Always Been You (29 page)

“Um, Jenna, is your tree crooked?” she asked.

“Hey, you’re right,” said Katie, as we turned around and saw that the tree was slightly slanted to the left.

“Should we fix it?” asked Devon.

“I think we should leave it,” said Jacob. “You can’t see it unless you look at it closely.”

“You just don’t want to fix it since you already had a lot of difficulty trying to get it up,” Matt laughed. Jacob slugged him on the arm.

“What the heck is this?” asked Alex, holding up something brown.

“This is Mr. Tingles,” I said, getting up from the floor to yank it out from his grasp.

Mr. Tingles was my reindeer made from a fluffy brown sock. He had a red pompom nose, huge googly eyes that had been glued on crooked, brown pipe cleaners that were supposed to be antlers, light brown felt for the ears, red felt for the tongue that hung out the side of his mouth, a green collar that had a few bells around its neck, and some fake fur I had glued on for the hair and beard.

“I remember when we had to make it during third grade,” grinned Amy.

“Are you sure that’s a reindeer?” smirked Alex.

“Don’t you dare make fun of Mr. Tingles,” I said, narrowing my eyes at Alex. “I’ve always been very proud of him."

“Yes, I can see you’re very…talented,” said Jacob. He was biting on the insides if his cheeks to keep from laughing.

Before I could whack him on the arm with my reindeer, Jacob quickly grabbed my arm, pulled me closer, and leaned in for a kiss.

“Hey!” yelled Matt. “No one wants to see that!”

“And no one asked you to be a nosy meathead!” Jacob yelled back.

“But we don’t really need to see you suck face with Jenna all the time,” grumbled Matt, as he got up from the couch to use the washroom.

“All this lovey-dovey is making us sick you schmuck,” added Devon.

“So quit it, you shit stain!” said Alex.

“I’m glad you guys have refined your insult vocab,” I grinned. “Shit stain is your best so far.”

“With the way the idiot acts, it’s hard not to insult the dickhead,” said Devon.

“Speaking of idiots, I should tell you what Matt did the other day,” said Amy, as Jacob leaned over and punched both Devon and Alex on the arm.

“What did he do?” asked Katie.

“He almost burnt down our house,” sighed Amy.

“You’re kidding?” gasped Nikki.

“I wish I was,” said Amy, her lips pursed. “I was resting on our couch when I smelled the smoke. I thought our house was on fire, so I yelled at Matt to check it out. My voice almost went hoarse from shouting at him, since he was so engrossed with the hockey game. When he finally heard me screaming, he then noticed that the house was all smoky and quickly rushed past me and into the kitchen. It was lucky we have a fire extinguisher in the pantry. I didn’t expect to see a burst of flames shooting out of the oven. Once we got the fire out, I then saw what he was making and started complaining why he was cooking bacon in the oven instead of on the stove. Get this. Those blackened strips were actually chicken pies.”

“S…so how did you get the s…smell out?” chuckled Devon.

“We had to open all the windows. By the end of the night, it felt like we were in an ice box. The fireplace was on, but it didn’t help warm up our bedroom. My toes and fingers were so numb that in order to get comfortable, I had to put on five layers of sweaters, three layers of jogging pants, six layers of socks, two pairs of gloves and a scarf. In addition to that, I had to add four extra layers of blankets just so I could fall asleep.”

“What did you do to Matt then?” I grinned, elbowing Jacob in the ribs as he began singing “
And a partridge in a pear tree”
.

“I made him sleep on the couch with only a pair of flannel pyjamas on,” Amy stated firmly. “Even though he had the fireplace going too, it was still cold because we had to keep all the windows open, and I wanted him to suffer like the way I was. I even gave him the smallest and thinnest blanket I could find and kept all the extra ones with me.”

“That must have been brutal when he woke up to pee,” laughed Jacob.

“Serves him right,” Amy smirked before she too bursted out into laughter.

“Hey, what’s so funny?” asked Matt, waltzing back into the room.

We stopped laughing to look at him, but ended up collapsing into convulsions again.

“You told them, didn’t you?” he muttered, taking a seat next to his wife.

“Yes, she did,” giggled Katie.

“But we do want to know if you have difficulty getting it up to go to the washroom still,” I teased, making Jacob snort into his wine.

“Actually I have no problems whatsoever,” he grinned. “If you want, just ask Amy all about our morning rendezvous later on, right Jiggles? I mean didn’t you moan in happiness afterwards?”

Jacob inhaled some of his drink. “That is way too much information,” he said emphatically, fiercely rubbing at his nose as I pounded on his back.

