Page 28

When I had finished my class the day before, the first thing I did was look up the score of the game.

Seeing that they had won, I immediately sent a text to Colton congratulating him.

His reply came only a moment later, with him telling me they had just finished the game, and were making plans to celebrate the win while they were still in a different town for another night.

That day’s conversation had been initiated by Colton, with a little good-morning text.

But with me trying to finish up my assignments to free up my weekend, I had told him I wouldn’t be able to reply to his texts as much.

The last one that I had read from him was him telling me they were on their way back.

I hadn’t looked at my phone since then, so I wasn’t sure if he had texted me again.

‘Thanks,’ he replied shyly, before playfully adding, ‘And just to let you know, I did hit a home run.’

I let out a small laugh. ‘Yeah, I know.’

At that, a questioning look covered his face. His eyebrows furrowing at my words.

Then, it was my turn to be shy. ‘I had a free hour, and I googled the team you guys were competing against to see if they had a live stream of the game. And they did, so I thought I would tune in while I waited for my next class,’ I explained.

‘And you just so happened to hit that home run during the time I was watching.’

Colton stayed quiet upon hearing my admission, his mind seemingly caught elsewhere.

‘Colton?’ I gently prompted, calling him back to me.

‘You watched the game,’ he murmured.

I gave him a nod. ‘I did.’

‘And you saw me hit a home run.’

‘Yeah.’

A tender look came across Colton’s features, his tone soft as he asked, ‘Sounds like it was fated, don’t you think?’

I smiled at him. ‘Who knows? Maybe it was.’ I shrugged, my voice teasing when I added, ‘I mean that home run was for me, right?’

A small but genuine smile made its way to his face. ‘Yeah, it was.’

‘Anyway,’ I said, snapping out of the trance Colton’s attention seemed to bring me to. ‘What are you doing here?’ Noticing that he had both his hands behind him, I arched an eyebrow at him, teasingly. ‘And what are you hiding back there?’

He gave me a massive grin in return as he brought his left arm to the front, his hand grasping the handle of a bag. He held it up to me, the look of excitement on his face urging me to take it from him.

I gave him a suspicious look before grabbing the handle of the bag and sneaking a peek to see what was inside.

It was bubble tea.

Not one, but two of them.

‘What is this for?’ I asked, slightly confused.

‘Well, I did promise you that you’ll get your bubble tea this week,’ he answered. ‘And this is me delivering on my promise.’

‘But why are there two of them?’

‘You didn’t think I would get one for you without getting one for myself, did you?

’ he said, a teasing tone accompanying his words.

‘And like I said, bubble tea is our thing, so the other one is for me. But if I had known your sister was here, I would’ve gotten an extra one, so your sister can have mine. ’

I snapped my eyes back to him. ‘Colton, you don’t—’

‘It’s fine, really,’ he reassured me.

‘Thank you,’ I said with a smile on my face. ‘But you really didn’t have to do this.’

‘That’s not all.’ He stopped me, as he brought his other arm forward, revealing his other surprise. ‘I also got you these.’

Gripped in his hand was a bunch of flowers, enveloped with a cellophane wrap and strapped together by the stems with a rubber band.

Flowers.

Colton got me flowers.

And they weren’t just any flowers.

They were pink flowers.

In not just one kind but a variety of them, different shades of pink from different types of flowers, all wrapped together. ‘Flowers,’ I breathed out, stunned by the gesture. ‘You got me flowers.’ My hand reached out to receive the offered gift.

‘I know that you usually get them after our weekly ASL practice. Since we didn’t get to do that this week, I thought I would get them for you,’ he explained, his voice getting a little quieter towards the end.

‘I figured you might have gotten them today instead. But even if you have, these are still yours.’

I continued admiring the beauty I was holding in my hand, before glancing up at Colton, my lips tilted up when I realized the tips of his ears were a light shade of red.

‘Well, you’re in luck because I completely forgot to get them,’ I told him, trying to ease away his nervousness. But it was true, it had completely slipped out of my mind to get flowers this week.

‘They’re beautiful, Colton. Thank you,’ I then added, my voice faint. I tried to think of more things to say. ‘Thank you’ just didn’t seem enough to convey my appreciation for how thoughtful these two gifts were.

But it seemed like I didn’t need to. The soft look on Colton’s face told me he knew exactly what I couldn’t voice out. ‘You’re welcome,’ he replied, his low tone matching mine.

We just stood there for a moment, looking like two fools who were smiling at one another. I snapped out of my daze when I realized I hadn’t even invited him into the apartment. ‘Crap. I didn’t even ask you to come in.’

‘It’s okay. I just came by to quickly drop those off,’ he quickly reassured me, gesturing to the two gifts he had just given me. ‘I was just about to get going actually. I’m hanging out with the baseball team tonight.’

‘Oh, right,’ I said, trying my best to disguise the disappointment in my voice.

But of course, Colton caught it. The spark of joy radiating from him diminishing by the second.

I didn’t want to make him feel guilty over this small thing, he shouldn’t be. I could sense that he was starting to. Before he could linger in that feeling any longer, I quickly added, ‘Have fun with the team tonight. Guess I’ll see you next Wednesday in class?’

With the promise of seeing each other again, his smile came back. ‘Next Wednesday it is.’

I thanked him one more time and waited for him to walk down the corridor to the elevator.

He waved me goodbye as he went into the elevator hall.

Once I was sure he was out of sight, I closed the front door and stepped into the kitchen, my hands bringing up the flowers to my nose as I breathed in its floral scent.

I was so stuck in my own little bubble that I completely forgot Eliza was there.

‘So, who was that?’ she asked, bringing my attention to her.

‘Just a friend,’ I answered, trying my best to avoid eye contact with her. I placed down the flowers and the bag of bubble tea on the kitchen island, while I opened the fridge, clearing up some space to put the two new drinks I just received.

‘A friend who brings you flowers,’ she pointed out, eyeing the abundance of pink petals. ‘And is this bubble tea?’

Once I was sure I cleared up enough space for the drinks, I took both bubble teas from the bag and put them inside the fridge. ‘Yeah. One is for you by the way. He got one for himself, but he wanted you to have it instead,’ I explained.

‘Well, isn’t that sweet of him?’ she asked. ‘But why is he bringing you bubble tea and flowers?’

‘It’s a long story,’ I told her, wanting to steer away from having to talk about Colton.

Despite our weekly phone calls, I was yet to bring up Colton in any of our conversations.

I pretty much told Eliza everything, even the most mundane things.

But, for some reason, I had refrained myself from talking about him, and I wasn’t sure why.

I definitely wasn’t planning on telling her any time soon, but it seemed that plan had gone off the rails the second Eliza opened the front door with Colton on the other side.

‘Well, good thing we’re heading to dinner, and you can tell me all about it,’ she proclaimed. Her tone told me I wasn’t getting away that easily.

I let out a sigh, already knowing I was fighting a losing battle. ‘Fine. Give me thirty minutes to get ready.’