(Almost) A Dream Come True

She was sat in her basement, just another day. Futurama played on the telly as she pet her cat and checked her phone for any message from him. About a week back, he mentioned he was sending her a package. She'd asked for the tracking information, but he refused.
"If I give you the tracking page, you can see what's being shipped," he explained in the tone that made her heart flutter, "I want it to be a surprise."
"Fine, fine. But that means you can't get aggravated when I ask every day how close it is," she retorted with a giggle.
But she was such an impatient girl, the wait was making her antsy.
Finally, that familiar ping rang from her phone. It was the Facebook Messenger app, and it was a message from him.
"Your package was delivered just now!" It read, "Hurry, go look!"
She pushed her cat aside and ran up the stairs, looking out the side door...nothing. She ran to the window beside the other door and peaked out, a man standing on porch. Assuming it was the UPS man, she quickly swung the door open, apologising for the wait. Looking up, she froze.
Vincent stood before her, grinning from ear to ear. You could see on his face that he felt so clever. Still frozen, she stared.
"...are you...real..." she spoke softly, a slight shake in her voice.
"Of course I'm real! I'm your package! Get it?!" His face said he was waiting for a reply, but no words were leaving her lips. Tears began filling her eyes, and poor Vincent panicked. The cheeky grin left his face and he grabbed her, holding her tightly to his chest.
"How are you here?" Her voice was trembling in shock, excitement, and anxiety as she gripped his hoodie with her shaking hands.
“I took a plane, you silly girl.” A soft smile graced his lips.
As she began to relax, still held against him, she suddenly realised she was a mess. A giant white t-shirt, baggy pj pants, no bra, remnants of last night’s midnight makeup and bedhead.
Wait, what does my breath smell like, she thought. She began to panic again.
“Oh god,” she finally spoke aloud.
“What?” He inquired, finding nothing wrong with the way she looked. If anything, he found it endearing.
“I, uh, I have to pee!” She said before running off into the bathroom. To anyone else, that might have been more embarrassing than just saying they had to brush their teeth, but not to Zee. Once in the bathroom, she started desperately attempting to clean up the makeup smears from under and around her eyes.
“I’ll be out in a minute! Turn on the telly, make yourself comfortable!” She shouted from the bathroom.
“I’m not stupid,” he mumbled to himself with a chuckle. He kicked off his shoes and sat on the couch, playing with the remote and searching through Netflix, awaiting her return.
At the same moment, she’s ripping through her hair with the brush that sits on the side of the sink in a frantic attempt to defeat the bedhead. Next, she brushed her teeth vigorously. She could feel her gums begin to bleed but believed it to be a small price to pay for a super clean mouth. Finally, she realised she actually did have to pee, so she did her business and washed up.
As she stepped out of the bathroom, he glanced over at her with a smile that made her knees weak and held out his hand.
“Come cuddle.” He spoke the words with an eagerness that sounded like he’d been dying to say that to her face for a long time.
And of course, she couldn’t say no to that, so she walked around the couch and plopped down next to him; stiff as a board. Vincent, although slightly disappointed she didn’t just lay on him, found how nervous she was rather adorable and decided to take matters into his own hands. Swinging his arms around her, he pulled her in. Her head now rested on his shoulder and she was blushing the deepest red she ever had. He brushed his fingertips against her hot cheeks and down under her chin, tilting her face up so he could look her in the eyes.
And in a soft tone full of sincerity and wonder, he said, “wow. You really are even more beautiful in person…”
Her breath caught and her eyes filled with tears once more.
“Can I kiss you?” He asked sweetly, in a way that sounded like he’d almost surprised himself with that question. She nodded weakly.
They leaned into each other as their lips met, and she slowly dragged her fingers up his arm to rest on the hand that was holding her face. As their lips softly brushed each others in the sweetest kiss, their hearts beat a little faster. For a single moment, the world disappeared. Her anxiety evaporated out of her fingertips as he held her and his worries vanished from his mind...until they heard a forced cough come from the kitchen. Zee had forgotten her mother took a half day off work. She jumped back to the other end of the couch, and Vincent grinned at her mother.
“Hey, Miss. It’s nice to finally meet you.” He spoke; his tone sounded confident with a hint of embarrassment lingering in the background.
“Hello, Vincent.” She said in a welcoming voice. “It’s nice to finally meet you too. I see you two have already gotten comfortable.”
“Haaa, I thought he was the delivery guy.” Zee said as she rubbed the back of her neck, anxiety flooding back into her body like a tsunami crashing over her.
“That was the idea,” he replied quite cockily. This made her mother laugh.
As they both looked at her with waiting eyes, it hit her.
“You guys planned this?!” She squealed, her voice cracking over the ‘a.’ This brought them both nearly to tears as they laughed. The blood raced back into her face and she pulled the nearest blanket off the back of the couch and over her head.
“I’m gonna let you guys talk now,” her mum said, still giggling. As she turned and walked back down the hall, Vincent lifted the blanket and peeked at a still very embarrassed Zee. Her face flushed and eyes closed, he leaned in and kissed the tip of her nose. She flinched just slightly and opened one of her eyes to peek back at him.
“If you don’t come out, I’m coming in.”
Disbelief broke through once more and her other eye opened and she stared at him. He pulled her legs away from her chest and settled them on either side of him as he pushed her to lean back against the pillows. She couldn’t find it in her to say anything, though her mouth had opened to speak. He laid his head against her chest and closed his eyes. With shaky hands, she wrapped an arm around him and ran her fingers through his hair.
“It’s as soft as I thought it would be…” she whispered. This made him smile.
“Thank you.”
“That was supposed to be a thought bubble. You know you’ve spent too much time alone when…” she trailed off. He chuckled and wrapped his arms around her tightly, as if she would float away if he were to loosen his grip.
“I’ve waited for this for so long…” He mumbled against her shirt.
“Me too...but in my head, I was always wearing a bra. It was never my intention for you to find out how small they really are the first time we cuddled.” Her voice was rather serious but he couldn’t keep himself from laughing, though he tried.
“You know, they’re not as small as you think they are. But I gotta say, you’re right. They are very soft.”
“I’m telling you, my cat sleeps on them all the time.”
They both let out a soft laugh which faded into silence. She played with his hair with one hand and gently dragged her nails up and down his back with the other the whole time, as if her arms would never get tired.
“I love you.” He said under his breath, as if he was falling asleep. Her heart skipped and he heard it, looking up at her as tears filled her eyes.
“I’m sorry, was that too much? I’ve wanted to say that for so long but I wanted to wait until I was able to see you because we’ve been through so much, I didn’t want to hurt you anymore.”
By the time he’d finished talking, she was on the verge of sobs, shaking like a leaf. He tried to pull away but she gripped him close.
“I love you. I never thought you’d feel the same again. You disappeared for so long. I thought I would never get the chance to tell you how I felt, how it never changed. I thought you realised that you could never feel that way for someone like me and that was why you left.” She was just barely understandable and pain shone in his eyes.
“You’re perfect…how many times do I have to tell you that you’re perfect?” his voice shook and he held her tighter, kissing her with a love that had been caged deep inside him for years.
She held onto him now, as if at any moment, she could wake from this dream. As if, at any moment, she would open her eyes, surrounded by the white basement walls, her cat asleep on her chest.

And she did.
Her eyes fluttered open and she stared at the ceiling with a knot in her stomach and a lump in her throat. The tv was on the blue screen and the house was silent; empty. She bit her lip and she squeezed her eyes shut as they overflowed.
Stupid girl.