Day 2

On the 11th Day of Christmas, my True Love Gave to Me…

The buzzing of Baron's alarm signals his time to wake and get started with his day. He eases out of bed as to not disturb his love, Roni's, rest. He stands breathless, once again, as he takes in her sleeping beauty. He loves this woman so much it hurts, she is his 'rib' and he thanks the heavens daily for blessing him with this special splendor. He's loved her so much for so long he can't imagine life without her. It hurts that his extra time spent nurturing his business is taking from the time he could be spending nurturing the love they've fostered between the two of them.

This new step in his career path is what he's been working toward for the past almost ten years. A step he's been working toward since he laid eyes on the beauty that's now lying asleep in their bed all those, almost ten, years ago. As soon as he saw her and spent a minute in her presence during freshman orientation, he knew that he wanted to fall in love with her. He knew immediately that he wanted to have her as his own and give her any and everything she'd ever need or desire. From that point on he switched his focus from being a mere student-athlete going to college to play football to eventually sign a contract, to making the decision to work to become the one to fund the contracts that athletes sign. Right then and there, he changed his track from general studies to business and marketing. No matter how hard this shift was going to be for him, he was going to make it happen… for her.

From that point to this he has worked to reach a place of financial freedom where he could comfortably take care of and spoil the beauty that he indeed fell in love with and made his own. He knows the time they have had to spend apart these past seven months has been hard for his 'Roni the Beautiful', as they are used to being able to spend at least an hour or two together a day. These days, they're lucky to hear the other's voice via phone or FaceTime call during the day, they are so busy… especially him. Baron is doing his level best to work out the kinks of the foundation of his business' operations in expedited time so that he can live the life he's been grinding forever for. A life where he's free by finance and schedule. A life where he, as his own boss, makes his own hours while still bringing in the abundance of funds to spend his freed time spoiling his love, Veronica.

He wants his love never to have to work another day of her life if she chooses not to and for her to still be fully taken care of. He desires for everything they dreamed of to come to pass. So, if he must make the sacrifice now to get that done so they can have that later, so be it. But, he has put himself on a strict, tight deadline. He needs to be done with working through these 'kinks' to free his time by Christmas Eve because he refuses to take this hardship past the Christmas holiday. Where his time has yet to free up, his finances have, so he will continue to shower her with gifts until she says, 'no more'. Snapped from his thoughts by the buzzing of his second alarm, Baron ventures to the closet to dress himself for the day. After fully clothed, he heads toward the door, ensures her gift for the day is ready and in place, then he secures the tape that holds the envelope with today's note in it to the inside of the door before he exits.

At exactly 8:15 am she rises from her sleep. Today, already quite sure he's not beside her, she forgoes rolling over to his side to be met with the chill of his empty side. Instead, she exits the bed on her side and goes to dress for the day. Rather than stew over the fact that her love is already at work as he usually is at this time, she focused on the joyous parts of her day. Joyous parts like the fact that her love has said that he'd be showering her with gifts until Christmas. So, as she prepares for the day she scans each place she steps into that morning for the gift her love has left her for today. After fully dressing and primping, she still has yet to find her gift for the day. Maybe he forgot… he is swamped by work these days, she thinks as she heads toward the door. She grabs her keys off the key rack, picks up her glasses case, then grabs her purse before walking out the door. Upon her exit, she lays eyes on an envelope taped to the door. As it was the day prior, it is addressed to her. Maybe he didn't forget. When she opens the envelope and removes the letter it reads,

"A very beautiful morning to my very beautiful love. As you know and can clearly see, I am not home and, nine times out of ten, I'm at work. But, as I told you yesterday, it won't be like this for much longer. Soon, we will be living out the dreams we dreamed up when everything was fresh and our plans for our future were nothing but what seemed then as 'pie in the sky' dreams. I love you so much my dear, you are my rib. You are the one who God put me to sleep and took a part of my right side to make just for me. I don't know what I did in this life to deserve you. I don't question God about it often because I don't want him to change his mind, but there are times when I ask what I did so right as to have met, loved and still be loving my true love, my soulmate. You are so much a dream come true, it's like I rubbed a genie lamp, wished for the perfect love and got you… at seventeen no less. It boggles me even to this day, I still don't know what I did but I'm overly glad I did it because I have you. I know things are hard for us these days. It may even seem like I have put my business and career goals ahead of you, but trust me, my forever love, I have not. All that I am doing is for us, for you. I want to give you all you need and want and then some. I want to spoil you… I want to love you without boundaries. I want you to know how much I love you and carry that love around with you wherever you go just like you do your purse. Which, by the way, is not the same one you carried yesterday. I know you pretty well, or at least I think I do. So, I think I know you haven't taken the time to look at the purse you grabbed off the table as you walked out the door. I also think I know you probably wouldn't have seen this note in your haste out the door had I not taped it at your eye level on the door so you could see it. With that said, I saw you eye something similar to this some months ago, and could tell you wanted it but didn't say anything as funds were tight. We'd just purchased and moved to this place and I'd just solidified my business decision to branch out on my own. I don't know if you still had a desire for it but I got it for you anyway and hope you like it. Enjoy your day my love, I'll carry you in my heart always, Baron".

