And here I was again at my, sorry our Felicita. Our home. Every time I came here it feel so warm, there was something magical about this place. Yesterday, on my way home I kept thinking about Marco and everything he has been doing and always did for me and how I never did anything for him, of course, surprise birthday parties don't count here. But this time, I wanted to do something for him, like a little special but not too much as well. I came up with an idea, a lunch date, simple but effective. So today, I came here an hour before I asked him to come, dusted and kinda decorated it with some new flowers and other stuff. Now, it was looking a little livelier than before. I heard a footstep approaching and nonetheless, it was him. He came and settled on the chair and rested there.
"Why did you come early than our supposedly meeting time," I asked half happy and half annoyed
"Well, this shouldn't be a problem, I guess."
"It's not. But you ruined my surprise that I planned for you." I looked at him in little annoyance
"A surprise for me. Really?" He smirked at me
"You have been doing so much for me and I just wanted to do something for you too ." I looked at him with a little sadness on my face
"Aww......dont be like that, we can still make it work and let me help you too." He gave me a positive and assuring smile
And in less than half an hour we did it all by arranging the food, buying this mat and everything necessary for our indoor picnic. We both laid down next to each other, a little tired. The sunlight coming from the window was directly falling onto my face. I gave in to the warmth of sunlight and closed my eyes to relax.
"Wake up sleeping beauty!" He shouted while playing some annoying music in the background
"I wasn't trying to sleep and please shut that thing off. Okay, wait a second." I sat and brought my food basket which I have spent three hours making. I very gently took out that one box from the basket and gave it to Marco, who also sat leaning his back on the wooden frame of the balcony and I sat right next to him waiting for his reaction. He gave me confused look but opened it and smiled, "what is this?" He asked examining the thing like it's out of this universe
"Chocolate chip cookies," I said in a very excited tone hoping if you could recall why exactly I was giving these cookies to him
"I know what they are ser, but suddenly out of nowhere why these cookies.?" He took a bite, "on top of that where did you buy this from? They are so delicious." He said while munching on those cookies
"I made them for you." I smiled
He was about to eat another one but stopped midway. He looked at me with shock and then looked at cookies and again looked at me and then at cookies and after repeating this one more time he asked,
"Are you sure they are edible? "
I punched his arm and he laughed,
"Since you have always been the worst baker, I would ask this to save my stomach and my life." He tried to hold his laughter while looking like he was stating a fact
"It was a long time ago and now I bake just fine. But if you are so concerned then let me take it back" I tried to take the box away but he snatched it from my hand,
"Edible or not they belong to me now." He gave me a smile
Since we both haven't had our breakfast we both started to eat the food and beer we brought. We ate in silence because we both were hungry after some time I asked, "Do you remember my first cookie incident?"
" I remember all about you." He smiled at me but after a second his warm smile changed into a devilish one, "Especially that cookie incident one."
I laughed, " I was just thirteen okay."
"And So was I."
"I did okay for someone who's only 13."
He looked straight into my eyes with a deadly serious look on his face. His brows kept getting furrowed and his eyes shrunk with every passing minute making Him look funny and scary at the same time.
"Okay, I fucked up that day. Stop scaring me now." I rolled my eyes at him
"But it's funny. I have been living with 'Cookie phobia' since that day." He started laughing, so hard that he falls to the floor and seeing him like that I couldn't help to laugh as well
"It's not every day when you forget to add baking soda in cookies." He said it in a way as if it was the fact and chuckled
"You know it was for my dad's birthday and I was desperate to bake them." I sighed
He nodded, agreeing with me.
"It was her, Camille. She told me not to add that and I thought being a best friend she wouldn't misguide me. But clearly, I was wrong all about her." I looked down thinking about how I thought she was and what she turned out to be.
He cleared his throat and looked at me wanting to hear something from me.
"But you saved me from embarrassment by helping me."
"Of course, helping you was way better than seeing you cry like a dolphin." He said
I ignored his dumb statement, I continued what I wanted to say,
"But if it wasn't you, I had nearly ruined it." I paused for a second,
"You know it was that one day where I realised you are the only person on whom I can rely in life and my heart immediately went like okay, this person standing in front of me is my best friend. He is my person." I giggled
"My person?" He smiled and repeated it in a low voice and giggled to himself
"Aren't you.?" I raised a brow
He came closer to me and squeezed me tightly in his arms, closing all the space between us. Soon the sunlight started to fade instead beautiful dark purple coloured sky was all over, signalling us it was getting late and our time to leave was close. I turned to him to say this but he stopped me before I could something to him and motioned to keep sitting with him. And I did what he wanted me to do.
He was looking at the sky in a way that he either wanted to reach there or wanted to decipher something with their help. He continued to look above to see the beautiful sky and I kept looking at him, admiring the beautiful him. He surely has a charm that just belongs to him and it was so intoxicating and unforgettable.
I didn't realise how long I was staring at him until he flicked my forehead, pulling me out from my thoughts Of him.
"Ahh! That was hurtful"
"Why were you looking at me like that?" He questioned
"I was thinking something." He looked at me suspiciously but looked away but just a moment later he asked me,
"When are you leaving?"
I felt like all the air left my lungs and my mouth forgot how to speak. Suddenly, the atmosphere of the room shifted from happiness to gloom. I looked at him, too scared to see the sadness behind his eyes.
"Let's not talk about it," I said in a very low, barely audible voice
"Not talking about it wouldn't change the fact that you're leaving soon." He said still gazing at the sky
"In five days."
He smiled a weak smile, "it's enough."
"Stop lying. We both know the truth."
He didn't say anything.
"I want to say something. " I told him and he nodded
"I am glad you know, I get to know you at a very young age. It's hard to visualise how it all would have been if it weren't you with me."
He stayed silent but he was listening to me carefully as if pondering the words I was saying to him. He put his hand on mine and squeezed it a little.
"I feel terrible for being away from you and letting all that time cause you pain just like that." I could feel a lump in my throat as I tried to fight back the tears
"It's alright, Ser. Don't feel guilty anymore. It's wasn't your fault. It just happened, we are together right now in this moment and this is what matters to me." His soft eyes were fixated on mine
"For how long, five days? I will be gone after that, maybe forever." I could see how it made his face fall but he recovered in a few seconds
"We have five days. Don't think about further, five days are enough for us." He tried to sound convinced with what he said with his voice failing his calm words continuously
I kept silent motioning him to speak because I knew I was very close to losing it all. He said,
"See we are lucky to have five days. Some had mere three." He said cutely to lighten up the situation
"Don't you dare to quote Romeo and Juliet to me!" I said in disgust
"But you love tragedies right also we are speaking and behaving like them so why not ." he tried to make an innocent face
"I do but" before I could finish my sentence he spoke out,
"And I pledge to not let my Juliet suffer. Not now not ever." He took my hand and put it on his heart in a very dramatic manner
"You have become very dramatic and I kinda like this side of you." I smiled at his cuteness.
"It will be okay." He warmly assured me
"Will it be?" I questioned, he smiled and nodded
And we stayed there for hours talking and making fun of each other. I realised, what would happen next was entirely out of our reach but since we had our present full of happiness and togetherness now, it was all that mattered.