“Especially if we bet on it.”
“I like that idea, but you know your Oilers are gonna lose anyway, so you may as well just admit defeat now.”
She thumped him playfully, “I don’t know if I want to sit with a smelly Leafs fan,” she told him folding her arms across her chest.
“Well, that’s a good thing, since they’re my tickets and I get to choose who comes with me!” he joked.
“My name is on the plane ticket,” she retorted as he stopped her with a kiss.
“What about box number five?”
And I thought you were panicking earlier. You’re totally freaking out right now, Lis. What has your panties in a bunch…
Shit. Had to mention the panties, didn’t you?
He opened box number five. Sitting on top of the tissue paper, lay a book. The cover of the book was a collage of pictures of the two of them. He smiled widely as he lifted the book out of the box.
“What is it?” he asked her, unsure.
“Well, it’s a book.” She began.
No shit, I can see that much. Smart ass.
“It started off with me just writing a dream I once had about you, and it grew. I tried to stop writing it, but it just kept coming and plaguing me. I just kept writing until I couldn’t write anymore.”
“What’s it about, babe?” he asked her as he traced his fingers over the cover of the book.
“It’s our story, AJ. You write songs. I wrote a book. It’s about us,” she told him. His eyes met hers and he opened the back cover to flick through the pages and said, “Hey – why the blank pages?”
“Because the ending hasn’t been written yet!” she told him matter-of-factly, as he came across the last page, which read: “To be continued…”
As AJ flicked through the book, he was way too overwhelmed to speak.
“This has been the best birthday ever,” he managed as he struggled with the words. His eyes were filling with tears.
She smiled at him, “I love you,” she whispered.
“I love you too,” he told her softly as he turned to the start of the book. The dedication page read:
To my darling AJ,
I want to be the first person you talk to every single day for the rest of your life and the last person you talk to at night before you sleep. I want you to play with my hair, rub my shoulders, argue hockey with me, and kiss me – just because.
Our journey won’t be easy, but the best things aren’t supposed to be.
I’m game if you are.
I hope this makes you smile to read, as much as I smiled while writing it.
For all the times you made me smile without trying, for all that’s behind us and all that’s yet to come.
Your puck-bunny,
Lisa.
AJ smiled at her, not bothering to fight the tears. In that moment, as their eyes met, he had never been surer that he really had found his soulmate. Now he just needed to figure out a way to keep her.
