A Wonderful Surprise

Nick waved his hand to Eric Halvorsen who just dropped him in front of Mary’s house. He was walking to the front door all alone, inhaling and exhaling hardly before knocking on the door.

As Garrett told him before, Nick was there to get his only chance to meet and talk to Mary. At first he was kind of afraid; he wasn’t ready to meet her that day. But since he’s going to flight back to Massachusetts in three days, he must do it right away, ready or not.

Nick knocked at the door again after waiting for 10 minutes. He then heard a loud step from inside the house, seemed like someone was running around. Nick could hear someone yelled that he’d open the door. Turned out, it was the one and only Garrett Nickelsen whom Nick met there.

`Oh, here you are,` Garrett said coldly.

`Uh, yes,` Nick stuttered. `Is Mary home?` He asked as Garrett nodded and told him to come inside.

`I won’t disturb you guys, don’t worry. But Mary wants me to accompany her so I’ll stay around this house,` Garrett informed. He quickly made his way to where Mary kept the rest of his Watermelon Sour Patch Kids packs and went to the living room with two full bags of candies.

Nick himself tried to figure out where Mary was. He then remembered Mary’s most favorite place in her house and went straight to there. Peeking from the door, Nick found Mary was sitting alone with her phone in one hand and a bottle of orange juice in the other hand. She seemed a little busy with her phone so that she didn’t realize Nick was there, inhaling deeply before making his way to where Mary was.

`Who was it, Gare?` Mary asked without looking away from her phone. As she didn’t get any answer, she looked up and saw Nick Santino’s warm-yet-nervous smile. `Oh, sorry. I thought you’re Garrett.`

`It’s okay. He’s in the living room,` Nick said. He was obviously nervous as he just sat there silently, playing with his fingers like he had no other thing to do.

`What are you doing here?` Mary finally spoke up. She put her phone beside her as she tightened her grip to the bottle.

`We need to talk.`

`About what?` Mary asked back shortly. She didn’t seem so interested to what Nick was going to talk about.

`I—I’m really sorry for what happened lately. I mean—I’m so sorry if I ever did wrong things, Mary.` Nick stuttered as he tried to compose his sentences. He looked at anywhere but Mary’s eyes. Mary was glancing at him and he just didn’t dare to look at her in the eyes.

`If you really meant it, look at me, Nicholas.` Mary stated making the Santino boy slowly looked at her. `Now tell me why you are apologizing to me. You know, I don’t forgive someone who I thought they didn’t do something wrong.`

Mary had her voice softened. She was almost whispering while talking. Nick guess she was trying to control her emotion because he saw Mary hold her bottle so tight and kept rolling her eyes for some times. Nick never knew how Mary was when she’s upset. Now he just found out about that and wished that he would’ve not make a mess with her.

`Rachael told me that you overheard my conversation with her about Lisa. And since that day, you didn’t seem well—you didn’t pick up my call or answer my call. I came to a conclusion that you’re mad at me. That’s why I’m here to apologize.`

`Okay.` Mary answered shortly. She’s more relaxed now but still, there’s such a kind of invisible gap between Mary and Nick which made him couldn’t go further. Nick wasn’t sure what he should do now.

`So… will you forgive me?` Nick asked unsurely. He rubbed his nape for several times then played with his own ginger hair.

Mary sighed, `it’s not that easy, Nick. You’ve hurt me, you know? You lied to me. You’re just cheated with your girlfriend in Massachusetts and I can’t just forgive you about that, okay?`

Nick looked away hopelessly. He actually had something he wanted to tell but he wasn’t sure about that. He had a thought that Mary could just slap him if he spilled out about that. But, hell, he was still in love with Mary. He’d do anything to get her, he promised that to himself. But telling Mary that he was trying to call Lisa for a break up in this time would make everything harder than before.

`Do you have anything more to say?` Mary’s voice brought Nick back from his mind. She’s now standing with an empty bottle in her hand, ready to make her way inside the house.

`I’m still waiting for your forgiveness.` Nick said, now bravely looking at her. His eyes were full of hopes. `Please?`

Mary rolled her eyes slowly, she hated being in this situation. She hated that she had to deal with Nick Santino about this kind of problem. Mary was never into this problem before, so that made her confused whether she had to listen to her heart to forgive him or to follow his brain which was telling her to just leave Nick and not meet him ever again.

`When will you go back to your hometown?` Mary finally said something after 5 minutes thinking.

`The day after tomorrow.` He answered shortly.

`Okay. You’ll know I forgive you if you see me in the airport the day after tomorrow. If I’m not there, don’t ever try to contact me again.` Mary said as she then said goodbye to Nick Santino and went inside her house.

The talk was over. Mary was replaced with Garrett now who was taking Nick to the front door. They said short goodbyes before Garrett closed the door silently and Nick made his way back to Halvo’s house alone, hoping that the girl he loved would show up before he was boarding to his hometown two days later.