“Achilles, do you want salmon for dinner tonight? They’re having a sale today.”
“…”
“It looks like it’s still in pretty good quality, so maybe we can have it simply grilled with some pepper and lemons. What do you think?”
“…”
“Achilles?”
“…”
Jane spun around with two packages of salmon in her hand with a huff, “Achilles, stop sulking and help me pick one! I don’t want Liam to be able to find any reason to avoid eating his fish again.”
I begrudgingly walked up to her and randomly plucked one of the packages out of her hand, tossing it into the cart. “I still don’t understand why we have to grocery shop in person. We could’ve ordered online for it to be delivered and stayed in bed longer.”
She rolled her eyes and tugged me along by my arm. “You shouldn’t rely so much on delivery. And cuddling in bed isn’t the only way to spend quality time together. I like going grocery shopping with you. I get to learn about what you like and don’t like to eat.”
“You could’ve just asked me instead…”
Ignoring my grumbles, she continued, “Let’s go find Liam and check out. Then we can walk around downtown to see the Christmas lights. It’s always very pretty, and I want to see it with you before you leave.”
I sighed and reluctantly nodded in agreement.
I had only started officially living with Jane two days ago, and I already had to go out of the country for more than a week starting tomorrow and wouldn’t be back until the day before Christmas Eve. I wanted to spend more time settling down together, but I couldn’t postpone my trip any further.
All my overseas shipments were a complete mess, and Joseph suspected that it might’ve been caused by some sort of embezzlement among the higher-ups, so I had to personally weed them out as the only one who had the power to stand above them.
Just the thought of leaving my angels for such a bothersome reason made me irritated. Whoever was responsible for creating this issue will definitely soon receive the brunt of my anger.
Pulling me out of my thoughts, I felt a light squeeze on my fingers, making me turn my attention to Jane. She was staring at a row of premium ruby-red strawberries, but it was obvious that the cogs in her were churning away at its marked-up price.
“Just get them, Jane. I know you like strawberries.” I reached over her shoulder and plucked a couple of boxes of the reddest ones, tossing them into our cart despite her protests.
“But, Achilles… It is too expensive… It’s forty dollars for six strawberries… I can just get the-”
I cut her off by pushing her away from the shelf, not giving her a chance to put them back. “Love, did you forget that your fiance is a billionaire? The wealthiest man in the country? You could eat these every day for every meal, and you wouldn’t even put a dent in my account.”
Her cheeks flushed in embarrassment. “I… uh… It’s just that… I, um…”
I chuckled and pecked her lips, unable to hold back after seeing such an adorably flustered expression. “No but’s, love. It’s the least I could do for leaving you alone on our first holiday season together.”
She nodded quietly as she scanned across the aisles in search of a certain little boy, trying to avoid my gaze.
Within a few minutes of wandering, we eventually found Liam hiding behind one of the shelves with a grim look on his face. He kept glancing to the side at a couple that was standing in the next aisle over. I wasn’t sure if he knew them for something, but he seemed to forget all about them the moment that Jane called out for him.
He perked up at the sound of Jane’s voice and came bounding toward us with a couple of boxes of strawberry pocky in his arms. With a newfound bright smile, he cheerfully chirped, “Look at what I found, Ms. Jane. They had the strawberry-flavored ones in stock today! Your favorite ones!”
Jane became even more flustered as people started turning their heads toward us, having their attention caught by the loud voice of a little child. She hurriedly lifted Liam into the cart and started pushing us toward the checkout.
More whispers started to surface when people started to realize who I was and that she was the one I was kissing in the pictures from the papers.
“Love, please relax. It’s not good for you to be stressed like this.”
Her eyebrows scrunched up as her lips formed a thin line, but she didn’t say anything and only continued to push us toward the checkout.
With a bit of extra force, I pulled her into my chest and wrapped my arms around her, abruptly interrupting her trek. I tilted her head upward and leaned down closer to her until her eyes were only on me.
I didn’t care what people thought of us, and I wanted her to feel the same. I wanted… No, I needed her to learn how to handle all the publicity and stares because I wouldn’t be able to continue on if she ever decided that she couldn’t handle it anymore and left me.
Her eyes widened as I leaned down ever closer to her until the tips of our noses were nearly touching. She stammered, “D-D-Achilles, what are you doing?”
