Chapter 52 Amari
Amari
“Do you remember what we practiced?” he whispers as we walk down the stairs into the living room. My mom is already waiting for us.
“Yes, Dad.” I roll my eyes. How can I forget? My dad made me practice this too many times for me to count. He kept telling me it has to be perfect and blah, blah, blah.
Every Christmas, my mom and dad have always let me open my presents before they open theirs. My dad told me to act like nothing has changed and to open my presents first, like I normally do.
After I’m done opening them all, I go under the Christmas tree and grab my dad’s present I bought for him.
Well, I didn’t buy it. My mom always has me go shopping with her to buy my dad something, and my dad does the same thing so I can get something for my mom.
This happens every year, and now that we are living together, nothing has changed.
“Here, Dad,” I say, handing him his present. He asked for me to hand him his gift first, so when my mom opens her gift, she’s distracted.
He tears the wrapping paper apart and throws it aside.
“Nice. Thanks, sweetie. I needed these,” he says, looking at the box with AirPods on it.
My mom said that he likes to listen to music when he works, so we bought headphones for him.
“Let’s get your mom’s present,” he says, getting up from the floor.
He helps me with the big box in the corner of the living room.
I place both my hands under the box, helping my dad carry it to mom.
“This is huge. I wonder what it could be?” Mom eyes the present.
I sit back down next to my dad as we watch her open the box.
Her eyes light up when she realizes what it is.
She looks up at both of us. “You two are the best. I’m going to have the best coffee ever.
” She looks over the box that says Breville Espresso Machine.
My dad said my mom likes coffee a lot. Which I already knew.
She drinks it every morning—and sometimes in the afternoon, too.
She let me have a sip one time. All it did was make me gag.
It tasted weird. It wasn’t good. She told me her mom never let her drink coffee when she was younger.
I see why. It’s gross. Even when she poured milk into the cup, it still didn’t taste any better.
Just like Dad and I practiced, I stand up, walk back over to the Christmas tree, reach into the very bottom, and grab the small box that’s between the pokey parts of the tree.
My dad hid it in there so my mom couldn’t see it.
I walk back over, stand in front of my mom to block her view of my dad, and hand her the box. “Here, Mom. This is for you.”
She looks at me and moves the big box over, then grabs the box from my hands. “What’s this?” she asks.
“Open it.” I'm still standing in front of her, hiding my dad.
Her mouth drops when she flips open the box and looks down at the diamond ring.
“Mom, will you marry my dad?” I ask, waiting for her to look up at me. She does, her mouth open. I move over to the side so she can see my dad on his knee.
She takes a big breath again, like the one she did when she opened her first present.
"Blakely, will you marry me?” he asks, looking very nervous.
My mom’s face is wet from her tears, and my dad looks like he can’t breathe. “Mom?” I ask, because she doesn’t say anything.
She nods her head and sniffles. “Yes. Yes. A million times, yes.” My lips rise from cheek to cheek.
She said yes.
My dad pulls my mom into his arms. “I love you so much, Blakely. You make me the happiest man.” Now my dad’s back is shaking. What is going on? Why are they both crying now?
“I love you too,” Mom says.
“Are you guys, okay? Shouldn’t you be happy?” They both turn to me with red eyes.
“We are happy, little one. These are happy tears,” Dad says, sniffling.
“Come here.” Mom pulls me into her arms. We all sit on the ground and hug.
“Dad!” I lift my head up from their hug. “Put Mom’s ring on!” I say.
My dad lifts his head. “Oh, yeah. I almost forgot.” He reaches and grabs the box from my mom, takes the ring out, and slides it onto her ring finger.
“This is beautiful, Kai,” she says, her hand raised so she can examine the ring.
“Amari helped pick it out, too.”
She looks over at me. “Did you really?”
I nod. One day after school, my dad picked me up, and we went to go buy the ring.
That’s when he asked me what I thought about him asking Mom to marry him.
Why do they keep asking me this question?
We picked out a ring that has only one big diamond on it.
It was different from the one Liam gave my mom.
My dad said my mom is a very simple person, so when we found this princess ring, I think that’s what it's called, he said we had to get it and that it reminded him of her. When I tried it on, the diamond was way too big for my finger. But it’s so pretty and sparkly.
It sparkled so much with every movement I made with my finger.
“You two have good taste,” Mom says.
I smile, because I’m so happy that my mom and dad are finally together.
They always seemed like they were together, but they never lived with each other.
It was weird growing up to realize all my friend’s parents live together—until Emma told me her parents were married.
Then I realized my parents weren’t, and maybe that’s why they don’t live together.
My dad has always told me that my mom and I were his forever and ever.
I never understood what that meant. When I asked him, he said that he wanted us to be together forever and ever.
We were always doing stuff together. But I guess he wanted it like this, with all of us living together and him and my mom married.
I’m really happy that we’re together and that we’re all happy together.
All three of us got our forever and ever.