If You Only Knew

Chapter 25 ~ Raise Your Glass

"Now I'm having second thoughts about giving you your birthday present," I teased her as I slipped my hand into my housecoat pocket. My fingers closed around a long, thin box and I slowly drew it out of my pocket, making sure to keep it concealed from Leah's sight.

"No!" Leah pouted. "If I can't have mine, then you can't have yours either!"

"I'm just teasing," I laughed as I held out the box to her. "Happy Birthday, Leah!" A small, excited squeal escaped her throat as she took it from me.

"What is it?" she asked, holding it up to her ear and lightly shaking it.

"Oh, just open it!" I laughed, earning a smile from her. She quickly tore off the gold wrapping paper, revealing a thin, white box. I watched her face intently as she gently took the lid off of it. Her eyes lit up with surprise and a small gasp slipped from her lips.

"Oh, Kaley," she whispered. "It's beautiful!" She carefully pulled the necklace out of the box. It had a small treble clef hanging off of it and was made entirely of white gold.

Leah had mentioned to me a few months ago how she had always wanted a treble clef necklace but had never been able to find one. So from that moment on, I had made it my mission to find her one, and not just some cheap, dollar store one, but rather one that was of good quality and would last for a long time. It took me a while, but I had finally found a place that sold them. I ended up paying more than I would have wanted to, but the look on her face at that moment made it worth every penny that I spent.

"Thank you so much!" she almost cried, hugging me tightly.

"You're welcome, Leah," I smiled, hugging her back. "I'm glad you like it."

"Like it!?" she exclaimed, breaking from the hug to look at the necklace again. "I love it! Help me put it on?"

"Of course," I laughed, carefully taking it from her and clasping it around her neck.

"I can't believe that you got this for me," she said softly, gently touching the treble clef.

"Leah, you're my best friend," I smiled, gently taking her free hand in mine and giving it a light squeeze. "I couldn't settle for getting you anything less than the best."

"Thank you," she said again, squeezing my hand back. "I know that this doesn't compare to what you got me... but I hope that you'll still like it." She slowly pulled a rectangular package out from behind the pillow behind her and held it out to me. I gave her a quizzical look as I took it.

It wasn't heavy, but it also wasn't light. I quickly tore off the blue, striped wrapping paper and a black, leather book fell into my lap. I tossed the empty paper to the side and slowly picked up the book. I flipped it over and on the front it read: Memories.

I slowly opened the book and smiled as my eyes fell on the first picture. It was a picture of me and Leah. Our first real picture together. I continued to flip through the book, slowly looking over all of the pictures on each page. There were pictures of us from each of the shows that we had done together, pictures of us from each of the trips that we had gone on, and pictures of us just in random places doing random things.

As I neared the end of the book, I found myself staring at pictures of us here in New York. There was a picture of us in the back of a taxi cab, in front of the Statue of Liberty, and one of us in Times Square. There was a picture of us on our first day in our new apartment, as well as a picture of us in front of the Radio City Music Hall building on the first day of our new job there. And at the very end, there was a picture of us from just the day before at my surprise birthday party.