If you’re free now babe, could you come to the lab? I have something for you.
I giggled to myself as I dropped the phone. As I hummed in the shower, I tried not to get ahead of myself with my thoughts. My birthday was still a few days away. So what did Felix have for me? Maybe an early birthday gift?
Damn, what if it was a proposal?
I gasped as I contemplated the possibilities. We’d been together since I was nineteen and six years later, I was trying not to hint at the whole marriage thing. But who knows, it could have been in his mind all the while. I wouldn’t put it past my Felix, I thought as I chuckled once again to myself. He was fond of spontaneity like that.
But why the lab though?
It was at this point that I cautioned myself to hurry to the lab instead of spending more time leaping to conclusions.
The lab smelt surprisingly clean today. Of course, there was still the underlying smell of chemicals, but it wasn’t as strong as it usually would. I could already make out Felix’s grinning face even though I was barely in. I sprinted into his outstretched arms. It was always like this with us. Every day just as new as the beginning.
When we had stopped grinning at each other like lunatics, he held my hand and led me to sit on the stool beside the counter and uncovered something in a mug.
“Here you go, my love.”
The steam emanating from it and the familiar aromatic smell told me what it was without looking in. Coffee.
Coffee?
Was this a joke?
I gave him a tight smile. “I don’t understand, Felix. You made me come for coffee?”
“Exactly babe. I hope you like it?”
“Like it? We drink coffee every day, babe. Why would you bring me here for that? I thought...”
He held my face. “Babe, don’t you trust me? I promise you’ll love this. Just take a sip.” I sighed and took the cup from him, proceeding to take a tentative sip. The rich flavour immediately burst into my mouth and I sipped more deeply.
It was like someone snapped a finger. One second I was looking at Felix’s hopeful face, the next, I was transported to another time.
What was happening?
There was a flurry of images and soon I was in a room. A very familiar room. I saw my Mom and Dad on a chair laughing at something on the television. But at the corner of the door, someone was peeping through. Mom turned to the door.
“Are you going to come out anytime soon, Sienna? You’ve been hiding there forever.”
“I can’t come out,” Eight-year-old Sienna said in a muffled voice.
“I’m sure your result will be just fine,” Dad said. “Now, come out, okay?”
I looked on as my younger self made it from behind the door. Short, thin, and impossibly wide-eyed. She clutched a file behind her and handed it over to Dad and burst into tears immediately.
“I tried so hard to pass her, Dad. Just three marks and now I’m in second place.”
“I can’t believe this,” Dad said in a hushed tone. “Why would my shining star be crying cause of this?”
The look of my younger self’s face was priceless. “You mean you’re not mad? You said that you’d only get me that bike if I came top of my class?”
“And you are on top of your class. You’re a shining star and three marks doesn’t change that.”
A tear slipped from my eye then as I remembered how overwhelmed with gratitude and love for my parents I was as it showed on little Sienna’s face as she ran into the arms of Dad and Mom.
I smiled and went to hug them as well even though I knew they wouldn’t feel it. As I whispered “I love you,” to my beautiful family, I was transported back to the present. The smiling face of the love of my life and the overwhelming feeling of love I had for the man who had gifted me with a forgotten memory that was so precious.
“I know you’ve been stressed out about the coming exams so I was hoping that if I gave you this coffee that the other scientists and I had been working on, there was a chance you would see something that calmed your fears. Did it work?”
I smiled at him and wiped the tears in my eyes. He was rambling. He did that when he was nervous. “It worked beautifully, babe. I needed to see that so badly. I can’t believe I forgot something like that. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. I’m thinking of an experiment with coffee where we could link hands and be transported together to a childhood memory.”
“That would be beyond amazing.”
He grinned and enveloped me in a hug. But he suddenly withdrew, looking pensive. “I have a question though. You looked like you had expected something else when you walked in. What was that?"
I smiled shyly and quickly grabbed my purse. “Don’t worry it’s nothing. Are you done, let’s go watch a movie together. I’m suddenly feeling nostalgic.”
Felix hid a smile as they went hand in hand out of the lab together. There was a small box bulging out of his pocket that held the evidence of how much he adored this woman. He couldn’t wait for her birthday in a few days. He was finally ready.
Jhymi🖤