When she folds the letter and returns it to its envelope, she is in tears once again. He has such a way with words… and she knows he means every single one. Roni then takes the time to do what her love knew she didn't and looks at the purse she's toting. He does know her well… too well. When she does, she notes that it is, indeed, nothing like the plain black Kate Spade purse she wore the day prior. It, instead, is a black leather Gucci handbag with the signature Gucci green and red striped ribbon down the middle of it decorated with a gold link chain leading to the closing clasp. She opens the purse to ensure that everything she needs is there. Lo and behold, knowing her love Baron, of course, it is and it's well organized. As she goes to take her glasses out of the case she realizes that the purse he's chosen for her matches her new glasses and the case perfectly. He may be of the male species, but Baron is most definitely NOT your normal guy. What normal guy has an eye for fashion enough to not only purchase pieces from this year's current collection but to have them match perfectly as if they were a purchased set? No normal guy, at all, anywhere… but her Baron… he does and did. She loves this man so much it pains her. Her heart literally lurches with the love it's filled with for him each time she even thinks about her Baron. As boggled as he is on what he may have done in this lifetime to deserve her, she is just as clueless as to what she did to deserve him. After her failed childhood to mid-high school love affair, she had no thought in her mind that she'd find love again, especially a love like this.

When her childhood sweetheart, Robert, broke her heart and left her for the new girl, Marina, it shattered her heart into billions of tiny little pieces. Right after that happened, a day or two later, her mother left her father for another man, and then a month later her father got sick. All that sadness dished out on her all at one time was too much for her, as a high school sophomore, to handle. It broke her… it changed her. She went from being this bright ray of sunshine to being depressed. After some months of seeing her father battle cancer, she went from depressed to being extremely angry… all the time… at EVERYONE. And when she wasn't lashing out in anger, she was quiet, distant and cold; just… broken… and thus dubbed, 'The Evil Queen', from then until she graduated.

The dubbing of that name hurt her even more than she already was, because, it was like no one cared to think of or take into consideration WHAT made her that way. No one cared to realize that she was not, 'Evil' nor was she mean, but just sad, lonely and hurting. That she lost her boyfriend that she was friends with from first grade, started dating in fifth grade and dated until he cheated on her then dumped her in public fashion at the beginning of their sophomore year in high school. No one cared to realize that she'd then lost her mother, whom Roni loved dearly but, in retrospect, didn't seem to get that same love from in return. But, Coralline was still her mother nonetheless and she lost her out of nowhere.

One day she went to school and when she returned she was met with a distraught, teary-eyed father holding the letter addressed to him from his wife telling him she was leaving and not coming back. A week later a sheriff came to the door and served her father divorce papers and that was it… just like that, her home life shattered just like her teenage heart. After her mother left, things started to get back to normal, then her father got very ill while at work and was rushed to the hospital. There they found out that he had cancer that was not too bad but progressing. So, in a sense, she lost her father too. He was still alive but was always either in the hospital for treatment or at home too weak to function. Her father, Vernon's, condition didn't turn around until a month or so before Veronica graduated.

Looking back on it, she knows he fought the disease the way he did, just so he could make it to her graduation… which he did. The next time she saw her mother, it was at that graduation. An event which Coralline brought along her 'new family'. She was there at her BIOLOGICAL DAUGHTER'S high school graduation with her new husband Ru… something Irish… Roni called and still calls him Rumpelstiltskin to this day, so she doesn't remember that man's real name. Cora, as her new husband calls her, also brought along her 'new kids', her stepson Nathaniel and stepdaughter Hunter, who were both very close to Roni's age… all sporting the last name 'Gold. What a way to really dig it in Coralline. Wrong time and place for that one, love.

It's like no one took in the gravity of the situation she was being weighed down by UNTIL graduation when her mother walked in with the 'Gold Clan' and not her father Vernon. No one cared those two years she was day by day, slowly fading away… they only picked fun and judged. So, when she arrived from Seattle to Miami, Florida she expected no one there on UM's campus to notice her or care either. But, Baron, this young man from New York, by way of London, immediately did. She remembers it like it were yesterday. He was so sweet and so very kind. When he saw her, she was lost on that humongous campus trying to get to the building her next freshman orientation meeting was to be in. He was walking with some of his football team members, but when he saw her, he excused himself from their presence and approached her. All she heard was the deep baritone, English accented voice grace her ears when he said,

"Hello there… Miss, I don't mean to disturb you, however, you look a bit lost. If you'd allow, may I help you?"

