What the heart wants

54

" Hello, I have a delivery for Mrs King."

" She's not here at the moment but I can take the delivery."

" May I ask who you are?"

" I'm her husband, Jared King."

" Okay. Please sign here... and also here. Thank you very and have a nice day."

" And you too." Jared replied with a smile.
" Whoa! It's quite heavy. I wonder what's inside. No who could have sent this."

His blood began to boil as he read the note attached.

To an extraordinary woman, and an even more extraordinary friend. Happy birthday Aria and have a wonderful Christmas.
From your dear friend Tunde.

" The nerve of that man."

***

" Hey sweetie." Aria greeted kissing him lightly on the lips as she sat on the desk in his home office.

" Hey. How was lunch with the girls?" He asked then furrowed his eyebrows.

" Great!...what's wrong? Why are you furrowing your brows?"

He kissed her lips again.

" You taste like peppermint, why do you taste like peppermint? You hate peppermint."

" Jade was having peppermint hot chocolate and I suddenly felt like taking one too."

" Christmas Aria." He muttered; she shrugged in response.
" Lest I forget, you have a package."

" Oh, but I didn't order anything. Who's it from?"

Jared ignored her question and brought out the package from where it was placed underneath the desk.

" Oh whoa! It's quite heavy."

Aria tore up the wrapper and squealed in excitement.

" Tomi Adeyemi's Children of Blood and Bone! Oh my God it's Sarah.J. Maas's collection. I love it!"
She noticed the card that had been attached to it and went silent."

" It came in not too long ago."

" I'm surprised you didn't destroy it." Aria mused smiling at him.

" I won't lie, I was tempted to but I knew you'd find out about the gift anyway. I decided to tell you so you won't get mad at me. He's your childhood friend and I respect."

" I'm so proud of you." She mumbled softly.

" Yeah, yeah whatever."

" You know, if it weren't for Tunde we wouldn't be together."

" How so?"

" Well if he hadn't come, we wouldn't have fought, you wouldn't have travelled to France, I wouldn't have gotten involved in the accident, we wouldn't have called the truce and I wouldn't have fallen in love with you."

" True." He mused.
" I just hated how close you were."

" We were childhood friends. Nothing else. Okay sure we were crushing on each other but nothing happened."

" Don't tell me that. I know something happened at the wedding, in Nigeria."

" What?"

" You guys kissed!"

" What?! Who told you that?!"

" I saw you!"

" Oh my God Jared! We didn't kiss! He was about to but I stopped him."

" Oh." He replied, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck.
" I thought you had kissed so I got mad and kissed your cousin."

" Ugh! Don't remind me." Aria glowered.

" I'm sorry babe." He pleaded with a slight pout.

" You're forgiven."

***

" What are you doing?" Aria asked as she entered the kitchen.

" Nothing." Jared replied instantly.

Aria narrowed her eyes in suspicion and approached him.

" Jared, sweetie, babe...I love but I don't trust you with food. Stay out of my kitchen."

" That's mean."

" Well what were you trying to do?, Give us food poisoning?"

" Just Jade. She said Twilight's better than Harry Potter."

She paused.

" I see your point but it needs to be discreet. You'd slip it in her coffee, not at a dinner party where we'll be the main suspects."

" Remind me never to get on your bad side."

Aria chuckled and kissed him.

" Go get changed, the party's almost starting.

***

" What is that?" Aria asked scrunching her nose as bile rose up her throat. She swallowed her saliva in a bid to push the bile down and luckily, it worked.

" Peppered snails, Imade you love this!" Her mother said.

" Not at the moment. Could you please take it out?"

" O da mo ti gbọ ( alright I've heard) I'll place it in the fridge and take it when your dad and I are leaving."

" Thank you."

" Let's take the food out."

" Yes mum." She replied with a slight nod.

***

" Have I told you how breath taking you look?" Jared murmured softly nuzzling his head into her neck and breathing in deeply.

" A couple times."

" That's one too little, you look mesmerising."

" Thank you."

" I have a Christmas Eve present for you, come on."

He tugged her up the stairs leaving their family behind.

" Are we there yet?"

" Almost. Keep your eyes closed."

He opened the door of a room and led her inside.

" You can open your eyes now."

" Jared." She breathed as she took in the room.

" It's not much but I hope you like it."

" It's beautiful. They're beautiful."

She ran her hands along the drawings of her and smiled at him.

" I tried experimenting with paint but they didn't really work out well."

" Are you kidding me?! They're astounding. Thank you."
" I also have something for you. I got it a while back but completely forgot about it."

She brought a small velvet box from her pocket and gave him.

A beautiful black leather bracelet sat in the middle of the box; it had two silver cuffs with his name boldly engraved and her name right underneath it.

" I have one too..." She rolled the sleeve of her sweater to show hers.
"...and if you bring them together, the tiny stones form a hear-"

He captured her lips with his before she could finished her sentence.

" I love you."

" I love you too Jared. Merry Christmas."

" Merry Christmas to you too Aria."

***

ສະບາຍດີ! 🤗,
So the winner of the contest is YJ (by default). Aria got books from Tunde which was her idea.
I hope you enjoy the chapter, 2 more till the end of this part( and then my break)