Tutti Italia: A Novel (19 page)

The water stopped, and she could hear Erik getting out of
the shower.  She turned her back to the door and kept folding the laundry that
she’d spread out across the bed.  She tried to keep her tears to herself.  He
came in and grabbed a pair of underwear and the space heater from their room. 
He disappeared again.  She sighed and put the clothes away.  When she was
finished, she wanted to know why he didn’t care about her romantic gesture. 
She found him with the heater plugged in like a campfire in the dark living
room, sitting on the blanket, waiting for her.

“Why didn’t you say anything to me when you came home?” 
The hurt was clear in her voice. 

“I’m sorry, hun.  I just didn’t know what to say.  No one
has ever done anything like that for me.  I was hoping that you would come and
join me in the shower.”  Now Rachel knew that she couldn’t be altogether mad at
him.  It was sad that no girl had ever taken the time to so something sweet and
romantic for him.  She was slightly mollified, but he made it up to her by
pulling her down onto the blanket with him and kissing her. 

They had a few spats now and then, but what couple didn’t? 
Their relationship grew in leaps and bounds.  Within a year, the two of them
were comfortable together, and life looked like it was going to be wonderful
after all.

When Valentine’s Day rolled around, she was working in the
computer lab with her kids, letting them play some educational games.  He came
in and brought her a plastic bag from the mini mall.  She peeked in it quickly,
and saw that it was full of books.  When she looked back up to thank him, he
was already gone.  She texted him quickly, while her kids were preoccupied,
thanking him for the books.  The reply that she got was a simple question of
whether or not she’d found the surprise in the bag.  She answered that she hadn’t,
then looked through the bag.  There was a small jewelry box in the bottom of
the bag.  She almost stopped breathing.  Her heart started to beat a rapid
tattoo against her ribs.  Could it be?  Could he possibly be proposing to her? 
She held her breath and opened the box.  Inside were a pair of diamond
earrings, and a matching necklace.  It was such a sweet gesture that she
couldn’t help but tear up a little bit.  She could wait.  The ring was coming,
she just knew it. 

They continued going on trips and adventures together,
enjoying each other’s company and letting more places fill up their memory
albums.  On Rachel’s birthday, in December, He made her breakfast in bed, then
came back to snuggle with her.  She enjoyed the day immensely.  She’d been hoping
for the ring then, too.  But it hadn’t made an appearance.  They got his
mother’s special recipe for Christmas Stars, and made them together.  A flour
fight ensued, and the two of them fell into the shower together.  Rachel had
the perfect idea for Christmas.  Erik still had to work, since he was military,
but she had the break off.  She drove to the mini mall and loaded up on
Christmas decorations.  She got a tree with blue lights, then found different
blue ornaments to decorate it with.  She even got a matching tree skirt to go
with it.  When she got home, she cleaned the whole house again, then set up the
tree and decorated it.  She checked the time and made dinner.  It was ready for
Erik by the time he came home. 

“Hey honey.  How was your day?”  Erik sat down and looked
like he was really upset. 

“I just hate my jobs some days, and today was one of
them.”  Rachel gave him his plate, then filled her own and sat down across the
table from him. 

“What happened?”  Erik worked in communications, and had
the entire computer system on base to work with, as well as government phones,
and other communication devices.  He was usually up to his ears in repairs and
system checks.

“We had a long line of ticket numbers to take care of, as
usual, but a colonel came in and demanded that his problem be fixed right
away.  I explained to him that he would have to put in a ticket and we would
get to it in the order it was put in.  He didn’t like that answer very much, so
he went over my head to my supervisor.  My supervisor told him the same thing I
did.  He still wasn’t happy with the answer he got, so he went to our
commander.  As you know, commanders are always officers, so the jerkoff told
him he would put the ticket at the start of the queue.  I hate when people do
crap like that.  There are more important things than the colonel’s cell
phone.”  Rachel understood how frustrated he was.  When dinner was finished, he
went straight to his computer and started playing video games.  This frustrated
her to no end.  Tomorrow was Christmas Eve, and she had one thing that she’d
been planning on giving Erik that she hoped was going to be the best present
he’d ever gotten.  She’d wrapped all kinds of other presents and put them under
the tree, but this one was special.  She’d gone through a lot of indecision,
but she thought that she finally had it right.  She was going to propose to
him.  After all, if two people loved each other, did it really matter who got
down on their knee?  Erik went to the Laundromat to get some laundry done,
hoping that no one else would want to go to the Laundromat on Christmas Eve. 

While he was gone, Rachel worked on her speech.  She was so
nervous, that she didn’t think that she could go through with it without
stumbling a few times.  She heard his car pulling up, and got herself
together.  She was going to give it to him as the last present of the evening. 
She folded the clothes while he made them a quick dinner.  Since it was only
the two of them, they weren’t making anything fancy.  She’d just finished
putting the last t-shirt into the drawer when he came into the bedroom and
announced that dinner was ready.  She followed him out and saw that he’d set up
the table for them, with a few candles lit in the middle.  She felt tears come
to her eyes that he’d tried to make it romantic for her.  She smiled at him and
threw her arms around him.

“Thank you, sweetheart.”  He looked at her with confusion
on his face.

“Ok, um, you’re welcome?  What did I do?”  She kissed him
before she answered him.

“You made it a romantic dinner.  Thank you.  I haven’t had
very many romantic gestures made for me, either.”  That was something that they
had in common.  It was strange at times, their relationship, because they were
both coming from bad ones, and it seemed like all they wanted to do was please
each other.  He pulled the chair out for her, and pushed it in as she went to
sit down.  He scrambled around to his side, and Rachel reached across the table
for his hands.  He was clearly surprised, but he reached for her hands as
well.  “I just want to take the time to thank God for bringing you into my
life.  I’m not overly religious, but that bears saying.  I love you, Erik.  And
I couldn’t think of anyplace I would rather be.”  She let go of him and the two
ate their meal together in companionable silence.  When they were finished,
Erik went and put on some Christmas music on his computer, and the two of them
cleared the table and cleaned the dishes together.  Rachel thought back to when
she was in her teens.  She’d always hated doing chores, especially the dishes,
but lately she’d found out that doing chores with someone that you loved, made
it seem like it was something so much more than a chore.  He finished washing
the dishes before she finished drying them and putting them away, and he told
her he’d meet her in the living room.

She came into the living room, and he had their stockings
in his hands.  He handed her stocking to her, then waited for her to open it. 
She was a little confused as to why he was watching her so intently.  She
reached in and pulled out a small package wrapped up in snowflake paper.  She
opened it, and saw that it was a jewelry box.  The last time she’d gotten a
jewelry box from Erik, it had been the diamond earrings and the necklace.  It was
safe for her to assume that it was another pair of earrings.  The box in her
own pocket was burning a hole in her jeans.  She opened it, and got the biggest
shock of her life.  It definitely was
not
a pair of earrings.  It was a
diamond ring.  Rachel’s hands flew to her mouth in surprise, and she looked up
at him.  Erik had silently gotten on one knee while she was opening her box,
without her noticing it.

“What do you say, Rachel?  Do you want to spend the rest of
your life doing just what we’re doing right now?”  She was crying in happiness,
and all she could do was nod. 

“Yes!  I would love to spend the rest of my life doing this
with you.  I guess great minds think alike.”  Erik looked at her, a little
confused.  Rachel reached into her jeans pocket, pulled out the jewelry box,
and opened it.  Erik saw the ring in the box, and laughed. 

The
End.

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