Nicole stood rooted, she tried talking but the words weren’t forming, she just stared at the entrance of her studio, it didn’t seem like anything changed but something changed, first of all, he change the paint color, she had told him she preferred purple to pink, she didn’t know he would decide to use it for her studio, where before there was while and pink, now the colts were white and purple, another thing that she noticed and the biggest change of all was the name, her name changed, it was no longer Natalie on the name tag but Nicole, it had Nicole boldly written, *NICOLE SALVADOR*
“Nicole, say something, your silence is killing me, did I do this wrong? I thought it would be better to change it to your real name, and also I decided to paint it with your favorite color too,”
Rafael said and she realized she hadn’t talked to him, she turned to him, as tears welled up in her eyes, he was the best, simply the best and she didn’t deserve him but still, she would keep him.
“Wow, what is this Rafael?”
“What do you think? A present for my princess of course,”
“I know, I just, I wasn’t expecting this, the questions should be when did you do all these?”
She asked staring at him with tears in her eyes, he might not have liked her crying, as he hugged her close, she held onto him, she couldn’t believe he would do this much, she couldn’t find the words to describe how much this means to her.
“When I came back from Hawaii, I regretted leaving you behind but I was hurt, then when I couldn’t focus on work, I decided to do this,”
“You did this by yourself?”
“No, I got help with the painting but I did that tags myself, it’s not really hard,”
“Oh, my God, Rafael , thank you,”
“Does that mean you like it?”
“Yes, I love it, I love you,”
She said hugging even closer.
“Good because I love you too, let’s go inside, it gets more pretty,”
He said pulling her into the studio, there were a lot more new pieces and a lot more new materials, the whole place lighted up as they walked in, this was beyond beautiful and breathtaking.
“You like it?”
“Yes, I do,”
“Glad to know, pleasing you is my new life goal,”
“In that case, I will make it my life goal to please you too,”
“Just staying with me and loving me is all I need, don’t leave me okay?”
“I won’t,”
She promised, he kissed her there in the middle of the studio, after which he held her hands and they walked off to their room together.
The next morning, waking up in Rafael ‘s arms again still felt surreal, she watched him sleep and marveled at how this whole thing was possible, she couldn’t pinpoint how Rafael could have so easily fallen for her, it might have been easy for her but for him, she didn’t think that will happen so soon or even happen at all but it did, he told her, showed her and she was grateful for it and will do her best to love him just as much and give him back just as much as he had given to her.
“Good morning my prince charming,”
She said when he opened his eyes, they had to go to the hospital today to get his cast removed after that, she wanted to spend the whole day with him like they did yesterday, he still had to take the rest of the week off so she knew they had the time.
“Good morning my love, how was your night?”
“Dreamy,”
She replied as he pulled her closer and kissed her, she smiled into the kiss.
“We have to go see the doctor today, your cast is getting removed,”
She said when they broke apart.
“I don’t want to, I hate hospital,”
He protested, she laughed at him.
“It’s either that or I will do it myself which might I tell you isn’t gonna be rosy, cuz I don’t know shits about this,”
“I love you baby but, I can’t let you scar me for life,”
He said getting off the bed and heading to the washroom, she got off the bed too and helped him pick out the clothes he will wear, after which she decided to call her parents, she was supposed to have returned home already, she walked out of the room going downstairs with her phone, she dialed her mom’s number, she picked up on the second ring.
“Nicole, how are you doing dear?”
Her mom said in greeting, Nicole was still getting used to her mom being nice to her so it took a moment for her to respond.
“Mom, I am fine, I hope you and Dad are fine? Sorry I didn’t call you yesterday,”
“It’s okay, you don’t have to call every day and we are fine,”
“Okay, did Nat call,”
“Still not yet,”
“Oh,”
She replied, her sister still wasn’t taking their calls and it was worrying, her parents might not say it but she knew they were hella worried, she was too.
“I am guessing all is well with you and your husband, seeing that you haven’t come back home?”
“Yes, mom, it is,”
She answered.
“That’s good to know, don’t hesitate to grab that happiness okay? It’s all yours, you deserve it,”
Her mom advised it’s brought tears to her eyes hearing her mom say those words to her.
“Thank you, mom,”
“You are welcome, say hi to him for me, I have to go, your dad and I have an early morning meeting, see you later,”
She said and the call ended, when she got back to their room, he was struggling to put on his shirt, she helped him with it.
“Did you put water on the bandaged hand Mr.?”
She asked, touching it, it was obviously wet but he shook his head.
“Dude, there is water on it,”
“Doesn’t mean I placed it there, I tried my best for it not to touch it but it is Impossible,”
“Tish, let’s just go get it off,”
She said walking away but he pulled her back.
“What? I need to go take my bath so that we can leave,”
“I know but you haven’t said good morning to me,”
“What? I did when we woke up,”
“I can’t remember, maybe because you didn’t do this,”
He said and kissed her, she let him.
“But we did,”
She said when they pulled apart.
“Forgot,”
He said this time he was the one that walked away, she rushed into her bathroom to take a bath, they left for the hospital at nine am and arrived there at about nine-thirty, it was a little far from their home. They met with the doctor on arrival, she examined him before removing the bandage.