Chapter 27
Romeo
“Romeo.”
“Mmm…”
“Ro-meo…”
“Wha… tired.”
“Get up, baby.”
I yawn and stretch, making my eyes water. I blink them open to find Julien sitting next to me on the bed. The room is still cast in darkness.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, sitting up and rubbing my eyes.
He kisses my lips and then my forehead. “It’s time to get up for the surprise.”
“What time is it?”
“It’s after four in the morning.”
I fall back into bed and pull the covers over my head. “Why so early? Or is it late at night?”
He chuckles and tugs back the blankets. “I promise you, you’re going to love it. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time.”
“Fine… I’ll get up for your early ass.”
He kisses my forehead. “Thanks, Cupcake. I’ll go make us some coffee and walk Nutmeg.”
Julien leaves the room, and I sit up.
He’s an early riser, but not this early. I immediately stand and head to the bathroom. Otherwise, I’ll end up falling asleep again.
After I piss and brush my teeth, I get dressed and head to the kitchen, where Julien slides a mug full of steaming coffee my way.
Nutmeg wags her tail and cute butt. I pat her head, and she tries to lick my hand. But as soon as Julien pours her some kibble, she’s off with hyper excitement, devouring it as if it’s her last meal.
Julien looks cute with his baseball hat turned backward. He’s wearing a black tank top with a hoodie and basketball shorts. Hell, he looks good in anything.
He also looks better than he did yesterday. I was worried as fuck about him. He hadn’t been himself at all, so much so that I worried he was going to quit the trip and send me away. I clung to him all night to keep him from leaving me before our time was up.
“H-how are you doing this morning?” I ask him. Please tell me we’re going to keep going with this trip, I beg him in my head.
He blows on his coffee and takes a tentative sip. His dark brown eyes, which can see into your soul, peer into me. “I’m… doing okay. I’ll be better as soon as we get to where we’re going.”
My fingers wrap around the warm mug, and I lift it to take a sip with both hands. “If you’re excited, then I’m sure it’ll be fun.”
“It will. I promise.”
Julien comes and stands behind me, setting his mug on the counter next to mine. He wraps an arm around my chest and pulls me against him. Then, he presses a kiss to my neck. “I don’t think I would’ve enjoyed this without you, Cupcake. Thanks for sticking it out with me.”
Why wouldn’t I? He’s saved my life. He’s freed me. I’m his forever, or as long as he’ll have me. I’d burn the fucking world down for him.
“Thanks for bringing me,” I say instead. “Thanks for everything.”
I hate that we only have three days left. My heart aches, and it’s taking all my willpower not to drop to my knees and beg Julien to take me with him. I’m hoping by that time he’ll change his mind about his plans.
The drive through the desert is about twenty minutes, when we pull up to some parking lot with a bunch of vans and closed buildings.
Julien hops out of the truck, then walks around and helps me out. He grabs my hand and locks the car. When we reach one of the men by the van, Julien gives him his name and then mine.
The man starts giving a brief safety speech about hot-air balloon rides.
My jaw drops, and Julien smiles at my shock.
“Surprise,” he whispers.
“I’ve seen them on TV before. I never thought about riding one.”
“It’s going to be epic. I can’t wait to get up there. You’re going to love it, I promise.”
“I hope so. It’s one thing to be up high in the tram. It’s another to be on a balloon that’s all open.”
“I’ll hold you, but it’s very safe.”
We wait for others to arrive, then we all hop into vans. The people running the business drive us out to the middle of the desert as the sun slowly starts rising.
Once we arrive, the man who runs the balloons quickly jumps out and starts preparing them. There are about twenty people who are working and going up with us in other balloons, or at least, I hope so.
“They’re not all riding with us, are they?” I whisper.
Julien chuckles and wraps an arm around my shoulder. “Nah, there will be several of us in one balloon, but they have about three or four balloons.”
I snuggle into Julien, rest my head on his shoulder, and play with the zipper on his hoodie while we watch the balloon being laid out on the ground and attached to a massive basket lying on its side.
People are asking questions, and the men who work there are explaining how it all works.
“They put the balloon facing downwind,” Julien says. “Once they get the balloon open and spread out, they’ll attach it to the basket, which is attached to the vehicle. Spreading the balloon helps it inflate evenly.”
The man explains things, but Julien is more to the point and isn’t interrupted by a ton of questions. He’s so smart, but he’s good at making me understand things.
“Once that’s ready, they’ll use cold inflation first.”
I see what he means when they turn on a large fan, and it blows air into the balloon. A man goes inside the balloon, which is huge now, and starts straightening the fabric. It’s kind of interesting.
He comes out, and a couple of men hold open the mouth of the balloon as it keeps on expanding.
“It’s so pretty, like a rainbow.”
“It is. I watched a video on it once. Not far from here, in January and February, they have balloon events, where you can see countless balloons filling the sky with color. It’s fucking amazing. Ever since I saw it, I’ve wanted to ride in one.”
