The Hidden Letter – Part II

Continued…

Kayla Thomas,
London,2012.

I step out of the house in my floor-length, champagne coloured gown he bought me. He is standing by the hood of his car. I don’t understand how he manages to look like freaking ‘Adonis’ even in his casual worn out jeans, a black t-shirt and that brown leather jacket. Not wanting to seem like an idiot on our first date, I step forward but, being the klutz that I sometimes am, I trip. Closing my eyes, I wait for the impact but all I feel is a strong set of arms holding me. How I manage to trip on the smooth cement surface, is out of my grasp! I looked up to his shaking profile. Yes, the jerk was trying to hold back his laughter. I narrowed my eyes at him and he seemed to sober up. A little.

Straightening me up, he whispered,“Kayla, you look beautiful tonight.” That made me blush. I groaned internally and wondered, what was wrong with me, since it’s very rare to see me blushing. But then, what on earth is right , when it comes to me, these days? The proof is standing right before me. My childhood best friend. The guy I fell in love with. He took my hand, breaking my chain of thoughts and led me to the car. Opening my door, he ushered me in but, I stood gaping at him. He never was a gentleman, not to me at least. Suddenly, I got this mischievous glint in my eyes, which made him take a step back, uncertainly. He knew me well. Smirking up at him, I asked, “Being chivalrous today, are we?” That made him blush. Wait! What? Blush! He was blushing! I blinked, unable to believe my eyes. I’d never in the past 17 years seen him blush. Never! And just as the thought crossed my mind, I burst out laughing. He narrowed his eyes on me and shut the door hotly, muttering under his breath, which made me laugh even harder.

I was still laughing, when he gunned the engine but, when I caught him looking at me with an unreadable expression, I frowned. “What?” I blurted. He just shook his head and started moving, again muttering under his breath.
After a while of comfortable silence, I realized, I didn’t know where we were headed to. As if on cue, he turned left on to the highway, away from the city. “Where are we going, Adrian? I didn’t know we were going out of the city.”
He smiled at me, making my heart beat faster than normal, “You’ll know soon, Kay.”
“You know I hate surprises!” I whined.
He chuckled, shaking his head, “Chill your ass, fiesty one.”
I glared at him.
Laughing he said, “Chill, you’ll love it. Promise!”
Soon, he was pulling over and I couldn’t help but blurt out the words that came next, “Planning to rape me or murder?” There was nobody in the surroundings. In fact, I bet there’d be no human for a couple of miles. He started laughing again, ticking me off so, I smacked the back of his head. Hard.
“Ow, being violent, are we?”
But seeing my glare, he hurried, “C’mon Kay, let’s just go!”

He held out his arm for me, just like a gentleman and this time, instead of making fun of him, I just grabbed it and smiled. We walked for a while, when he stopped me and ordered me to close my eyes. I looked up at him incredulously, but when he gave me a reassuring smile, I complied. We walked for about 2 more minutes, him leading me with my eyes closed, when he stopped me, yet again and asked me to open my eyes. When I did, what I saw made me stand there with my mouth hanging open.
The clearing was decorated with fairy lights. There was soft music playing from a small record and in the middle of the clearing was a plaid cloth, laid neatly. Besides it, sat a picnic basket. Still somewhat shocked and surprised, I heard Adrian laugh besides me, probably laughing at my reaction. But his laugh seemed to pull me out of my daze. I ran to him and hugged him with all of my might. Willing my tears, that were about to spill, to stop and not trusting my voice, I whispered, “Thank you!”
But, what I got in response was something I did not expect. Holding me at arm’s length, he said, “I love you,” his voice barely above a whisper. With that he pulled into a deep kiss.

Epilogue

London, 2017.

I woke up to an annoying noise that gave me a headache almost immediately. I realized it was someone pounding on my door. I frowned and looked around to see where Adrian was, when it all came crashing back to me. I jumped out of the bed and ran to the door, unlocking it to see my Mom standing there, “Jeez, Mom give me a break!” I whined. Mom laughed,“Sweetie, it’s quarter past 10, I wouldn’t mind you sleeping in had it not been for that crazy fiance of your’s. He has called thrice in the past half an hour to see if you’re up yet.” I groaned and she smiled before adding,“Hurry up, baby girl. Go take a shower and I’ll fix you a breakfast. The appointment is scheduled at half past 11.” I nodded and headed for a shower.

