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How many more lies will I believe?
“I bought you something.” Maybe if I ignore this long enough, it’ll go away.
Maybe if she really learns to love me, she’ll forgive me.
“You’re just trying to distract me from the fact that we’re dropping in altitude, aren’t you?” She bites her lip and looks out the window. “Tavi.”
She plays absentmindedly with her wedding band, twirling it on and off her finger. I watch as she tugs it off and spins it, then slides it on again.
I don’t like her taking it off.
“Didn’t even notice the drop in altitude. Hey, we’re almost here. Focus on me, now.”
Ah, she’s focused on me alright. Her fingers are digging into my palms again as if to anchor herself. I reach into my pocket and pull out a small, wrapped box. Orlando and Romeo both pulled me aside on two separate occasions, and both told me to prioritize getting her a gift. Elise likes beautiful things. It was easier finding the perfect gift than I thought.
“Oh, Tavi, I didn’t know you knew how to wrap gifts,” she says with a teasing lilt in her voice.
I shrug, and she laughs out loud. “Someone else wrapped it for you, then?”
“Maybe.” I shrug. “Just open it.”
“Alright, alright, Mr. Impatient,” she says, but I can tell by the way her eyes shine she’s excited about this. “I do feel badly I didn’t get you anything, though.”
“I told you not to,” I remind her. “And I meant it. If you dared, you would’ve been in big trouble.”
“Oh, that’s fair.” She snorts.
“One hundred percent.” I reach my hand out to her. I feel like I’m betraying her, like I’m buttering her up so she forgives me when the truth outs. I stroke her back. “You’re my gift.”
But I mean everything I say.
I watch the way she bites her lip before she slips her finger under the foil-wrapped paper. I thought long and hard before I bought this for her, and when I saw it I knew it was exactly what I needed.
“Did you have someone buy it for you?” she asks, not meeting my eyes.
“No, babe. Picked this out myself.”
“Well done,” she says with a soft smile. Her eyes have grown tired. It’s been a long day. But she can’t hide the way she lights up at the prospect of a gift.
A champagne-colored velvet box sits in the palm of her hand. “No one’s ever bought something for me like this before,” she whispers.
“How do you know? What if it’s nothing?”
She doesn’t know, though, that the little box in her hand is only a distraction. It isn’t the only gift I’ve gotten for her, nor the most important one.
“Oh. My. God,” she gasps when she opens the box to reveal the delicate diamond tennis bracelet. It glitters like diamonds. “Tavi. This looks just like the one that… no, wait.” Her eyes widen and she pales when she looks at me. Yup. Orlando’s advice to buy this one, suggested by Angelina of course, was spot on. “Tavi, it isn’t.”
It is, the very same that was displayed in Boston at the Museum of Fine Arts. The one-of-a-kind bracelet’s handmade, a work of art, pink pearls studded with glittering diamonds, all set in a delicate gold chain.
“There, now you won’t have to get jealous of Angelina’s necklace.”
I saw her gawking at then fawning over Angelina’s necklace Orlando bought, which prompted Angelina telling Orlando to tell me to buy something that would wow her.
She reaches into the box gingerly and extracts it. “This is a lot nicer than that thick gold band you used to make me wear,” she says with mock reproach.
“Mhm. My sentiments exactly. Here, let me.”
She offers me her bare, slender wrist. I clip the bracelet on with a swell of pride. It’s gorgeous, twinkling in the overhead light.
“Thank you,” she whispers.
“There’s more. Wait.”
I pull out my phone to show her the video feed of her store in Boston.
“What is it?” Her brows draw together. “You’re showing me footage of the store? Ugh. I’ll have to have Angelina look in on it when I’m gone.”
“Santo will, too. But look. Do you remember the vacant lot behind the main location?”
“Yes, of course.”
I swipe my phone to the left, revealing a panorama of the expanse behind it. “Voilà. It’s all yours.”
She stares for long moments, as if she can’t truly comprehend this. “The… the what? What do you mean?”
“You had this area here,” I explain patiently, smoothing my finger over the rough patches. “And now you have this. You said you wanted to do more than you had, expand to include more than what we have the room for here. So I bought that area as well. It’s yours.”
“Tavi.” Her eyes well with tears. “I… I can’t believe you did this.”
She likes it. My heart swells with the knowledge that I pleased her. Maybe we can make this new chapter of our lives mean something.
