Pictures with Sunshine -- Short Story 31
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Fresh out of the shower, I gelled up the front of my hair and sprayed myself with Jessica's favourite smelling cologne.
Today is our 5 year anniversary and I'm taking her out to dinner. It's typical, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve.
I checked the time before calling Jess. She just got off work for the day.
When she answered, I told her I'd pick her up because I know she looks good anytime of day and wouldn't need to come home after work.
I slipped my wallet and car keys into my dark-coloured jeans pocket, and put on my shoes. I slapped my pockets to check for everything.
Not feeling the most important thing for the night, I ran back to our bedroom.
I breathed a sigh of relief, left the house, and drove to pick up Jessica.
Tonight is going to be exciting.
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Jessica's POV
Hearing my phone ring, I fished it out of my purse on my way out of work.
"Hey, Eric." I felt a smile creep onto my face.
"Hey, sunshine. How was work?" His nickname for me made my grin grow bigger.
"Great." I pushed open the door of the building, "But I can't wait for dinner."
"The reservation is for 6:20."
"It's 5:15." I shook my head. Eric always believes I don't need to get ready for anything.
"And that's why I'll be picking you up in about 10 minutes."
"Is that why you drove me to work this morning?" I laughed.
"Maybe." Eric chuckled. "I'll see you soon."
"Bye." I hung up, going to take a seat on a bench.
A short 10 minutes later, I saw Eric pull up to the curb. He jumped out at the same time I full on ran to him.
What? It's not everyday he picks me up from work.
Wrapping my arms around his neck, I held tight as he spun me around.
"Well hello to you to, sunshine." Eric laughed into my neck, sending shivers down my back.
Giggling like a little girl, Eric kissed my forehead before setting me back on my feet.
"Ready to go? I've got a surprise for you before dinner."
"Like?" I wagged my eyebrows.
"You'll see." Eric opened the passenger side door for me.
"Why can't you just tell me?"
"Why can't you just like my surprise?" Eric nudged me with his elbow.
On our drive to the surprise, Eric asked me how my day went, I asked how his day off was, and we chatted about our anniversary.
"Remember when we first truly met?" I could see the giant smirk on Eric's face from the corner of my eye.
"How could I forget? You beat me in a game of 21 in front of my friends." He grabbed onto my hand and gave it a squeeze. "And then laughed with them at me."
"I was only joking around. I didn't mean to laugh." I blushed a bright red.
"But if you hadn't of laughed, I wouldn't have started laughing too."
"So?"
"And when I started laughing, I realized you were the girl for me." My face grew a deeper colour.
"Now you're just being cheesy." I lightly hit his chest.
"You love it." Eric grinned. I sent him a half-smile.
In 10th grade, I was in the gym practicing for basketball after school when a group of boys came in to play. I knew one of them from class. The other two were strangers, but they quickly introduced themselves.
When I explained that I was practicing my shot, the boy I knew from class challenged me to a game of 21. I took his offer and beat him 21 to 17. His friends laughed at him and I began to as well. I didn't mean to, it was just funny to see how he handled his loss.
Eric started laughing with us. I knew then that he was a good guy.
"Hey, Eric?" I glanced out my window, "What are we doing here?"
"I need to pick something up before we go to the surprise." He parked as close as he could to the doors.
"Oh, okay." I didn't bother questioning him. I trusted Eric and knew it must be important if we're stopping at the mall before our anniversary surprise.
I held onto his hand as we stepped through the doors.
"Ooh, Eric! Can we go use the photo booth?" I was nearly jumping with excitement.
Upon entering the mall, I noticed a photo booth to the right of the doors. I haven't used one for ages and being with Eric made me want to.
"Sure, Jess." He kissed the side of my head.
Walking over, Eric pulled out a $5 to pay with. $5 got us 10 pictures.
"I love these." I bounced slightly while I waited for it to start. I got a chuckle out of Eric.
The countdown for the first picture started, and the both of us stuck out our tongues.
"Say cheese!" The machine said.
Laughing at the preview of the picture in the corner, our second one was of us grinning and pointing at it.
The next three were of Eric and I flashing peace signs, making serious faces, and of Eric kissing my cheek.
"5...4...3...2...1... Say cheese!" The machine announced for the sixth time.
This time we decided to make random faces; I chose to do a duck face while Eric crossed his eyes.
For the next two photos, I felt Eric suddenly tense up beside me. I gave him a kiss on the cheek for the seventh and I rest my head on his shoulder for the eighth.
On the ninth picture, Eric changed the angle of the camera and stood up, pulling me up too. He was talking as he pulled out a black case from his pocket. The machine froze during the camera angle change, giving him time to talk.
"Jess, I love you so much. Back in tenth grade, I didn't know how much I'd fall in love with you when I asked you out. I had no idea that asking you to play a stupid game of 21 would lead me to fall in love with you more and more everyday that we're together. I want to be with you everyday after today. You're my sunshine, Jess."
The machine's voice began playing again after finally focusing the camera, but no one was listening. All of my attention was on Eric.
I felt the world around me stop as Eric got down onto one knee, opening the black case.
"Jessica, will you marry me?"
With every part of me focusing on Eric, I didn't hear the photo booth taking our ninth picture.
It took me seconds to take in and process what was happening.
"Yes." I nodded, biting my bottom lip, "Oh my god, yes! Yes, yes, yes!" I let him slip the ring on my shaking hand.
My body trembled with the excitement and happiness I felt. Eric stood up from the ground, wrapping his arms around me. He placed my hands behind his neck. I was in too much shock to move.
"Say cheese!" The machine said for the last time.
It took our picture as we hugged and laughed with each other.
"We're engaged." I bit my bottom lip again, feeling tears forming in my eyes.
"We are." Eric smiled, wiping away my tears. "Happy anniversary, sunshine."
Feeling too many good emotions at once, I ignored the prompts from the photo booth to grab our printed pictures and gave Eric a long lasting kiss.
"This was the surprise the whole time, wasn't it?" I smirked, pulling away to leave the photo booth with him.
"Now, now, sunshine, we gotta go before we miss our reservation." Eric poked my nose, laughing as we got out to his car.
Hopping into his car, I couldn't help but admire the pictures we just took. They were perfect. I put them on the dash afterwards to admire my ring.
And I would be lying if I said that I didn't check out my engagement ring the the rest of the way to the restaurant.
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Author's note:
So, I don't know how to feel about this one. I mean it's so weird and cheesy all at the same time. But I mean I like it enough to post it. :)
By the way, if you ever see something that doesn't look write (spelling, grammar, format) feel free to tell me. I'll make sure to take a look and change it if nessacary.
Let me know what you think! :)