After that, we walked to a nearby café for brunch. It was adorable and reasonably priced, which was a relief after all the damn money I had spent on my birthday. his whole week had been back-to-back hair appointments, lash appointments, nail appointments, wax appointments.. Man, I was beat.
I'm also realizin' I'm tired of claiming to be low-maintenance, y'know, to fit into society's views of the "ideal" woman. There's literally nothing wrong with being high-maintenance. Especially considering I can take care of all my needs.
Once we got back to my apartment, I damn near lost my footing at the sight before me in front of my door. A large box with a voluminous bunch of red roses lay over my welcome mat, effectively hiding it. "Girl.." Dahlia began, leaning down to inspect it as she was too shocked to even finish her sentence. My laughter was muted as I covered my mouth with my palm and turned on my heel to give myself a moment to recover my composure.
Austin had previously given me the sense that he wouldn't be able to come back for my party tonight, due to work circumstances, so the fact that he took the time to send me gifts was a beautiful gesture. It wasn't even expected, he just- God, I mean- sometimes it just seems way too good to be true.
After a moment of reflection, Dahlia and I returned to the pile for a closer look. Picking up the flowers with care, I felt my anxiety rise as I hugged them closer to me and cradled them against my chest. Dahlia dug through my purse and fumbled with my keychain a little bit before finding my engraved house key.
Once moving it from atop of the box, I almost lost my mind at the Valentino name written in dark ruby red font atop of the bright, scarlet box. "Dahlia.." My voice faded as I was quite literally speechless at the fact that Austin would even think of spendin' all of this money on me.
"Donnie..you won." Dahlia's eyes were as big as fuckin' bowling balls, mouth slightly agape as she shook her head side to side in belief. "Like, forreal. I absolutely love this for you."
She unlatched my door, and motioned for me to quickly follow behind her. Picking up the box, I fumbled a bit as I now held both the bouquet and box in my arms. Carefully following alongside Dahlia, I reached the counter of my kitchen rather quickly and leisurely placed my gifts atop of it.
Reaching into my purse, I rustled around until I felt the outline of my phone. Still feeling a rush of adrenaline from the surprise, I tapped across my screen messily as I searched for Austin's contact. With the click of a button, I saw my own reflection pop up on my camera as I waited for him to answer the FaceTime call.
"All I know is, you better give him that punani fah' this shit, Don." Dahlia mumbled, delicately running her fingers across the flimsy rose petals. "That man sure is working hard, ain't he?"
"Girl, bye." I waved her off, smiling in slight embarrassment. "Don't start."
At the sound of my phone's feedback, I turned back to the display. My call had been answered, and I watched as Austin stretched out his arm so I could view his whole face. I looked at him keenly and saw that he had already developed some blonde stubble along his chin and above his top lip in the short time he'd been gone. His hair was messily tussled all over the place and draped across the top half of his brow. As he leaned against the pillows on what appeared to be a hotel bed, he presented signs of extreme tiredness.
"Mornin, Don." His gruff, morning voice spoke. It was unbelievably sexy, and sent a wave of heat through my insides and had my stomach plummeting. My eyes blinked over to Dahlia's direction, and stifled a snort as her wide-eyed expression at his tone was enough to make me die of laughter.
