The Only One He Wants

Knocks again and the Italian guy comes out of the house, all disheveled. And then says ‘Pizza?’”

The four of them burst out laughing, holding their stomachs as the loud voices filled the house.

“That was a good one!” Francis said, slicing a pancake in half and wiping tears with the heel of his hand.

After they calmed down, Gabrielle told Michael, “We should go now, don’t you think? It’s getting late.”

“No, no stay,” Alesha spoke with pleading eyes.

“But we have to, sweetie. We have to prepare for work tomorrow, take a bath and stuff like that. You have your own stuff to do.”

They stood up and said their goodbyes. Alesha said that she was looking forward to the next encounter and that it should be soon. They all agreed and in no time Michael and Gabrielle were again in his car, driving towards her apartment.

“That was a success!” Gabrielle elbowed him playfully.

“It was, yeah. I didn’t expect it at first. I had fears on my own plus they were asking me all those questions. I was lost,” he chuckled.

“But you handled it well. Like you do with everything,” she said and put his hand in hers.

“You’re full of flattery today, Gabby. But what matters is that it went excellent. They’re wonderful people and I’d like to spend more time with them,” he said and smiled.

“Glad you feel that way,” she replied.

“Oh and when Francis asked me about the Sox and the Yankees. I wanted the earth to open up and swallow me whole. For once I didn’t have an answer.” He was chuckling as he spoke, obviously reliving the memory.

“You could have said anything. And he was joking with you. Alesha and I were laughing our socks off!” she said.

“Well, it does matter. Because if I said Yankees and it turned out he was from Boston, I was fried. Like seriously fried!”

They were laughing again, wholeheartedly and fully engrossed in the moment. Gabrielle couldn’t take it any longer, because the muscles on her face were hurting her from so much laughter. Honestly, she had never been that happy in her life.

“Phew, I have never laughed this much. Since you came along, I can’t stop myself!” she said, putting her hands in her lap and sighing.

“I’ll take that as a compliment. The best compliment I’ve received all day,” he replied and kissed her nose.

“All day?” she asked, teasingly.

“Hmm…” He grinned and put his index finger below his chin as if he was trying to find the answer to a tough mathematical equation. “Not all day, but in a while. The best one was when my stunning girlfriend told me I was drop-dead gorgeous and that she had the best s*x with me.”

“Oh, you.” Gabrielle nervously chuckled and hit him playfully. As she did that, he turned right and parked before the building.

They sat in silence, each of them smiling in a secretive way so that the other one wouldn’t notice a thing.

“You know…” Gabrielle began.

“You know…” Michael began.

It was then that they realized they were talking at the same time.

“You first,” she told him, chortling.

“Well, you know… The thing is that I don’t want to go home. I sound like a spoiled ten-year-old brat, I know. But it’s true.” he sighed.

“I wanted to say the same thing. C’mon, let’s go upstairs,” she replied and got out of the car. Michael accepted that gladly. What were they going to do alone all day? They would probably spend it on the phone talking to each other or chatting, anyway.

When they got inside her apartment again, the light was so bright it blinded them at first. The sun was apparently pretending it was in the peak of the summer, flashing the most brilliant rays of sunlight. The whole apartment, as a matter of fact, was painted in different shades of yellow, burning orange and white.

“Wow, when did it turn into such a hot day, huh?” Michael said, sitting on the sofa.

Gabrielle joined him shortly after that. “What do we do now? Netflix? There’s this thing called binge-watching when you watch through an entire season… Oh my God!” She stopped mid-sentence, because there was something in Michael’s hands. And she had definitely not expected that.

While she was talking, he reached for a purple shopping bag lying next to his feet and was now offering it to her. “It’s for you!”

“Me? When the hell did you get this?” she asked, every fiber of her body fluttering. It had been forever since someone had gotten her a gift just because.

“Alan, my chauffeur. He brought it while you were showering.” He smiled his perfect pearl-white, gleaming teeth.

“You were hiding it the entire time?” She was still in shock. Under ordinary circumstances she would register something weird or strange and realize that a surprise would follow. That was why her friends had given up throwing surprise birthday parties, because she would always get ahold of things days before the event. And now? How could this thing slip past her detectors?

“Yup,” he answered, nodding his head.

“Here?”

“Yup.”

“Since the early morning?”

“Yup,” he answered again, proud of himself.

“What is it?” she finally asked, eager and excited to find out.

“Open it and let’s find out.”

With trembling hands she took the bag and opened it. Inside was a small parcel wrapped in gold paper with a brown bow on the top.

“It’s beautiful,” she uttered and carefully slid away the wrapping. It revealed a gorgeous black leather box. “Ugh, this is killing me,” she muttered under her breath.

And then it revealed a gentle silver necklace with a heart pendant.

“Aww, this is so beautiful,” she said and leaned in to hug him.

“That’s not all. Open it.” He smiled.

Her heart was in her throat as the heart revealed a picture of the two of them hugging. So that she could carry their love against her heart.

Tears filled her eyes as she kissed him from the bottom of her soul.