I stayed silent as my eyes drifted down her features. Her silky smooth skin, her little button nose, her rosy lips.
Answering in my stead, Liam piped up, “He wants to kiss you like always. Why do you even need to ask?”
Her cheeks immediately started to heat up. She whispered, “Achilles, we shouldn’t do that here… Can’t you wait until we get home?”
“…” I pursued my lips for a moment as I studied her face. “Do you… Never mind…”
I backed up and straight back up. She looked at me in confusion but didn’t say anything.
Pushing the cart with Liam in it, I walked to the cash register and started scanning our items.
I knew that it was immature of me to leave things so up in the air, but I couldn’t bring myself to ask her. I didn’t want to give her the idea of possibly leaving me if she had never considered it before yet.
Trying to lighten the mood, I lightheartedly asked, “Where do you want to go first to see the Christmas lights?”
She glanced up at me warily, but it soon melted away as I kept a placid smile on my face. With a small smile, she bashfully confessed, “I thought we could go to the park first. It’s usually lined with lots of mini trees where kids can make personalized ornaments with their wishes on them and hang them on the trees. I know it’s a bit kiddie, but it’s something Liam and I-”
“I don’t find it kiddie at all. I would love to join you and Liam in your traditions.”
There was a light tug on my right sleeve as Liam tried to get my attention. “Ms. Jane always makes the prettiest ornament. She’s very good at arts and crafts.”
I chuckled softly. “I’m sure she is. I’ve seen all the handmade pieces sitting around your old house. But I’m sure that you can make one just as nice.”
“Mhm! I’m going to try to beat her this year.”
Liam’s more innocent and childish side has been starting to shine through more as I spent more time with him, and I just found it utterly adorable that he had two such contrasting demeanors within his little body.
I lifted him up into my arms and guided Jane out of the store with a loose arm around her waist.
Although I was afraid of Jane someday realizing that I was more trouble than I was worth, I was grateful for these little moments. Jane was so flustered from having my hand rest on her hip that she forgot about all the onlookers and ended up bashfully hid her face in my chest, reflexively nuzzling closer to me.
After we loaded the car, I drove us south towards the downtown area. There was quite a bit of traffic since we were getting close to Christmas, but I didn’t mind it too much.
Liam had asked to turn on the radio for the Christmas station and wanted Jane to sing along, saying that she had a really nice voice. Although she was feeling a little shy at the beginning, she eventually gave in and started to sing along quietly with the Christmas songs.
It wasn’t very loud in comparison to Liam’s off-tune singing, but I could tell that she had a nice voice, easily harmonizing with the chimes. I had always liked her voice since we first met, but I never truly realized how much of a delight it was to my ears until I finally heard her sing.
Her slowly grew more confident with time and started to sing a bit louder. Liam fell quiet at the sound of her voice, opting to listen to his mother sing instead.
From my rear view mirror, I could see a small uplift on the corner of his lips as he watched his mother sing. He truly loved Jane as if she was his biological mother.
I could only hope that he would eventually gather the courage to finally call her mom instead of Ms. Jane. It was something that I knew the both of them yearned for, but I also knew that I shouldn’t force him either. He’ll be ready on his own in due time.
As I pulled into a parking garage next to the park, the two were practically bouncing in their seats from excitement. They opened their doors right as I parked, not even giving me a chance to fully turn off the engine before they hopped out.
I watched as Liam latched into Jane’s hand and energetically pulled her in the direction of the ring of small Christmas trees that already had quite a bit of ornaments hanging off of them.
Note the self, Liam likes Christmas.
Grabbing a hat from the car, I trailed behind them as I watched the heartwarming sight. This much cuteness had to be illegal.
Their matching, luminescent, violet-colored eyes shone like jewels under the crisp morning sunlight of winter as they stared at all the decorations in awe.
The plaza was covered in Christmas lights from the tops of buildings down to the ground and up along all the tree branches. All sorts of other streamers and figurines of reindeers and sleeves were scattered about in adherence to the Christmas spirit.
I had never been downtown to see the Christmas lights before, always avoiding it like the plague with the knowledge that it would be crowded up all sorts of visitors. But now that I was here with Jane and Liam, it didn’t seem as bad as I once thought.
