My alarm goes off and wakes me up immediately. Today is the day I have been planning for two weeks. Valentine's day. Now that we're back from New York, time has surely been flying fast.
The rest of our New York trip was spent walking through time square and enjoying each other's company. It was such an amazing experience, I would love to go back some day.
The New York trip was in January and now we're in February. Being completely honest, I used to hate February. The whole month was just about love and I hated it. Watching couples in the hallways hugging and kissing was gross to me.
But now that I'm in a relationship, it isn't bad at all. He does so much for me so I want to do something for him.
I'm proud to say that I came up with a surprise I think he'll love. I'm also glad that Valentine's day landed on a Saturday this year, because we're going to be out most of today.
I grab my phone off the nightstand and begin to type a message to Mateo.
Good morning :) I hope you are excited for today. I'll pick you up at 11. I love you<3
A small laugh tumbles out of my lips as I read the message one more time. My eyes move to the top of the screen and read the time. 10:20am. I have enough time to take a quick shower, do my make up, and go to the store quickly.
Moving the covers off of me, I stand up from the bed and gather my clothes. I have never woken up this excited about something before. It's like whenever there was a field trip in elementary school, the night before I could never sleep. That's how I feel right now.
I walk into the bathroom, turn on the shower and begin to take off my clothes. I do the same routine as always, just a bit faster. Once I'm out, I dry my body and change into my clothes. I put on some blue jeans, a light pink long sleeve, and my white Nikes with matching light pink socks. Might as well wear pink since it's Valentine's.
My phone rings and I walk towards the night stand. I look at the message and smile.
Good morning V, I'll be ready by 11. I love you<3
My eyes widen when I see the time. 10:40am. I wanted to leave the house by this time. I guess my "quick" shower wasn't really that quick. Well, I'm sure Mateo won't mind if I run a bit late. Throwing my dirty clothes in the laundry basket, I take a seat at my vanity and begin my make up. Luckily, I'm only doing my eyebrows today so it'll only be like ten minutes.
After doing my eyebrows and adding some mascara, I stand up from the chair and take out the towel in my hair. I grab the hair cream my Mom gave me and begin to scrunch it into my hair. When it dries it'll come out wavy and with volume, plus Mateo said he likes it when my hair is like this. I mean I'm not doing it for him, obviously I like my hair also, but... ahh never mind.
I quickly slip on my shoes, put some perfume on, and grab my things. Making sure I look fine one last time, I grab all the stuff I need and walk out of the room. The TV is playing and I can smell coffee. Mom, Dad, and Christopher are sitting on the couch watching the news.
"Good morning," I say and they all turn.
"Good morning mi amor," Mom stands up from her spot and walks up to me. She hugs me and kisses my cheek lightly. She's been more happy, I mean she's always been happy. But now that Dad has been spending more time at home, everything feels great. Christopher is slowly opening up more, sometimes he walks into my room and watches TV with me. I don't push him to talk about how he feels, so whenever he's quiet, I stay quiet too.
"Are you going to be out all day?" She asks.
"Most likely, but I'll be back before curfew."
She nods her head and walks back to the living room. I walk up to Dad and kiss his cheek. "You're going with Mateo?"
"Yes." I respond back to him and let out a nervous chuckle.
"Be careful and tell Mateo to come to the house soon, since you never invite him." I rolled my eyes at his comment and hit his shoulder lightly.
"Okay Dad. Well I have to go, I was gonna stop at the store real quick." I start heading towards the front door. But before I open it, I wave back at them. "Bye Mom, bye Dad, bye Christopher." They all say bye back and I walk out the door.
Speed walking to my car, I hop in and turn it on. Thankfully, my phone is already connected to blue tooth so I just open Spotify and play a random playlist. Finally it's time to get the day started. It takes about five minutes till I pull into the store. I park the car, get off, lock it, and begin to speed walk.
Okay maybe it's cliché but I want to get Mateo flowers. I still bought him a gift but I want to get him some flowers too. In movies or even in real life, you always see the guy buy the girl flowers. Personally I think guy's deserve flowers too. I know my man does.
All the flowers are at the front of the store so I look through the selection and immediately grab the sunflowers. It just reminds me of him. I walk towards a cash register and pay for the flowers. With the flower bouquet in my hand, I set it on the passenger side and turned on the car once again. Okay now to see Mateo.
The ten minute drive to his house my nerves are starting to kick in. What if he doesn't like my plan? Is the only question that is floating around my mind. I take a deep breath in, and let it out. It'll all be okay. It has to be. I turn into his neighborhood and drive all the way down the street. I park in front of the house on the corner and put it in park. Time to start the plan.
I send Mateo a message telling him I'm here and quickly get out of the car. Walking towards the passenger side of the car, I open the door and grab the sunflowers. The front door opens and I hold out the flowers. Mateo closes the door behind him and begins walking towards me with one of his arms behind his back.
"Happy Valentine's day!" I say happily and he smiles. "I got these for you."
He stops in front of me and bites his bottom lip. "I guess we think alike," he moves his arm to the front and I see him holding a pink and white chrysanthemum bouquet. He hands them to me and I hand him his flowers.
