Capturing Memories

°•°Chapter 59°•°

"I fell in love with her when we were together, then fell deeper in love with her in the years we were apart."

― Nicholas Sparks.

Zach's POV.

"Where is Chloe?" I ask confused, still not finding her around as I looked around the kitchen to find Eli, "And what are you doing here?"

"What? No hey, Eli, how are you? You only care about your girl," he rolls his eyes dramatically making me smile before checking my phone for any messages from Chloe, there's one.

Don't be a lazy ass, wake up, have something to eat, and get dressed. The surprise isn't going to wait all day.

Happy birthday and love you, idiot!

I let out a laugh reading her messages and leave a quick, 'okay' and 'love you' before looking up to Eli, "Happy birthday, jerk," he says flashing a smile and gives me a quick hug, "Thank you, Eli,"

"Here you go, some waffles and coffee. Have it and go get dressed cause Chloe is going to kill me if you're late, "Wow what the hell did she plan again?"

"It's called a surprise for a reason and I'm not telling you what it is," he shrugs making me sigh but with my smile never dropping, of course, Chloe is being a perfectionist, "Where's mom?"

"With Chloe," I raise an eyebrow before taking a bite into the blueberry waffles. It sucks not waking up to Chloe but again, she wouldn't leave me just like that unless it isn't something important and she always takes her surprises seriously. Snowy nudges my leg before lifting himself with two paws on my thigh as I ruffle his fur.

"Want some waffle as well, fella?" I tear a piece before giving it to him and well do I say, he's got good food choices as well. He wouldn't step anywhere near us while eating anything healthy which is rare but yeah we do eat salad sometimes.

Eli continues typing away on his laptop while raising an eyebrow at me, "You need to be faster, birthday boy," I roll my eyes before, chewing down my food quickly. Wow, aren't I supposed to relax on my birthday?

Now that mom is in on all the planning as well, I'm darn sure, this is going to be worth my patience. Molly, she's the only piece missing to complete my birthday and Chloe made perfect sense when she decided to postpone the whole thing to today as well, this way we get to spend time with her on my birthday.

My birthday which I didn't celebrate last two years, the first year because I chose to distance myself from her and the second year because I was too darn scared to face her without making something out of my career. I guess the two years only made us closer than create an awkward distance between us, and that is the only good thing, that we got out of the two years. We realized how intense our feelings were for each other.

~•~•~•

"I still don't get why I'm wearing something so formal. Why would Chloe pick this out for me? She knows me too well to surprise me with something fancy," I rant out confused while Eli just chuckled and gave me a look before concentrating on driving. I literally have a grey suit on and I'm dressed as I would be at one of dad's fancy parties.

It's honestly driving me crazy cause Chloe's surprise is already so confusing, "I'm calling her up," I say taking my phone and speed dialing her number. I breathe out patiently waiting for her to pick the call, "Hey,"

"Sugar, why the hell do I have a suit on? Don't tell me you're hosting a party!" I whine scrunching my nose at the thought of a formal party. That would be so wrong, and worse, why would Chloe who hates parties more than anyone, host one? Snowy puts a paw on my shoulder from the rear seat and I extend an arm, ruffling his ears.

"It's not a party, silly. Why would you even think of a party?" Chloe's laughter makes me relax, chuckling at how funny she found it, "So Eli doesn't tell me where we are headed and you drop no clue, am I supposed to be prepared to be dazzled by this surprise?"

"I don't know about dazzle but this surprise might sure leave you in the state of shock for a few minutes," I raise an eyebrow at her warning, "And after that, I'll still be in a state to give you my surprise?"

Asking her, I pat on the pocket on my suit, checking if I have the surprise in there, bingo! I didn't forget it, "Of course but seriously, it's your day of surprises, not mine,"

"Stop spoiling my excitement, Sugar!" I whine shaking my head with a smile, she just knew how to make me smile without even doing anything much, "Okay, now just drop the call so I can concentrate on making this surprise perfect cause I'm pretty sure that you guys will be here in two minutes or so,"

"Okay then, love you,"

"Love you too," with that she drops the call making me sigh, "You got lucky with her," Eli chuckles with a smile, "I sure did," I agree while locking my phone to a picture of Chloe and me.

Turning my head around a little, I notice Snowy resting his head on the open window frame as little rays of sunlight hit his face. I think we should take him on long rides more often, he seems to be enjoying them better than normal morning walks alone.

"We're here," Eli says and I look out of the car to find Dan waving at us, "Finally," I breathe out as Eli parks the car and get out, stretching my legs a bit before opening the door for Snowy to get out. I'm not sure if dogs evidently smile but his face looks way too happy right now.

"Come on, I'll take care of Snowy, you should follow Dan in," Eli ruffles Snowy's fur before setting the leash of on him and I shrug before following Dan into the rather huge government building. Wait, what?

"Where the hell are we and where is Chloe?" I ask Dan and he only gives me a smile before pointing in a direction, "Chloe?"

My jaw drops at the sight of her standing in an off white, floor-length dress looking stunning with a nervous smile, "Wow," I choke out the words, walking towards her as my mind started figuring out the very obvious possibility of this surprise.

"Want to get married, birthday boy?"

~•~•~•