Chapter 10

How can one describe the immense feeling of when your lover has a surprise for you? And how can you measure the curiosity inside when he refuses to tell you his little secret? I never knew how fun surprises could be, but when Erik told me one day that we were going on a vacation but I wasn't allowed to know where yet, I just had to find out.

So I did what any other girl my age would do. I ransacked his room searching every corner of valuable space to find what this present was. Unfortunately to my dismay, Erik was a much better person at hiding things than I thought.

I was just in the middle of trying to reorganize his room when I heard his door open.

"Christine? What are you doing?" he said very calmly.

I popped my head up instantly from inside his closet and gave him a cute smile I knew he wouldn't be able to refuse.

"My little Christine, if it's going to drive you this crazy, yes, I will tell you." he said half laughing.

I jumped directly to where he was standing and began begging him to tell me.

"Please Erik, I must know!"

"Alright, alright, we are going to..."

"Yes, yes!"

"Italy."

My mouth dropped open and suddenly I began screaming. "Italy! Yay!"

Erik stood laughing at me as I began to do what looked like an ancient tribal ritual dance for rain.

"We leave tomorrow."

I suddenly stopped.

"I have to pack!"

I jumped from his room into the hall and down into mine, slammed the door shut and began to throw my closet into a panic.

Erik stood laughing at my happiness and turned around to take a look at his room.

"What am I ever going to do with her?" he asked playfully as he began to clean his room.

As we arrived at the airport, Erik helped me out of the car and took our bags to the check in place.

"Christine, I have a few more surprises for you, but you can't have them yet."

"Oh Erik, why not?" I asked impatiently.

"Because they aren't here!" he said laughing

"When do I get them?"

"The next one you get when we arrive in Italy at the airport."

"You're going to have me arrested?" I asked playfully

"No, only if you ransack my room again." he said with a smile

As we found our seats, I noticed the plane was extraordinarily large.

"I've never been out of the country before, Erik."

"Well good thing I went ahead and got your passport."

He pulled out from his pocket my passport that he had somehow made without me being there.

"How?" I asked

"I said it was a wedding gift."

I laughed as he kissed my cheek.

-Please fasten your seatbelts as we began to prepare for takeoff.-

As the plane began to move faster, I held onto Erik for dear life. I hated the takeoff with an immense passion. But once we had gotten into the air, I was fine. Well, for most of the 9 hour flight, I slept on Erik's shoulder, lap, and face. Erik, being the gentleman he was, never tried to move me once even though he told me later that he needed to use the restroom desperately. Finally, as we were nearing the 8th hour, I woke up.

"Christine, how was your nap?"

"Pretty good." I said with a yawn.

"Well, if you will excuse me, I need to use the restroom."

I moved my legs out of his way and curled back into my sleeping position. Once he got back, I was sleeping again, but this time across his seat and mine. Laughing to himself, he dared not to move me, so he just sat next to me in the other seat across the aisle.

-Please fasten your seatbelts as we begin our decent.-

"Christine, sweetheart, wake up."

I yawned and stretched as he returned to his seat. Looking at him with excitement, I said,

"When do I get my surprise?"

"When we get to our luggage!" he said with a laugh.

It seemed like hours before we got to our luggage, but finally we made it. As we began to pick up our bags we had brought, suddenly a man over the loudspeaker came on.

"Mr. Erik Destler, please come pick up your delivery."

"Your present has arrived." he said with glee.

I squealed with delight as we walked into a private office. The man behind the counter looked at us and handed Erik a box with holes in it.

"Christine, I'd like you to meet your newest friend."

I took the box from him and opened it. Inside was a chocolate colored puppy with ears bigger than he was. He had a white spot on his nose and little black eyes. No sooner had he made a noise was I kissing Erik. I had always wanted a puppy.