You Always Go And Rescue Me

Chapter 10

Christmas Eve went by in a blur. We visited Zach’s grandparents and ate a lot of food. We didn’t get home until nightfall and watched traditional Christmas movies until a little before midnight. Everyone was so tired that we all just went to bed so that we could wake up early Christmas morning to exchange gifts.

When Zach said they woke up early to open presents, he wasn’t kidding. Zach, who was as excited as a kid to go downstairs, awaked me at six in the morning. Barely coherent, I went downstairs with him to join his family. Everyone was still in pj’s and looking undone, but none of that mattered, they were overjoyed to be together. Zach’s parents exchanged- which was adorable- and handed off gifts to the boys, who exchanged with each other. I just sort of sat back and watched the dynamics between the family with a smile on my face. They were such lovely people and I was thrilled to be part of it.

I was interrupted from my thoughts when Zach’s parents passed gifts along to me. I didn’t expect anything, so the gesture in itself was more than enough. Zach and I gave the gifts we had gotten for the rest of his family and things started to settle down. No one was disappointed and within a half hour everyone was ready to go back to sleep for another three hours or so.

Zach had given me a couple of small gifts but it wasn’t until everyone had gone back to their bedrooms that he quietly crept into my room.

“Hey handsome, what are you doing?”

I had just gotten back into my bed and didn’t expect to see him until his mom made breakfast in a few hours.

“I wanted to give you your present in private,” he said with a smile.

I got out of the bed and stood up next to him, confused. “Honey you already gave me my gifts downstairs.”

“No, I gave you clothes and stuff. That isn’t your gift.” With that he pulled out a box. It was a long Tiffany & Co. box wrapped with a bow. I gasped.

“Oh my God! This is for me?”

“Just open it! I’ve been dying to give it to you for a while now.”

I did as I was told. When I took off the ribbon and opened the infamous box, I saw a gorgeous necklace waiting for me. It was a white gold antique skeleton key hanging from a beautiful white gold chain. The top of the key was shaped as an open heart that was made entirely of diamonds while the body of the key was purely white gold. It was absolutely spectacular. My mouth fell to the floor as I looked at the amazing gift Zach got for me.

“Do you like it?” Zach asked with excitement. He was so anxious to give me this gift and just wanted confirmation he did a good job.

“I love it. Zach, it’s incredible.” I just looked up at him still in shock.

He smiled with relief. “I’m glad. I didn’t know what to get you for the longest time. I wanted it to be perfect and when I saw this I thought of you as soon as I did,” he paused. “…It’s the key to my heart, and you already have it… but no one has ever had it before you. I want you to know that I love you and that this represents you…you have my whole heart.”

I almost started crying. This was so much more than just a gift to him. He put so much thought into this that I didn’t know how to react. My heart was swelling and the only thing I could do was grab him and kiss him. I kissed him with a hunger and didn’t stop until we both realized where we were.

“Let me help you put it on.”

“Alright,” I said with an eager smile.

I turned around and he placed it around my neck. I admired it in the mirror and each time I looked down at it or touched it I saw and felt Zach. When I turned around and faced him he looked at me and said, “you look beautiful, it fits you perfectly.”

I was so flabbergasted with Zach’s necklace I almost forgot I I too had a little surprise in store for him.

“Oh! You almost made me forget! You’re not the only sneaky one,” I suddenly said as I slyly turned around and took a box out from my temporary drawer. “I wanted to give this with just the two of us. This is your Christmas present. Open it! It’s been burning a hole in everything, I can’t wait anymore or I’ll explode,” I said as I eagerly clapped my hands together.

He laughed and started opening his present. “I didn’t know what to get you. I mean, it’s not like you can’t afford to buy yourself whatever you want. So I had to figure out what to buy the hockey player that has everything,” I joked.

When Zach opened his gift he finally saw the watch I had been dying to give him. It wasn’t a huge million dollar one, but it was special; it was a metaphorical gift as well as his was. It had a white face that said past, present, future going around. He looked at it happily and looked up at me.

“I knew I had to get this when I came across it. It…represents that you have my past, present and future,” I tried to smoothly get my words out. “The rest of my days, every minute I’m on this earth…it’s all yours. You’re my everything... I love you,” I stammered out. I always got a little nervous when I was talking about raw emotion like that. I wanted my words to come out perfectly, but they didn’t, and of course Zach didn’t care. He saw past my imperfections and loved me for them.

“I love it. It’s the best gift I’ve ever gotten, thank you babe,” he said genuinely.

Zach’s reaction to his gift was very similar to mine. Neither of us knew expected what we received, but we knew we loved each other. I didn’t think things could be so incredible, it actually seemed kind of cheesy, but it was so us. I loved that we had this special, private moment in this beautiful place. As the watch I gave him represented, the future that was in store for us was bright. It had to be. We were young, and the odds seemed to be stacked against us, but we were more in love than any two people.

Zach pulled me close to him and kissed me tenderly. We had just put our entire hearts on the line and nothing could spoil the moment. Our kissing intensified and I pulled myself closer to him. I wrapped my hands around his head and intertwined my fingers in his hair, pulling him into me tighter. His hands were tightly wrapped around my back and clawing up my shirt. Our breathing was getting heavier and I didn’t want to break apart, but we had to.

It was nearing 7 a.m. and everyone was back to sleep by now.

“Zach…would you stay with me? I know everyone’s sleeping but it’s only a little nap until we have to get up and get ready. And, after this, I just don’t want to be apart. I want you to hold me.”

“I wasn’t going to go anywhere,” he said sexily with his gorgeous smirk.

We fell onto the bed and our bodies conformed to each other naturally. His hand wrapped itself around my waist and our fingers interlocked. We quickly fell asleep and enjoyed the few hours of sleep we would get until we had to get up for the long but wonderful day ahead of us.