Chapter 35
"You're a natural."
"Only because you're holding on to me so I don't fall."
"Oh come on, I bet if I let go--"
"Don't you dare Damien!" I cried.
He laughed, squeezing my hand in his. "Don't worry, I'd never let you go."
After talking on the phone much longer than we should have, we finally hung up to try and get some sleep, agreeing to have our date later in the day. Victoria braided my hair in a messy fishtail braid with a sparkly pin and did my makeup in subtle earth tones and nude lip gloss. I wore my favorite charm bracelet and got dressed just in time. I met Damien at the door, giving Ky the stink eye when I passed him in the kitchen. He returned it with a hard look of his own.
I immediately smiled at the sight of Damien. He wore a pair of dark wash jeans and a sweater under a black winter coat with dark beige boots. His dark brown hair was tousled and his cheeks slightly flushed from the cold. His green eyes widened.
"Hi," I said shyly, even though we had pretty much spent the whole night telling each other our life stories.
"You look beautiful," he said.
I smiled at him. "Thanks. You look great too." This was totally true, although he always looked great, today he looked especially good. I don't know why, but his eyes seemed to get even greener and his gold flecks brighter.
"You ready to go?" He asked.
I nodded. "Yup."
"Don't stay out too late, kids," Victoria called out playfully from the top of the stairs.
"Keep your phone on at all times!" Jules called out as well. I rolled my eyes but laughed. "I'm serious Amber!" Although his tone was anything but. I laughed. "Okay I will!"
"Have fun!" Gustavo added.
Damien held out his hand with a smile which I returned and slipped my hand into his, our fingers holding firmly. "Let's go."
An hour later, here we were. We rented our skates and got out on the ice. It was much harder than I expected but Damien was very determined to teach me how to skate. He pulled me to the center of the rink where we made our way around in circles. Well, at least we tried. I fell multiple times but Damien was more than patient with me and I thought I was finally getting the hang of it.
"See, it's easy," he said after we were able to successfully make it around the rink once without me falling.
"Yeah, sure, easy," I murmured.
He laughed, his shoulders shaking. "The first time I tried ice skating, I fell way more times, believe me. You should consider yourself lucky."
I glared at him but that only made him laugh harder. "Besides," he said after finally calming down. "They've been skating much longer than you have. Did you see how many times they fell?"
I looked over at the group and laughed with him. They caught us laughing and started yelling at us. "Well excuse us, Damien, not everyone can be skating prodigies like you!" Jesses called out frustrated.
This only made us laugh even harder. When Damien and I had arrived at the skating rink, much to our surprise did we find the BlackJacks and Taylor already in the rink. "I might have let it slip where you were going," Taylor said sheepishly.
"We won't bother you guys while you're on your date, we promise," Alex said.
"It's a public rink so you can't say anything," Jesse said teasingly. They did stick to their word and leave us to ourselves but it was hard not noticing them.
"I never said I was a skating prodigy!" Damien called back in between fits of laughters.
I tugged on his hand. "Come on." We skated over to the group that was struggling to stand on the slipping ice. Taylor was trying to help a slippery Jesse get back on his feet.
"Need some help?" Damien teased.
"I'm better looking anyway," Jesse ignored him. "So what if I can't move on ice. I can play the drums, I'm in a band, and I'm hot. It's okay."
Taylor rolled her eyes. "Whatever helps you sleep at night, Jesse." She turned to us with a smile. "Sorry guys."
"It's alright. I think it's about time we get going anyway."
"We're leaving?" I asked a little surprised. He smiled down at me. "This was part one."
"How many parts are there?" I joked.
"As many as we like."
"Even I don't know where you're going," Taylor said as we exited the rink.
I looked at Damien questioningly but he only gave me a secret smile.
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We went into the city, that much I knew but besides that, I was clueless. I had no idea where we were going or what we were doing. But I was happy I got to spend time with Damien just walking and holding hands, stopping to look into store windows every now and then. We walked into a large shopping mall decorated with red and green lights for the holidays. There were vendors and stands selling souvenirs and hand crafted ornaments. My eyes drifted towards a little stand with jewelry and gifts.
Damien noticed me staring. "You see something you like?" He didn't even wait for a response before leading us over. An old woman sat on a stool carving figurines out of wood. She smiled at us. "Well, don't you two make quite the couple," she said kindly.
Damien squeezed my hand. "Yes ma'am."
My eyes drifted over the stand, which held multiple things. Ornaments, Christmas figurines, charms, stuffed animals and other knick knacks. "I also take requests." She held up the piece she was painting, which I saw to be a wooden horse.
I could feel Damien's eyes on me as I browsed the little shelves. All of the stuffed animals were mostly teddy bears, brown or black, embellished with santa claus hats or red and green gifts. Except for one. It was the only white teddy bear there, and it looked like it wasn't suppose to even be with the pile of toys.
"Oh, that one." The woman chuckled like we just discovered a secret of her's. "Been trying to get rid of that one since last year. Been sitting there since before Valentine's day." Valentine's day. That's what this bear was made for. It was embellished in pink with a red heart that said "I love you" in script. No wonder it looked so out of place with all the other bears.
"You want that one?" Damien asked, giving me a knowing smile. He was thinking the same thing.
I smiled back and nodded. He turned back to the old woman. "How much for this one?"
She shook her head. "It's on the house. You'll be doing me a favor, believe me."
Damien tried to give her some money but she refused. "If you're going to pay me it'll be for something else." He looked back at the stand. "How about those rings?" He pointed to the open wooden box with an assortment of jewelry piled inside it.
She stopped what she was doing to pull two rings out of the box. "Made them myself." They were simple but beautiful, painted to look like gold bands with little colorful stones carefully placed in a neat pattern all around.
"We'll take them," Damien said, offering the woman some dollar bills.
She smiled and dropped them into the palm of his hand. "Pleasure meeting you both."
We thanked the woman and continued our way through the mall. Damien stopped and pulled me to the side. "Hold out your hand." I obeyed, holding out my right hand. He turned it over to slip one of the rings on my ring finger. I felt my breath hitch in my throat as I watched him slip his ring on as well. "For now," he said with a smile, reaching down to kiss me on the cheek.
I hugged the teddy bear to my chest.
"So this was part two?" I asked a little dazed.
"This was actually not planned," he confessed, pulling us back into the throng of people moving. "But I wouldn't have asked for it any other way."
What??!! Can it be??? It is! Another update!! *cue fireworks display* Get excited guys it's an update! Especially considering I have finals coming up and you probably won't see me for a long time. I mean who knows if I will even survive *cries* sigh. Yeah. So let me know what you think please. I can't stress this enough man. Reading comments gives me life. That and cupcakes and food and yummy goodness and anything really that I like . . . Chem does this to me, it makes me go crazy.
Love ya ❤️