knowing it was his gift. Which meant that it was supposed to be kept a secret.

Barry looked up at me and got up, "I'm headed to sleep, night."

"Night." I smiled softly and pulled out my gift for him as soon as he walked into the room.

I sighed, basically broken in two. I didn't know if I was ready to have a child or if Barry would take it smoothly.

I shook my head and cleared the thoughts out of my mind, shoving the box back into its bag. I hid it underneath the sink that's in the bathroom, hoping that Barry wouldn't find the gift hidden in there.

Rubbing my sleepy eyes, I walked into the bedroom to find Barry barely half-asleep.

"Hi, Cait." He said and I climbed into our bed and into his comforting arms.

"Hey, Barry." I sighed.

"Something wrong?" Barry asked me, catching onto my worries.

I looked up at him in the darkness of our room and smiled, "Absolutely nothing is wrong." I lied.

He believed me.