Page 62 of Better Than Gelato
The song ends on a picture of me laughing at something off camera, as Ed Sheeran tells me I look perfect tonight. I feel perfect tonight. Or this morning. Whatever. I feel complete and whole and filled with something strange and wonderful. Filled like I might burst.
I look up, and Jake is watching me, gauging my reaction.
“What do you think?” he asks.
“I love it.”
“You do?”
“And I love you.”
“You do?”
I lean in and kiss him and try to put all the love I feel for him into that kiss. All the love that has been trying to come out for weeks, but I kept pushing it back in. Because I was too scared, and I didn’t feel ready. I’m still scared. But I can’t keep it in anymore. I let it all go, and I swear I can feel it flowing from my body to his.
Jake pulls back. His eyes are shiny, which suddenly makes my eyes tear up.Why is Christmas so emotional!?
“You already know I love you, don’t you?” Jake says.
I do. It’s in everything he does for me. Every time he looks at me. The way he touches me. I nod and kiss him again.
We spend most of Christmas Day kissing and telling each other “I love you.” Later, as we’re eating giant slices of Panettone cake, Jake says, “You know, I think even if I had gotten a mummy when I was seven, today would top that Christmas.”
“Whoa, I beat out the mummy huh?”
“You did. Hard earned victory. Oh! And I got you another gift.”
“What? Your first gift was perfect. There’s no topping it. I wouldn’t even try. You’ll only feel silly.”
Jake smiles and kisses me again. “This is a gift for both of us.”
He jumps off the couch and dashes to Isa’s room. He comes back holding a white envelope, which he hands to me.
I open it, and there are tickets inside. They have a symbol of a train. I check the date and the destination. December 30 to January 1, Firenze.
“What do you think?” Jake says. “Celebrate New Year’s in Florence?”
I give a squeal. “That’s the best idea anyone has ever had. In the whole history of ideas.”
“I don’t know, penicillin was a big deal. The Internet was kind of a game changer.”
I wave those things away with my hand. “This is the best. And you are the best. And this week is going to be the best.”
ChapterFourteen
If six-months-ago-me saw current-me, she would puke. Or punch me. Or punch me while puking on me. Jake spends the rest of the week at the Rossis’, and we tell each other “I love you” so much you’d think we’d get sick of it. We don’t. We snuggle, nap, eat, read books. We go out to eat a few times and invite the gang over to watch Jake’s favorite Christmas movie,Home Alone. They have a lot of questions.
“How did they forget one of their kids?”
“Why didn’t the mom just have a neighbor come over and look in on Kevin until the family could get back from France?”
“Does he have grandparents? Where were the grandparents?”
“How did Kevin know how to do all those terrible things to those burglars?”
“Do all American kids know how to do that?”
“Is this something they teach in the schools?”
