A Love Restored

“Are you ready yet?” Julian called from the living room. “Almost!” I yelled back. I hurriedly put on my lipstick. He had been waiting for quite a while. Julian had asked me to be dressed to go out by noon, but I hadn’t kept track of time and had barely started to get dressed when he had showed up at my door – at exactly noon.

Sometimes I got annoyed by how punctual he was. He was always on time. Always. No matter what. I couldn’t keep up with that. Right now I had the pregnancy to blame, but before that I didn’t have anything and had to come up with a different excuse every time.

Julian was taking me out. On a date. He had planned it all – he had said it was going to be ‘aesthetic like the ones on Pinterest, which was so sweet but still a little funny. But I did immensely appreciate him doing this.

I had put on a cute blue summer dress with small polka dots along with some shoes. And I had tied my hair up into a cute ponytail with minimal makeup. I thought I looked nice. With all the effort he had put in for the date, the least I could do is put effort in looking good.

I pranced outside, and Julian looked me over. He smiled warmly, “You look beautiful.”

“Thank you, so do you.”

He stood up, and walked to me, taking my hand. “Let’s go,” he said, beginning to lead me out the door. I gladly followed, but still ventured in with a “What’s the rush??

He shrugged. “I want to go out while the sun is still out. That’s why I said noon, Ginevra.”

“Sorry, I laughed lightly, “Lost track of time.”

He shook his head in playful admonishment, but didn’t say anything. We took the elevator downstairs, and he kissed me lightly in it, softly taking my lips for the full minute it took to get from my floor to the ground floor of the building.

We got into his car, and when I turned around, I saw a picnic basket in the backseat.

“We’re having a picnic?” I exclaimed. My voice was high and shrill. He winced. I did too. In my excitement 1 had forgotten how to speak properly.

“Yeah.”

I reached forward and grabbed his face, planting kisses all over it. He grimaced, but I knew he loved it. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! I love it.” Just. as I had finished my sentence, my voice started to break. Why? What the hell, I was crying?

I felt my heart swell with affection and then suddenly I was sobbing. He was so sweet. Julian was so sweet. What did I do to deserve this?

Even though I was overcome with emotion I was actively aware that this situation didn’t really need that big a reaction. I mean, not a full blown sob fest, for sure. But I couldn’t stop crying. When I looked at Julian, he was visibly panicking. He reached out and enveloped me in a hug. “Hey, hey,” he cooed like he was talking to a kitten, “What happened?“–

I shook my head against his shoulder, “You’re so good to me.”

“Barely,” he said, “But you need to stop crying.”

I nodded, but I didn’t stop crying. He rubbed my back, and kept rubbing till my sobs subsided. “Pregnancy emotions?” he muttered under his breath, hoping I’d laugh. I didn’t

“Sorry,” he muttered again. I looked up at him, and he swore under his breath, “Fuck, baby. Don’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?

He shook his head. “Nothing,” he replied, and began driving. It was a pretty long drive. We listened to music – Midnights by Taylor Swift. And then Red (Taylor’s Version) He didn’t really like it but since I was pregnant he mostly let me do whatever I wanted – play whatever music and watch whatever shows and movies I wanted. I kept pausing the music to tell him the lore behind each song and each specific lore. When we reached our destination, he knew all about who all Taylor Swift had dated, which of those people we liked, and also all about Kanye West and Scooter Braun. He had actually listened very intently to it all even making comments and arguing in favor of some of the bad guys. Then I’d explained some more until he had agreed.

He had brought us to a beautiful lake. It was about thirty minutes away from the city. I had heard of this place. A friend of mine had gone here and put up pictures on Instagram. Maybe around eight months ago. And I had sent the post to Julian.

Oh.

He had remembered.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

-10

Julian told me to stay put in the car while he set things up. I obeyed. He made a few trips to and from the car before he finally asked me to come out. We had to walk for a little bit before we reached the little place he had set up.

It was so cute.

A plaid picnic blanket, flowers, a small light blue bento cake, pizza, a transparent bottle with non–alcoholic sangria, two packs of chips and some fruits. He’d made a whole fruit board.

I looked up at him. He was looking at me, smiling, waiting for my reaction.

1 jumped up into his arms. He stumbled a little, but then caught me in a safe group. “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” I said, “I love it so much. I love it, I love it.”

“I’m glad, baby.”

He set me down, and I ran toward the spread. I sat down and looked at the lake. It was the most beautiful view. When Julian came in and sat beside me, I realized that he was the better view.

Julian fished a small bottle of sanitizer from his jeans, and made us both sanitize our hands. That was nice. A minute later, he fed me a strawberry. It was the best damn strawberry I had ever tasted in my entire life.