TOBY.
It's hard to believe we've been together for two whole years and we've made this amazing little boy together. Who would have thought we would make it this far, not me? I thought we would have killed each other, but here we are. Mum has been driving everyone crazy with the planning, she's even more excited than we are.
I stroll downstairs, after sleeping in on the morning of our anniversary to find the whole dining table filled with breakfast foods and gift hampers. Ruby is in a robe eating fruit kebabs and checking out the presents.
"Mum sent all this," she said. I raised an eyebrow at her sudden usage of the word mum.
"Good morning to you too," I said, plucking a fruit kebab from an edible bouquet.
"Clara and I had a little heart-to-heart. She said I could call her mum, I know we won't be together for much longer but I couldn't turn her down. I just want to enjoy the time we have left, is that weird?"
"Not at all," I sighed. I felt a little stab in my chest at the thought of us not being together anymore.
"Well, she has all these activities planned for us that I knew nothing about so I think we should eat and then head out."
"What about Jeremy?"
"He's spending the day with his grandma."
"My mum was here this morning?"
"No, he's been gone since last night."
"Oh," I said, I came back really late so I just thought he was asleep last night.
"Why did you come home last night?"
"Nothing," I answered too quickly, making myself look suspicious." We just had a lot to clear off the table at work, it being the end of the month and all plus the break mum is forcing me to take."
"Okay," she said casually but the air felt loaded with accusations. I don't know exactly when it started but these days Ruby seems more cynical than usual, that innocence she has about her was dimming.
After that blip in conversation, Ruby looked excited as we were having breakfast and chatted about the rest of our day. We were having a couples spa session this morning and then a whole line-up of surprise activities. After we ate as much as we could of the breakfast spread, we headed back up to her ready for the day.
I opted for a casual look, I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt with a pair of white sneakers and when Ruby came down I saw that she was doing the same. I was snacking on some chocolate I found in one of the hampers waiting for her to finish getting ready for the day when she came strolling down the stairs like the lead character in a Hollywood movie. She was wearing a white sundress with a pair of white sneakers and she had her hair flowing past her shoulders and around her.
"We are late, let's go," she said, jogging past me. She grabbed a bag I didn't know she had prepared beforehand and slung it over her shoulders. I followed her, mute by how good she looked and how much I was affected by it. I shook it off on the elevator ride down so the conversation between us won't be stifled. A car was waiting for us downstairs, and we were whisked off the moment our feet stepped outside.
As usual, we were given nothing less than VIP treatment from the moment we stepped into the spa. I got the shock of my life when Ruby didn't bat an eyelash to take off her clothes in front of me when they left us to change into our robes before the spa session proceeded. I tried to not gawk at her as she took off her clothes to reveal her toned legs and belly. I looked enough to see that she was wearing black lace panties and a matching bra. Ironically, she became even fitter after having Jeremy. She recently took up boxing, which seemed like something so out of character for her but watching her go about it these past weeks with so much excitement told me otherwise.
They put us through all these unnecessary and uncomfortably thorough beauty regimens. Aside from the massage, I didn't see what was particularly enjoyable about spa treatments.
After the spa session, we headed out to the car.
"I hope the next stop is lunch because I'm starving," I said to Ruby.
"You sound like me," Ruby joked. Thankfully the next stop did involve food. We had a private lunch at a restaurant nearby. It was weird spending so much time together. On a normal day we would see each other in the mornings and then later in the evenings or even just once but today we were all up in each other's faces.
I watched her with keen interest as she typed away on her phone.
"What?" She asked as the waiter placed our desserts in front of us. I shook my head in answer and she dug into her dessert.
"Shall we leave now?" I asked after she finished her dessert.
"Yes, we can go."
We went to a chocolate factory next, we were stuffed but we still had space for chocolate-covered strawberries and champagne.
"You have to try this," she said, stretching a treat out to me. I ate it off her hands and my tongue made contact with her fingers all the while looking into her eyes. Her eyes dilated when the tip of my tongue flicked her finger. I noticed she had smudged some chocolate on her cheek. I used my thumb to rub it off and surprised us both by going in for a kiss. She was unresponsive for a while then she started to kiss me back.
The sound of the door shutting behind us pulled us apart and stopped things from progressing. I turn to the door to see the source of the offending sound and I find a waiter. At least, he had the decency to look sorry. When I turned back to face Ruby, I could see that she had shut down.
I was right, she had shut down, and she avoided me for the rest of the day till we went our separate ways to get ready for the night. I checked myself out in the mirror one last time. I tried to restrain myself from running my hands through my hair. I wasn't this nervous on my wedding day. I had to get my shit together. We got a few rooms at the venue of the party so we could get dressed there so all I had to do was walk downstairs and I'd be there. As I walked down, cameras flashed from all angles. I gave them a few poses and when they got their pictures, they calmed down.
After a couple of seconds, the frenzy started up again. I looked back and the sight of Ruby coming down the stairs nearly knocked the breath out of me.