There was a bit of light snowfall. Little snowflakes clung onto Jane’s long hair as they made their way deeper into the maze of mini Christmas trees. They were so small in comparison that they had no difficulty weaving passed different groups of parents and kids who also came here to visit.
With a bit of difficulty, I hurriedly placed the hat over my head and went after them, knowing that it would practically be impossible to find them in this crowd once I lost sight of them. Luckily, I managed to catch up to them before anyone noticed who I was.
The two had suddenly stopped at an open floor plaza sitting at the center of these trees. Tables and tables of craft stations were set around the outer edge of the plaza, filled with all sorts of shiny glitter and empty ornaments. Each station had multiple families sitting around it, making and decorating different kinds of ornaments ranging from candy canes to cards to little figurines.
Jane and Liam spun around with bright smiles on their faces as they each took one of my hands into their own, pulling me toward the empty end of one of the craft stations.
I nervously glanced around, “Um… I’m not sure if-”
“Come on, Mr. Rafael! Walk faster. Someone’s going to take our spot if you don’t hurry up.”
A feeling of dread built up at the pit of my stomach as I pulled my cap down further and reluctantly walked forward, following Liam’s guidance.
Although I liked the idea of spending time with the two to make something special together, I had never done arts and crafts before. It was something that children would do together for fun, but I never really had anyone to do that with when I was younger so I never participated. It was something that was completely foreign to me.
Liam plopped down on my right and leaned over the table- practically climbing onto the table all together- to grab a couple of empty ornament balls, some scissors and colored papers. Dumping them in front of me, he cheerily explained, “Ms. Jane and I usually decorate ornament balls together and write our Christmas wishes on a piece of paper to put inside before hanging it together. Kind of like a prayer for the next year. But you can’t look at each other’s wishes! Otherwise it won’t come true, okay?”
I nodded mindlessly, still a bit lost and unsure of where to start. Should I just tell them that I had no clue on how any of these things worked? For one, I didn’t even know how to get the top of the ball off to open it without breaking it.
I nervously glanced up the little clear ball in my hand and found Liam already scribbling his wish on a piece of scrap paper.
The weight in my hand disappeared, making me look to my right in confusion.
Jane gave me a soft reassuring smile, Holding the little ornament between her nimble fingers, she easily unscrewed the cap of the ball ornament before holding it back out to me. “It can be a little tricky since you have thicker fingers than Liam and me, but I hope it won’t deter you from making one with us.”
I gratefully took the ornament back rom her and pressed a small kiss on her temple in thanks. “It won’t. I know that this is important to the two of you and I want to be a part of it too. Just please be patient with me… It’s a little embarrassing, but… I’ve… never really done arts and crafts before…”
A sweet giggle escaped past her delightedly pink lips. “You always seem like you can do everything, but I guess it’s good to know that there are still some things that are completely new to you.”
I pouted and mumbled, “I know that it’s something that everyone’s done before, especially by the time they’re turning 30, but there’s no need to laugh at me.”
“Achilles, that’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Everyone has things that can’t do or never tried before. It just makes you human.” She scooted her chair closer to me until our hips were touching. She twisted a piece of tissue paper into a flower-like shape and delicately slipped it through the tiny opening of the clear ball I was holding. “Besides, I like teaching you new things.”
My heart was pounding in my chest so loudly that it would be a miracle if Jane couldn’t hear it.
If I hadn’t already fallen helplessly in love with this women, there was not way that I wouldn’t have fallen in love with her after such a moment.
She looked ethereal under the light snowfall, shining brighter than the Christmas lights around us. Her soul was so gentle and caring that she almost seemed like a real life angel, one that I wanted to selfishly keep to myself for no one else to see.
Bringing me out of my thoughts, Jane handed me a pen and piece of scrap paper. “Why don’t you start by writing your wish first? I’ll do the same with me and then we can decorate them together, alright?”
I nodded mindlessly as I took the paper and pen from her.
I stared down at the blank page. Write my wish…
I glanced at Jane from the corner of my eyes.
There were many things I wanted to wish for. I wanted to wish for us to get married. I wanted to wish to be allowed by her side forever. I wanted to wish for her to love me for eternity and never leave my side.
But of all the things I could possibly want, there was truly only one thing I would ever wish for.
I uncapped my pen and scrawled out a single line.
“I wish for Jane’s happiness for as long as she lives, a life of never ending smiles even if I may not be by her side.”