She’s sitting on top of one of the work stools, digging through another box of items, when I come in, and she looks up with a big smile. “Ready?”
“So ready, and then after...” I remote start my SUV with the fob so that it warms up while we open gifts. “I just heard there are some swans down on the pond. We should go see them.”
“Ooooh, I’ve only seen swans at the zoo. That’ll be fun!” Leticia’s excitement comes with a genuine smile.
Mom was right. Swans it is.I toss our coats over the hood of Mom’s SUV, and the ring box in my pocket makes an extra thump. My heartbeat goes a million miles a minute. Trying to play it cool, I look at Leticia, but she doesn’t seem to notice the sound.
“Who is opening their gift first?” Leticia suspiciously eyes the box I brought with me.
“Same time, on three?” I offer the fairest, in my eyes, option.
“Deal.” She pushes up from the shop stool, and I set her box on it before positioning myself in front of the box she put together for me.
“One.” She starts.
“Two.” I count with her.
“Three,” we say together and open the boxes.
My box is arranged nicely — a blanket, a pair of plaid pajamabottoms in the local hockey team’s colors, and a little card with three airplane-shaped paperclips on it.
I quickly disregard it to look at Leticia and watch her open her gift, only to find her doing the same thing, looking at me for my reaction.
“Maybe this wasn’t a good idea since clearly we’re both too interested in the other person and what they’re doing. You go first.” Leticia points to me.
I make a big deal of looking into the box, trying to figure out where to start. Picking up the paperclips, I smile wide. “I’ve been looking for these everywhere. They’re perfect for all my paper collating needs.”
Leticia giggles. “I couldn’t resist.”
I pull out the pajama pants next, holding them up and admiring how cool the pattern is. “How did you know I wear plaid pajama bottoms? Before we slept together?”
“You seemed like a plaid guy. Kinda quirky, open to tradition, but all about comfort.” She shrugs as I set them aside.
The blanket is pretty much the softest thing I’ve ever touched, and I pull it out of the box to find a second one underneath. “Two blankets?”
“Well, I had gotten one for each of us, but now I live here, so we could share.”
“No way.” I shake my head and nuzzle the super soft fabric. It’s white with ribbon microphones printed on it. “This is mine. I’m hogging this blanket. You can have your own.”
“Do you like it?” She laughs. “They’re old-school microphones from our very own podcast Late Nite Bytes.”
“Like?” I shake my head, pretending to be disgusted. But my smile cracks through. “I love my gifts. I just wish I had been as creative and as thoughtful as you.”
“Really?” Leticia laughs again as she starts pulling the cases and covers out of her box. “A bunch of blue covers? I don’t have hardly any blue. I love these.”
“Well, you can hardly be married to someone named Royal and not have a bunch of blue things.” I shrug. “I bought so many because I wasn’t sure I got the styles you liked. It was hard to tell from the camera angles.”
“They’re perfect.” She strokes a finger over a glossy one with silver stars embedded in it.
“You’re perfect.” I correct her. “Come on, let’s go see those swans before they decide it’s too cold and migrate south like the Canada geese cousins.”
Leticia sets down the computer cover but grabs a phone case. She changes out the current green one for the blue one before putting on her jacket and heading over to the warmed-up SUV.
61
LETICIA
THE ONE WITH THE RING
