“Don’t laugh, okay?” I tried to hold a steady look, but a smile cracked through. “YouTube videos.”
“YouTube videos? Really?”
“Yeah. I had some free time on my hands, and I was tired of spending money on takeout. So, I learned how to cook. But this particular meal, I’ve been perfecting for a long time. There are so many variables, like different shapes of pasta, or if you salt the water, or what kind of cheese to use, that I’ve tried lots of them. It’s fun figuring out what works best.”
“You’re adorable, you know that?”
“No, tell me more.” I shot her a wink and loved how she visibly reacted, a shiver running over her body.
We flirted, kissed, and talked as I cooked dinner, and when it came to serve it, Renata couldn’t comprehend how I made something so good.
“I remember when you could barely make a peanut butter and jelly!” Ren laughed.
“I know. I sucked. I needed some basic life skills. YouTube taught me a lot.”
For dessert, I grabbed a chocolate cream pie from the market, and over a fire, we enjoyed a slice.
Since catching up with each other, it was like no time had passed at all, our friendship still there, just now coated in something special- love.
Later that night, as we laid in each other’s arms, exhausted and spent in the best way, I asked Renata to be my girl, officially.
She said yes.
Three days later,we celebrated Christmas, bringing our two families together for the first time in years. April arrived with her new boyfriend, Darryl, but we went easy on her considering she didn’t have any problems with Renata and me. The brother in me wanted to tease her, to question Darryl until he turned all red, but I behaved.
Mainly because Renata whisked me away shortly after dessert and gave me a blow job in the upstairs bathroom of her mother’s house. Scandalous and a bit dangerous…just my type of girl. I loved the woman more and more each day.
On New Year’s Eve, we went into the city to celebrate, an idea of Renata’s. We’d gone a couple of dates after leaving each other alone long enough to manage a meal together, but this was different. It was our first big night out and our first night away from town, just the two of us. We celebrated, club and bar hopping until well into the early hours of the morning, ate breakfast at a greasy spoon diner while shitfaced, and stumbled back to our hotel only to pass out and wake up very hungover the next day.
A month later, I moved into Renata’s cabin. I still hadn’t found anything I liked though truthfully, I had stopped looking. Since becoming official with Renata, I’d spent every night at her place, so why bother to keep searching for my own?
We fell into an easy life together like I knew we would. Being in love with someone I valued as a friend, as a person, as so much more, was better than I could’ve imagined.
The days slipped by and soon we were approaching the holidays again. It had a special spot in my heart now, the Christmas season, seeing as that’s when I finally confessed my feelings and made Renata mine. Now I wanted to take the next step. It was time to claim her and make her mine legally.
I wanted to marry Renata.
With every fiber of my being, I wanted her to be my wife, and I intended to make it happen.
A few weeks before Christmas, I invited April to go ring shopping. She could barely contain her excitement, but I made her swear to me she wouldn’t ruin the surprise. We shopped and shopped, finally settling on a pear-shaped diamond.
For weeks I couldn’t decide when to pop the question and make her mine when finally on Christmas Eve, I kneeled down in front of the tree, a fire flickering in the background, withHome Aloneplaying on the TV, I asked the most important question of my life.
“Renata, will you promise to love me forever and become my wife?”
She nodded, tears falling from her eyes like waterfalls, as she jumped into my arms and kissed my face over and over, our tears mixing.
“I love you so much, Zion.”
“I love you too. Always and forever.”
EPILOGUE
Renata
Two years later
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