"thank you… but no thank you… I'll find my own way", she says coldly still looking down at her schedule guide trying to get a grip on the load of books she's carrying that she just purchased from the bookstore.

"Here, let me grab those for you", "no I…",

but before she could refuse again, he'd already taken the books from her hands and arranged them in his own for proper carriage. When he does, she finally looks up at him and is left floored at what she sees… he is… drop dead gorgeous. He's tall… about a good 6'2 maybe 6'3, muscular, with beautiful chocolate skin, brown sparkling eyes and a bright white smile to top it off. Adding to all of this, he's wearing football team paraphernalia that matches the other young men that are currently approaching.

One of them says, "hey bro, you coming back with?", to which he responds, "Nah, I'll catch you blokes at practice later"

…and that settles that one… he is on the football team. Why… is he speaking to her? She thinks. And why is he being so kind? Then she thinks about the reasons why in her skepticism and comes up with, he must be trying to get in her pants. She must wear this thought process on her face because he answers her silent pre-judgment, kindly saying,

"hey, before you think I'm this football player preying on 'fresh meat'… know I'm a freshman as well. I just know what it feels like to be new and lost around here… this place is huge. I at least had my teammates for some guidance… but you had no one so, I just thought I'd come over to assist. I'm Baron, by the way. People call me Barry for short… why you'd shorten an already short name I don't know… but yeah, either is fine", he chuckles lightly to himself then flashes that smile once again.

"I'm Veronica… people call me Roni for short… nice to meet you… and thank you, Baron".

"No problem at all. It's my pleasure, Veronica. Now, where are you trying to get to?"

"The lecture hall, I guess… I have this next on my schedule", she says pointing to the listing to show him.

"Ah! I know exactly where that is… I had my orientation some weeks ago when I arrived for summer practice and conditioning. But, I don't mind going through it again to help you navigate… that's if you'd allow me to"

"I'd like that… thank you", "you're more than welcome".

From then on, he became her tour guide and avenue to meet new people. He took her around campus to each of her meetings and obligations, he even took her to places that weren't listed on her schedule. After the morning programming was done, Baron helped her take her books to her dorm at Eaton. Later that day, after he finished with practice, he drove her to the nearing Publix and Pier 1 to help her get necessities for her living space. After all of that was done, he treated her to dinner at Five Guys, a burger spot, after hearing her say in conversation that she has a healthy obsession with burgers.

He was so genuine and kind and thoughtful, he didn't seem real. She really expected him to try to ease his way into her pants at some time, but, he didn't. He was just her friend… he cared for her and cared about her in a way that she didn't think anyone would or could other than her dear father. He liked her for her, even in her cold, stand-offish way she could be. He even took the brunt of her anger when she'd lash out from time to time without judging her or becoming angry with her. It's like he knew her heart like he knew the turmoil and storm raging on the inside and he cared for her… loved her through it. When she'd lash out, he'd sweetly nod his head slowly at her like he understood even her most un-understandable moments. He'd then wait until she'd calm down and gently ease her into talking about it, whatever it was. Their talks would usually lead to tears, tears that led him to take her in his arms to hold her and let her cry it out.

Even in those times, he'd hold her close, their interaction was never sexual in nature. It was always sweet and kind, even loving if you will. They spent two years in this way. Just friends… him bringing her back to the light and her supporting him in his endeavors either athletic or academic. She didn't know and could NOT figure out what possessed that man to take on upholding a football scholarship with all the practice, game and academic stipulation requirements AND a business management major WITH a minor in finance. That was a death sentence in itself. So, when things got hard and he wanted to give it up for something easier, she'd encourage him, help him study, hell she'd even do a few assignments for him, many of them writing assignments as she was a public relations major with a minor in English. They'd have study sessions that'd last well into the early morning, they even had 'sleepovers' where either of them would cook and they'd spend time together watching television, or a movie, listening to music or just talking.

Even in those overnight times, he still did not make ANY sexual advances. As they approached the fall semester of their junior year, Baron offered up the proposition of them dating. After years of knowing part of the reason why she sunk into such a dark place before was because of a shoddy ex-boyfriend, he promised and assured her that if she did allow him the honor of letting him be her boyfriend he'd love in the way she deserved to be loved. He promised he'd care for her over and above what's deemed necessary and that he'd work each day to show her just how much he loves her. With two years in the bag of him already showing her just that, to her, adding titles was just a formality… just a distinguishment to let everyone else know what they knew all along, that she was his and he was hers… in love and completely OFF LIMITS.

She's snapped from her thoughts by the sounding of her, 'leave right, right now' alarm. With a smile on her face, new glasses framing her eyes and a new purse on her arm she heads to work to take on her day fully rested and filled with love.