"Thank you," I lean up and peck his lips. He wraps his free arm around my waist and pulls me to him.
"No problem. Thank you for the flowers." He smiles down at me and I blush. "Our first Valentine's day together."
"Mhm and I have a plan that we are going to follow. So come on." I'm about to walk around the car but Mateo holds me against him still. He leans down and kisses my lips again and I don't pull back. His warm lips always manage to make me relax.
"Okay," I mumble against his lips. "We should go."
He pulls away and rests his forehead on mine. "Fine. Let's go in the truck." Here he goes with his truck. He never lets me drive when we go somewhere. That's why I drove to his house today. Maybe if he sees my car then he'll let me drive.
"No, I'm driving today." He looks at me with a "really" and I roll my eyes. "You hardly let me drive when we go out Mateo. The only way we'll go in the truck is if you let me drive it, which I doubt you will."
Mateo looks at me with a raised brow. Oh my gosh, he's considering letting me drive his truck. "Are you seriously thinking about letting me drive your truck?"
"Well yeah," he shrugs his shoulders. "I mean it could be fun." He pulls out his keys from his pocket and holds them in front of me. I look at him for a minute and think about it.
"Fine," I let out and a smile broke out onto his face. He takes the flowers out of my hands and hands me the keys. He unwraps his arm from around my waist and starts to walk towards his truck. I grab my phone and bag from the inside of my car and lock it once I'm done.
Am I nervous to drive his truck? Yes. Is it gonna be fun? Maybe. I lock my car door and walk towards his truck. When I open the driver's side door, Mateo looks at me with a smile. I grab onto the steering wheel and climb inside the truck. I close the door and adjust the seat and mirrors. I turn the key and the truck comes to life.
"Okay," I set my hands on the steering wheel and breathed in. "It should be the same as driving my car right?" I ask him.
"The exact same Vero."
I nod my head and put the truck in reverse. I slowly begin to back out of the drive, constantly looking at the mirrors. "You're doing good." Mateo says and I feel my cheeks heat up. Eventually, I successfully make it out of the driveway and begin driving down the street.
"You see it isn't so bad. Now where are we going?"
"I'm not telling you." I tell him. "It's a surprise. So don't start asking on the way there."
He chuckles a bit and begins to play music. My mind thinks about where we're going and I can't help but smile. It's gonna bring back some memories for sure.
~
"And we're here!" I exclaim and pull into the parking lot of the amusement park.
"I wonder who got you into rollercoasters," Mateo pokes my sides once I park the truck. I take off my seat belt and turn to face him.
"I brought us here for a reason, but I'll only say why at the end of the day." He nods his head and takes off his seat belt too. "Okay well come on, we have a whole day ahead of us."
We both get off the truck and start walking towards the entrance. Mateo grabs my hand, brings it up to his lips, and kisses the back of it. When he brings it back down, I do the same motion he did and I see his cheeks turn pink a little. Cute.
I unlock my phone and show the person our tickets. I planned all of this and I am not gonna let him pay. It's my time to finally spoil him. "Just to let you know. You aren't gonna be paying for anything today." I let him know and tilts his head.
"We'll see." He smirks.
"We should ride the big one first." I continue walking but stop once Mateo pulls me back. He looks at me with a confused look. "What?"
"You wanna ride the big one first?" I nod my head slowly.
"Oh okay. I thought you only wanted to ride it because I like riding it," he chuckles a bit and I hit his chest playfully.
"No, I actually like it. It's fun. Now let's go since there's no long lines."
Our first Valentine's day is off to a great start.
~
"You should've seen your face when it got stuck," Mateo laughs as we walk around the park. We have been on all the rides today. Right now we rode the big one again and it got stuck. The whole time I was freaking out, Mateo was trying not to laugh.
"Okay I get it Mateo," I try to look at him with a serious face but I fail. We both begin to burst out into laughter and can't stop for a few minutes. I look up at him and admire. JUst everything about him is perfect, especially his heart. I've never met anyone with a heart like his, it makes mine feel full of love.
Once our laughter dies down, I stop walking to see the sun go down. Just like I remembered, all of the roller coasters are standing tall in front of us. This is why I brought us here. This is where we almost had our first kiss.
"You know why I brought us here?" He looks down at me and smiles. His arm wraps around my waist and pulls me into his side. His lips kiss the top of my head and I melt at the touch.
"Our almost first kiss was here." Is all he says and I smile.
I look up at him and meet his eyes. His other arm wraps around my waist and I wrap mine around his neck. He starts to lean in and I do the same. My heart is racing just like it was that day. As if it was actually our first kiss all over again. I feel him warm breath on my lips as he's just inches away.
My eyes close and I finally feel his lips against mine. The warmth of them sends a shiver down my spine. He's become such an important person in my life. Even when we were just friends, I was able to tell he had a big heart. A heart that holds many people dear to him, a heart that's full of love, a heart that loves me.
We both pull away at the same time and I can't help the smile that breaks out on my face.
"I love you so much Mateo," I whisper to him as I gently stroke his cheek with my thumb.
"I love you Veronica...Always." He whispers back.
"Always."