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LUKE
“You want to help me go though these boxes?” Kaci asked as she sat down on the living room floor.
“Yeah I can.” I knew damn well what was in all those boxes.
She slid one closer to me. Cutting the tape, I flipped the tabs open. The box was filled with memories. Every concert ticket, card, newspaper article, football button, and more was in this box.
“We don’t need to unpack that one. I’ll just get a tote to store all that stuff in.”
I rifled though the remints. A concert ticket caught my eye. “I forgot we went to this concert.”
She scooted closer to me peaking in the box. “Which one’s that?”
“Jason Aldean. What was it?” I flipped it over searching for a date. “Like eight years ago.”
“Oh my gosh I feel old!” Kaci went back to searching through the box. “Wait didn’t I get you that for our one-year anniversary?”
“Yeah you did. Fuck, that was a fun weekend. I totally forgot about it.”
Thinking back, I remembered everything. The first night we shared a bed together. I had to steal my dad’s ID so we could check into the hotel. I just pretended like he left it in my mom’s car when we headed that way.
“And that guy like wasn’t going to let us check in the hotel either! I still have no idea how we managed that.” Kaci started laughing as she popped open another box. “This one has all the gifts you ever gave me in it.”
I watched her face light up as she would sort through it holding up stuff she had forgotten about. She would smile like she was opening it up all over again. She was so damn adorable.
I couldn’t believe I had her all to myself again. That she agreed to share a home with me. Fuck if I didn’t want that ring on her left hand right now. But I knew I needed to wait. We needed to adjust to this living together first.
“Babe my necklace!”
“Which one?” I swear I had gotten the woman at least five over the years.
“My very first one.” She held it up for me to fasten it on her. It had both of our birthstones on it. I had given it to her on our one-year anniversary.
My fingers lingered on her neck once I had it fastened. “There you go baby.”
“Thanks.” Kaci leaned up and pressed her lips to mine before going back to the box.
We sat there reminiscing about the teddy bear I won her at the fair and the boots I got her for Christmas. About the bracelet that had our anniversary date, 09.02.10, engraved on it. Some things we struggled to remember what occasion they were gifted for. She had bags full of dried flower petals from the flowers I had gotten her over the years.
“Why did you save all those flowers Kac?”
She worked her bottom lip contemplating on telling me the real reason. “Well, I want the flower girls to throw these at our wedding.” Immediately she looked back down into the box.
“That sounds like a good plan.” I couldn’t help but smile.
Even the two years we spent engaged when I thought she wasn’t planning the wedding she was. She knew exactly what she wanted. I moved to the next box. Popping it open I saw it was filled with pictures upon pictures.
“Holy shit Kaci.”
“What?” She leaned back from the box with yet another stuffed animal in her hand.
“How in the fuck do we have this many pictures together?” I was baffled. There were albums, scrapbooks, and a shit ton of ones in the white envelopes.
“Eight years is a long time baby.” She grabbed an album out. “Just think of how many more we’ll have to add to these.”
I watched as she flipped through the album of pictures. She would point and ask if I remembered certain events we had taken the picture at. Or if I remembered how long ago we had done it.
I opened another album and started to flip through it. She seemed to have them somewhat in chronological order. The first picture was all of us at the back to school party when I really met Kaci. She was on my shoulders pushing my cheeks together. There was another one of us all sitting around the bonfire later that night.
“I can’t believe this was already nine and a half years ago.” I lifted the album so Kaci could see the pictures.
“I know it’s crazy. Crazy to think we’ve loved each other this long already.” She seemed to be in her own little world as she ran her fingers over the pictures. “Crazy to think we wasted all this time not being married. Not being together when we loved each other.”
“Yeah.” She was right. Everything she said was right. “I’m glad you decided to move in.”
“Me too.”
We kept flipping through all the pictures over the years. There were pictures of Drake and I on the football field. Pictures of Kaci cheering and playing volleyball. There were even pictures of us all floating the river and of us at the senior party.
A whole lifetime was in this box. I was looking forward to filling it with as many more memories as we could. I was looking forward to a whole life with Kaci.
