I woke up to Daniels soft snores and hot breath against my neck. He was still sound asleep with no worries at mind. I carefully released myself from his embrace and went to brush my teeth – I don't care what he says I still feel like I'm supposed to be this put together version of myself all the time. Since everyone was still asleep, I decided to go for a short walk, but before I left, I decided to write a note telling them where I had gone so they wouldn't worry.
The views that surrounded our hotel were beautiful and it didn't feel weird walking alone without looking at my phone every few minutes. While I was walking, I came across this beautiful café and decided to get some iced coffee and head back because I had been on this leisurely stroll for a whole hour. I was a good 10 minutes away when I got a call from my mom:
"Hi honey, how's the trip going?" She asked with a bit of a shacky voice. "Hey mom, not bad – it's actually going pretty well. Are you okay? It sounds like something bad happened." I asked concerned. Hopefully everything is fine. "Well, I have some news and I don't know how to tell you." Now I was really worried. This kind of took me by surprise so I decided to sit down. "Sweetie, you have to come home." "Why, what happened?" My hands were shaking, maybe it's not that bad. "Your grandma passed away last night, and the funeral is in 3 days." I couldn't say anything, I just sat there like the whole world froze. "Okay, I'll get on a plane as soon as possible." I said in a quiet and shacky voice. "We'll be waiting, see you soon, be careful." She just said calmly, guess that's where I got the rational thinking from.
As I hung up the phone I started slowly walking back home. Since I was little, I learned to control my emotions, so this was a time like no other – I was feeling like dying yet on the outside it looked like nothing had happened. While walking back I looked up flights and booked the earliest one I found – sadly that was at 2 am tonight.
I decided that I'll spend the rest of the day here as happily as I can. I remembered that grandma told me to not come back from Italy until I visited Maiori. That's where her and grandpa had their first kiss. She told me that story a thousand times. They were walking through a tunnel and the sun was setting, grandpa had told her to hold her breath and think of a wish. After they came out of the tunnel he said, "Now that wish will come true" and as he said those words, she kissed him and whispered, "It already did." I don't know if I'll ever have a story as beautiful as theirs but when she showed me the pictures of Maiori I knew that seeing that beautiful town is going to be an amazing tale all on its own.
I opened the door, and they were still asleep. So, I started packing, I still didn't know if I was going to tell them. I know it sounds stupid, but I have to deal with it myself before telling anyone else. I got ready so I knew what to pack away, I put this on since I knew I'd be wearing these clothes on the flight:
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By the time I was done packing Daniel was slowly coming back to reality. His eyes fluttered open "Good morning beautiful" he said with a smile. I took a mental picture of this moment right here, because I knew that that was probably the last time I'll see him like this. "Morning sleepyhead how was your slumber?" he propped himself up and patted the place that was now cold since I had left it a long time ago. I sat down next to him and buried my head in his chest "Well I slept great, had a dream about this girl" hope that girl is me, if not this is going to go a whole different way "She was standing with her back to me, and we were looking out into the ocean. But right about when she was going to turn around, I woke up." Well at least there's a possibility that it's me. "Really, hope someday you find her." I say with a wink and get up "Get up. We have somewhere to be today." He slightly laughs and asks, "What about those two?" he points to Molly and Christian who are still sleeping. So, I decided to wake them up. I jumped on the bend and started screaming "Wake up!!!!"
After a good 2 minutes of that they were finally awake. "What the hell?" Molly shot up and pulled me down. "You guys need to get up I'm taking you to see a special place." I say and Molly looks at me already knowing where it is. She heard the first kiss story more than enough times to know that I had to see it. "But weren't we planning on going later in the week?" she asks. Of course, we were but that plan changed like most of what we planned for this trip. "Yeah, but I just can't wait." I try to cover up. "Me neither" Molly agrees.
Everyone got ready and we were out the door and on our way to the train station....
