Chapter 33

We were in Lily's room, unpacking her suitcases.

"Did you bring like, 80 bathing suits? I have unpacked so many now, I lost count", I said. She laughed. "I just bought a lot of new ones."

I threw them all on a pile. "You take care of those", I said. "Can't handle them?", she asked.

"No, they're all tied up into one big knot. I'm not doing that." She chuckled and grabbed the pile of bathing suits.

"Done", she said after a minute. "How? That looked more complicated than the world's hardest sudoku", I said. "I'm just great at puzzles."

"What is this?", I asked after a little while. I found a small bag with a type of box inside. "Nothing", she said as she snatched it from my hands. I dropped everything and turned to face her. "Lily.. what is it?", I asked again. "It's nothing. Can you just drop it, please?" I frowned. "Is it something weird?", I asked. "Weird as in what?" "Weird as in.. toys.." She laughed. "No, nothing like that", she said. "Then what's in there, that I can't see?" She sighed. "Why do you always have to ruin surprises?" "What do you mean?", I asked. She put down the clothes she was holding and sat on the edge of her bed. "Everytime I get you something, and I wanna keep it a secret to surprise you, you keep asking about it. You always practically force me to just tell you", she said. I smiled.

"You want to surprise me?", I asked sitting next to her. She nodded. "Yeah, but now it's ruined.. so here", she said handing me the box. I shook my head. "No, I don't want to ruin it. I'm sorry if it happens too much, I didn't realize." She smiled. "Just open it."

I did as she said and pulled out a small but beautiful necklace. I put the box down beside me and took a closer look to the necklace. It had two pendants on it. One was a small square with two small hearts in the top left corner and her name in the middle. The other pendant was a ring. It was silver with a few sparkly diamonds on it. On the inside of the ring was something engraved, a date. "Our date?", I asked. She nodded. "Do you like it?", she asked. I looked up at her and smiled like I'd never had before. "I love it. What did I do to deserve this?"

She took the necklace from me and put it around my neck.

"Remember when you said I didn't forgive you? When you thought I didn't trust you?" I nodded. "This is to show you that I do. I know what I said didn't really make up for it. I was hoping this might", she said. I hugged her tightly. "You didn't have to do this", I said as I cupped her face. "I wanted to. Plus, I rarely give you gifts like this and you do so, I kinda had to." I kissed her on the lips. "I love you, so much", I said. She smiled and kissed me again. "I love you too. And I know I don't say it much, but I hope you'll always know it."

I got up and quickly wiped away a tear. "Now don't get all sentimental with me", I said. She got up and brushed my hair behind my ear. "Sorry, I forgot you're not into that." I let out a deep breath and reached for the necklace. "Why is the ring on the necklace tho?" "I didn't know your ring size, so I just guessed. If you don't fit it, you can wear it around your neck. I mean, I can return it if you'd like, but I'll have to go back to Spain for that", she said. I shook my head. "That's fine. I want you here with me."

I pecked her lips and turned back to the suit case.

"Thank you", I said after a little while. "You're very welcome." I smiled at her and grabbed the final item from her suit case. "Well, well, well", I said as I held up a dark red, lace thong. She snatched it from my hands. "Another surprise?", I asked. "No, that's mine." I chuckled. "It would be a great surprise tho", I said with a smirk. "I'll keep that in mind." She winked and put away her stuff.