Page 83 of Promising You
“I’m afraid to. What are you doing?”
“You don’t trust me? That hurts, Jade.” He’s kidding, but I play along.
“I’m sorry. I totally trust you. My eyes are closed.”
“Now open your mouth.”
“Why? What are you feeding me? Is it green? Because I don’t eat green foods.”
He’s laughing again. “It’s not green. God, I swear you’re the worst person to surprise. You need to relax and just go with it.”
I open my mouth and he puts a small square of something in it. Chocolate. The creamiest, richest chocolate I’ve ever tasted.
“Good, right?”
I open my eyes and see him sitting in the chair next to me, unwrapping his own piece of chocolate.
“Really good. Where did you get these?”
“They’re from Belgium, from a really small store in Brussels. My dad was there a few years ago for business and he brought a box of these back. I’d never had chocolate that tasted that good. I thought you might like it so I ordered some.”
“This is definitely the best chocolate I’ve ever had.”
“Try this.” He holds up a tray of chocolate-covered strawberries.
I take a bite of a ripe, sweet strawberry dipped in that same Belgian chocolate.
“Those are so good. I need to have another.”
He hands me a strawberry. “I just realized I’m being a total cliché. The guy who buys his girlfriend chocolate and flowers for Valentine’s Day and takes her to a fancy hotel. Is that lame?”
“It’s not lame. I love it. This is my first Valentine’s Day. I want all the clichés.”
“Well, next year I’ll do something completely different.”
“So no flowers and chocolate? Because I kind of like those things, especially the chocolate.”
“I agree. The chocolate must remain. But the rest will be different.”
“You know you didn’t have to do all this. The flowers in my room would have been enough.”
He slips his hand into mine and says simply, “I had to show you the ocean.”
We sit there quietly, the cool night air washing over us. It’s times like this that I have to remind myself that this isn’t a dream. That it’s really happening to me. I don’t know how or why, but for some reason I got lucky and finally got something good in my life.
“I love you, Garret.”
He gets off his chair and comes over to kiss me. “I love you, too.” He offers his hand to help me up. “Let’s go inside. It’s getting cold.”
The room is much warmer and I peel off my sweater and plop down on the comfy couch.
Garret hands me the room service menu. “I thought we’d order in tonight, unless you want to go out. But there aren’t many restaurants in this town.”
I glance over the menu quick, then set it aside. “I’ll just eat chocolate for dinner.”
He picks the menu back up, forcing me to take it. “You need real food. You can’t just eat chocolate.”
“Why? Do I need to fuel up for something?” I smile as I crawl across the couch and onto his lap.
