had this made a month ago,” he says. “I wasn’t sure if it would be ready in time for today, but thankfully it was.”
I peer closely at it. “It’s a pocket watch.”
“It’s my father’s pocket watch,” he says.
“Alejo,” I tell him, trying to give it back to him. “No. I can’t take this.”
He presses his fingers over my hand, closing my palm. “Yes. It is for you. I had it remade into a necklace, just for you. It says so inside.”
He takes his hand away, and I open the front of the locket, revealing a ticking watch face underneath.
There’s something engraved on the inside.
“Thalia, te amo,” I read it out loud. I blink at the words to make sure I’m seeing it right. Then I blink up at him. “Te amo,” I repeat, puzzled. “But you said you had this made a month ago.”
“I loved you a month ago. I loved you two month ago. I think I might have loved you even before I saw you. I just knew you had my heart.”
Dear sweet lord.
It feels like a thousand wings are beating in my chest, chasing my heart, making me rise higher and higher until I can’t bear it.
I have no words.
It is absolutely the sweetest, most beautiful, touching gift anyone has ever gotten me.
“Do you like it?” Alejo asks, and his brow is furrowed in such a way that all his hopes are riding on my answer.
“I love it,” I whisper, clutching it close to me. “I love it. I love you.”
“Thank god for that,” he says, chuckling.
“Would you still have given it to me had I not inadvertently told you I loved you?”
He nods, blinking softly. “Yes. I would have. I could not stand to hide my feelings from you anymore. I told you, you had my heart, and I meant it in every way possible.” He takes the watch from me. “Here, let me put it on you.”
He fastens it around my neck where it rests just below my collarbone. The silver looks stunning against my skin, especially in this winter light.
Alejo looks me over, eyes shining with approval, before leaning in and kissing me in such a way that my body shivers from head to toe.
He pulls away, placing another kiss on my nose, and puts his arm around me. We stare at the horizon where dark clouds have gathered, a patch of dark grey amongst the blue and gold.
“Looks like a storm might roll in,” he says. “Hopefully, it misses us.”
“I love storms,” I admit. “Maybe because we never got any good ones on the west coast. I love the feel in the air, the lightning, the charge.”
“You say that, but if the power goes out during Christmas dinner, it’s not going to be a good time.”
He’s right about that.
We stay for a bit, watching the storm roll in, the clouds billowing in monstrous waves. Then, just as we start to see flashes of lightning on the horizon, it seems to head west, away from us. It will probably go on across the Atlantic, picking up speed, plowing through everything in its path.
It makes me think of Alejo.
About us.
About how the moment we laid eyes on each other, everything seemed to click into place.
We got together and picked up steam.
Were we meant to be?
Or were we like the storm, building and building, removing all obstacles in our path, paving a way for the future?
Maybe love is a force of nature that can’t be stopped.
And if that’s the case, maybe the two of us can figure out how to keep going.
Chapter 25
Thalia
“So, if I choke and die, I hope you know this will all be your fault,” I tell Alejo, staring at the large bag of grapes in front of me. Twenty-four grapes, to be exact.
“Don’t blame me, blame Spain,” Alejo says with a shrug.
It’s New Year’s Eve and we’re gathered in the Puerta del Sol, the big square in Madrid with the famous one hundred foot tall golden Christmas tree. Thousands upon thousands of revelers are around us in this crowd, and yet no one knows who we are.
I’m wearing a gold Venetian mask and so is he, though his reminds me of The Phantom of the Opera. I’ve got on my blue sequined dress underneath a big coat, with boots, he’s got on a suit under his trench. I’m wearing red lipstick, and he let me apply some smudgy black eyeliner around his eyes, so it would not only disguise him a little