“Hey sweetie!” Mom chirped, kissing my cheek. “Hey Mom!” She nodded towards the dining table where she’d fixed my plate of scrambled eggs and pancakes but, eating was the last thing on my list right now. The house was flooded with all of my aunts and uncles and cousins. It was a bit too overwhelming. I washed my breakfast down with huge gulps of water, just in case, I didn’t want to pass out from bouts of hunger later in the day. When I finished, Mom hurried me back to my room where mu friends and the stylist were waiting. As soon as I stepped inside I was swept in hug from Kara, my bestfriend and my bridesmaid for tonight. It’s been exact 5 years since that incredible first date with Adrian. We were getting married today and nothing was helping me soothe my nerves. The fact that I hadn’t seen Adrian in 2 days didn’t help either.
Soon they got working on my make-up and hair. We were done after a couple of hours. There was a knock at the door and Mom peeked in,“Are you done, baby girl? Your Dad and I will like to speak to you for a moment.” I nodded and my friends excused themselves from the room. My parents stepped in, closing the door behind them. They both had tears in their eyes as they looked me over. “Look Bethany, our baby girl’s all grown up!” Dad said looking all proud as he stepped forward to hug me. Mom laughed,“Yeah, seems like just yesterday when she ran through the house, chasing Adrian for pulling her pigtails.” “Mom!” I whined. They both laughed and Dad spoke up, “Okay, okay. No whining anymore baby girl. You look beautiful. Adrian will be swooning as soon as he lays his eyes on you, I bet!” He held out a beautiful wooden box towards me, on it was engraved ‘Thomas’ in the most beautiful handwriting. I looked up at him and he urged me to open it. I gasped at what was inside. Tears pricked at my eyes. It was the most beautiful necklace I’d ever seen. Silver with diamonds. “Dad, this is beautiful!” I cried. “It’s a heirloom. It belonged to my great grand mother. Now, I’m passing it to my beautiful daughter whom I hope will keep up the tradition by passing it down to her children.” I ran over to him and hugged him and mom. “Thank you. I promise I’ll keep it safe and cherish it all my life.”

As I climbed out of the car outside the church, I felt sick with jitters. I willed myself to calm down but the butterflies in my stomach had other plans. I took a few deep breaths and composed myself before taking Dad’s hand and walking inside. As soon as I saw Adrian, all those jitters disappeared, replaced by warm bubbling happiness. He looked hot as ever in that tux of his. I couldn’t help the stupid grin that spread on my lips and he returned it with one of his own. I walked down the aisle with Dad and kissed his cheek as we reached the altar. He handed me to Adrian and went to sit on the pew with Mom and Adrian’s parents.

The Vicar started the ceremony. We exchanged rings and it was Adrian’s turn to exchange vows as he said the words I’d been dying to hear,“I, Adrian Wyman, take you, Kyla Thomas, to be my lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better and for worse, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us apart.” I smiled while repeating,” I, Kyla Thomas, take you, Adrian Wyman, to be my lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better and for worse, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us apart.” I heard the Vicar saying,“I now pronouce you man and wife. You may now kiss the bride.” but Adrian was already kissing me with all of himself. Someone cleared their throat and Adrian pulled away smiling sheepishly and I blushed. We turned to see everyone clapping while our parents stood with tears in their eyes. This was perfect. All of it was. A perfect fairytale ending with no “What if’s”.

PS – This particular Blog post has been way special to me for a couple of Reasons. First, It Marks the First time a Guest Blogger has featured on my Blogs. So I want every readers to give all the credits to this young blogger who deserves every bit of it. So finally to reveal this Mystery Blogger, I’ll only say she has been the sweetest lass I’ve met on Twitter, Someone with Immense talent to go the Distance as a writer & A huge Chocoholic.. Tooba.
If anyone of You reading is on Twitter show her some love on @Chocoholic_213.