“If you don’t want to hear anymore intimate details, then I suggest you drop this subject,” smirked Matt.

“Okay, then let’s talk about something else,” said Jacob. “So, Jenna, how long have we been dating?”

“Quite a while,” I said. “Why?”

“I was wondering if maybe you’d mind turning that ‘while’ into a long time,” he grinned. “You know, maybe like forever?”

“Seriously?”

Suddenly, Jacob grabbed my left hand and was on one knee, kneeling down in front of me. Using his free hand, he then reached into his jean pocket and pulled something out.

“Jenna, ever since the first day I met you, I knew you were the one for me,” he said. “When I hold you, it’s like no feeling I’ve ever experienced. Every time we kiss, my stomach drops and my heart races at how lucky I am to have you. It’s better than any feeling in the world. I love you for being able to stand up to me when I’m stubborn, for your strength when we have our disagreements, for your spirit when I am troubled, and for the kindness of your heart when I begged you for forgiveness at not doing something sooner and taking so damn long in asking you out.”

Everyone chuckled.

“I love you, Jenna. I don’t only want to be with you, I need to be with you. For me, I already consider you my wife. And since I’m not letting you go now that I have you, I’m asking if you want to marry me?”

I couldn’t help it and sucked in a huge gasp of air as Jacob slipped a silver ring with a single princess cut diamond on to my finger.

“So how about it?”

“Yes!” I screamed, and quickly pushed myself off the couch and into his arms.

When I finally finished my assault on him, I was then immediately bombarded with hugs from the girls while Jacob received slaps of congratulations on the back from the guys.

“Oh, Jen,” squealed Katie. “It’s beautiful.”

“You knew about this, didn’t you?” I said, pointing an accusing finger at Amy.

“It was so hard keeping this from you, but I promised Jacob I would.”

“Is that why you convinced me to buy…?”

“Yes,” she smiled and started to cry.

“Oh don’t cry. You’ll make me cry.”

“T…too l…late,” she bawled.

“Well it doesn’t matter, I can’t help it anyway,” I said, and let out a sob. “Amy, you have to be my maid of honour.”

“I…I wouldn’t m…miss it for the w…world,” she sniffed. “Ooh, I can’t wait to design your wedding dress.”

“Thank you, Ames,” I grinned and turned to Nikki and Katie. “And I want you two to be my bridesmaids. You know I’m not taking no for an answer.”

“For sure,” they blurted simultaneously.

“Jacob’s definitely rubbed off on you, hasn’t he?” grinned Katie.

“In more ways than one,” I said.

Jacob had confiscated my hand after his announcement and had yet to release it. He only let go of it once finally Amy admitted that she needed to be getting home. Once our friends were out the door, Jacob then quickly lifted me into his arms and brought me into our room. I was surprised at what I saw in front of me when he kicked the door open.

The bed covers had been replaced with a soft down, cream duvet and some matching throw pillows. The curtains were partially drawn and the fireplace was lit. Instead of our bedside lamps, Jacob had also lit some lavender candles, scattering them around the room and creating a romantic retreat.

“I still can’t believe you said yes,” he grinned, as I snuggled deeper into his chest, feeling lulled by the warmth of the fire washing over us.

“And I can’t believe you managed to hide this from me,” I said, holding up my hand with the ring. “Since I started dating you, I’ve notice that your eyes always give things away. This time I didn’t even see it coming.”

“That’s because I practiced for three months so you wouldn’t be able to tell I was up to something,” he confessed. “My classmates thought I was losing my marbles.”

“Well I’m very impressed. Hey, is this also the reason you’re parents gave us such an extravagant gift like this apartment for Christmas?”

“When I had told them that I was planning on proposing to you, they were so happy you were finally going to be part of the family, they decided to give this place to us as an early wedding present.”

“I wonder how my parents are going to react once we tell them the news.”

“They already know. I had invited both of our parents out for dinner on that same day you and Amy went to look at baby stuff. I wanted to ask your father’s permission first before I did anything. Once I mentioned what I was planning on doing, both our mothers then cried for hours at the mere thought of us finally being related to each other.”

“That must have been fun,” I grinned.

“You’re telling me,” he sighed. “You know, Jenna, I still keep thinking everything between us is just a dream.”

“Me too, but even if this is a dream, I don’t ever want to wake up,” I said. “I love you, Jacob. Don’t ever doubt that. Even if I yell at you when I’m pregnant, or if I’ve had a bad day, I will always love you.”

“And I will always love you too.”