To France With Love

Today was the day. The day I had been ignoring for quite some time now. I woke up and sighed. I was leaving, and soon. I pulled myself out of bed and went straight to the bathroom to shower. When I was finished, Rafa was standing by the dresser, loading clothes into his bag. I frowned at him and he kissed my forehead. I rested my head on his chest for a minute, before I realized that I was dripping wet, in a towel, and that I should probably get some clothes on.

I sighed and reached into one of my drawers and pulled out a shirt and some shorts. I got dressed and went over to the closet where I had stored my suitcase and pulled it out and dragged it to the dresser. I started packing up all of my clothes, shoes, and other miscellaneous stuff.

It didn’t take us too long to pack up. When we were done, Rafa suggested that we go spend some quality time on our last day. He said he had a surprise for me. I was very curious as to what this surprise was, especially when he pulled out a small package wrapped in pink tissue paper. “We’ll need this later.” He said. I grinned and followed him out the door.

He lead me through Paris until, finally, we reached a bridge. It had locks all over it. Had I read about this before. Rafa pulled out the package from his pocket, and handed it to me. I opened it. It was a lock and key. Rafa also took out a sharpie from his pocket. “On the bridge, people lock their love. Then they throw the key so the lock can’t be taken off, and the love can never be taken off.” My smile grew. This was too sweet.

I took the lock and wrote “Rafael + Emelie” on the front, then flipped it over and on the back drew a heart and wrote the word “Forever”. We picked a spot along the bridge. I would never forget that spot. then we locked our lock. Rafa and I kissed the key for good measure and then Rafa put his arm around me, and I threw the key off the bridge. Our love was locked, and it could never be broken.

Then we just stood there. He rested his head on my head, and we stood there. Looking over the bridge. I thought about everything. The night we met when Rafa, Maria, and I were avoiding the party like six year olds. I remembered our first kiss, under the awning, on the practice courts, in the rain. My birthday when he asked me to be his girlfriend on the balcony. When he forgave me when I screwed up. I recalled the first night I spent with him. Moving in with him when Maria left. His amazing victory. And finally locking our love on the bridge.
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“Let me help.” Said Rafa as I struggled to lift my suitcase into the car. I gave it to him and he put it in. We rode to the airport in awkward silence. Neither of us knew what to say. Rafa just held my hand the whole way.

Rafa lifted our bags out of the car and we went ahead and checked them right outside the airport. Rafa took my hand and lead me inside the airport. We had checked our boarding passes last night. Our gates were on the same side of the airport so we could get through security together then sit together until my plane got here to take me back to D.C. Then Rafa’s would take him to Spain shortly after mine left.

Getting through security was pretty easy. We found, then sat down at my gate. By that time, we had a half an hour until my plane left. Rafa and I played with our tennis app to kill time. I teased him about not having as many badges as me. He responded that it was a good thing that he didn’t have as many badges as a “nerd” like me we both laughed.

“Flight 915 Nonstop to Washington, D.C. will now begin boarding.”

My stomach dropped as I locked the screen on my iPad. I put it in my bag and zipped it up. I closed my eyes and sighed. Rafa took my hand and rubbed my shoulder with his other hand. I threw my arms around him and kissed him. Then I rested my head on his chest.

“We will begin with first class. Rows one through ten lineup to board.”

I was row nine. I was reluctant to let go of Rafa. I just couldn’t do it. I felt like a child, but I could not let go. I started to cry.

“Don’t cry, honey.” Said Rafa. “Em, I love you so much. I will talk to you every day and I will see you again very soon.” I didn’t look up. I was hiding my face in his chest. “Please look at me.” I looked up. He wiped a tear from my cheek. Then looked me straight in the eyes. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” I choked out.

“Last call for first class rows one through nine.”

Rafa gave me a kiss. I picked up my bag and walked to the ticket counter. There was no line. The man scanned my ticket, and directed me to through the door to the plane. I sighed and wiped the tears from my face. I turned around. Rafa stood watching me. He gave me a small wave, the shoved his hands into his pockets and sighed. I waved back and turned and walked onto the plane.

I held myself together long enough to sit down, but as soon as I sat down, I began to sob. The lady next to me looked concerned, but I had the window seat so I turned away from her and looked out the window.

When I finally took off I watched the beautiful city disappear behind me. My spectacular month in Paris was over.
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When I got off the plane I found the bathroom so I could fix my hair and makeup. Then I went down to the baggage claim. I found my bag and pulled it off the conveyor belt, when I heard someone call my name. I turned around, and saw 3 of my brothers standing there.

“Welcome home, sissy!” Called Mat.

“Hi!” I shouted as i ran over to them. I hugged all of them and they carried my bags to the car.

“So how was your trip?” Asked Jimmy.

“It was fun.” I said.

“So are you actually dating a player or was that a joke?” Asked Ryan.

“Are you serious?” I asked “Of course I wasn’t lying!” I said.

“I still have no idea who this guy is.” Said Mat. I rolled my eyes.

“He’s the guy who won the whole tournament!” I said.

“Oh.” Said Ryan. “We still don’t watch tennis.” I shook my head. Things were definitely going back to the way they were very quickly.