“You like to be up high, huh?” I chuckle.
He laughs back and squeezes me against him. “I do. You’d think I’d be surrounded by water after being a swimmer for so long, but here I am in the desert, wanting to be up in the air. I can’t fucking wait.”
“What are they doing now?”
“Now, they’re using hot air combined with the cold air. The cold air helps evenly distribute the hot air.”
It’s big now, and they’ve pulled away the fan, leaving only hot hair to fill the rest.
“Look,” he points. “It’s starting to rise.”
A few men rush to the basket as it stands upright and sit in it. “Is that so it doesn’t float away?” I ask.
“Yep, exactly. Now, they’ll make sure it’s all safe and ready for us to take off.”
When it’s all done, and we’re ready to climb into the basket, it’s about thirty minutes later, and the sun is climbing over the mountains.
Julien helps me get into the basket, and he follows right behind me. After we all get in, they keep shooting flames toward the balloon.
Once we’re ready to take off, the pilot tells everyone holding the ropes to let us go.
My stomach dips, and I cling to Julien.
He kisses my head. “It’s safe, I promise.”
“I trust you, but still…it’s scary.”
We get higher and higher, and that weird vertigo hits me.
“Focus on the horizon, baby. Don’t look down if you get dizzy. Watch the sunrise with me.”
Julien pulls out his phone, flips the camera to face us, and takes several selfies. As usual, he sends me the pictures for me to keep. I try not to think that the point of all the pictures is to have something to remember him by.
The higher we get, the more relaxed he gets.
“Do you hear that?” he asks.
“Hear what? All I hear is the gas being turned on.”
“Exactly. It’s silent. No cars, no birds, not a thing.”
Some people are talking, but they’re pretty quiet.
As we get higher, the ride grows smoother, and I start to relax more.
I take a chance, pull away from him, and turn around to face outward.
I grip the basket and look out at the land, which is completely brown except for a few cacti.
There’s a creek in the distance, with plants along it that are green, too.
Julien stands at my back and wraps an arm around me. I always feel so safe when he’s touching me. You’d think I’d hate it, and I used to, but not how he does it: like I fucking matter.
“Look out there, baby. Look at the world all around us. We’re not even the size of an atom in this universe.
We’re barely a spec on this planet. You have no idea how vast it is until you’re up almost nine thousand feet.
The air is clear. We’re away from pain and suffering.
Nothing can hurt us up here. It puts so much into perspective.
It shows how insignificant we are, except right here and now. You and me. We’re all that matters.”
But do we matter? Julien’s leaving in three days. He’s leaving me behind. For the first time since we met, I don’t believe him. Still, I’ll stick to him like glue until the last possible second.
God, when he walks away, I’m going to fucking die.
One thing I know for sure is that right before he does, I’m going to tell him how I feel, that I love him. I can’t let him go without him knowing that. If he stays, I’ll tell him a hundred times a day, if I have to.
The pilot is chatting about barometric pressure, something that I don’t understand as we start to descend, so I tune him out and only focus on Julien.
He wraps his arms around me as we descend.
I’m not scared anymore. Not with Julien.
My heart aches for him so much. Maybe it hurts because he’s leaving.
Maybe love is supposed to hurt and feel good at the same time.
It makes it harder to let that person go.
Who knows? What I do know is that as each minute that ticks down, my world is coming to an end.
It’s going to end as soon as Julien leaves me. I have no idea what to do about it.
We touch the ground, and the basket starts sliding across the desert. People rush to us to steady the basket. Once it’s stable, we all climb out.
“Thanks for this, Sugar,” I say. “It was amazing. It’s a trip I’ll never forget.”
“You’re welcome. I’m glad I could do this with you.” He takes my hand and tugs me toward a row of picnic tables. I have no idea where they came from, but Julien and I sit down at one.
“What’s this?” I ask.
“Champagne and breakfast. It comes from a long line of hot-air balloon traditions.”
A plate of food is put in front of me. There are some apples, a muffin, and some egg pie thing. The staff pours us all a glass of champagne halfway and fills the rest with orange juice.
Julien holds up his glass to me. “Cheers to an amazing ride. Cheers to an amazing trip with an amazing human.”
I smile at that. “Cheers to an even better human,” I say. We clink glasses and take a sip of our orange-and-bubbly drink, which tastes really good.
“What’s the plan for tomorrow?” I ask with my mouth full of the pie thing.
“Tomorrow, we’ll take it easy. We’ll spend time in town, do some shopping for you and Jinx, then we’ll have a nice dinner.”
I don’t want to ask him about the last two days, but I do because I want to know how to make every single minute left with him count. “After that?”
“We’ll be going to beautiful Sedona to have lunch, which is just over two hours from the Grand Canyon.”
My stomach twists so much that it hurts. “Cool.”
“The last night will be very special, and I’d like to keep it a surprise for as long as I can.”
I try to give him a bright smile, but it probably looks like I’m cringing. “I can’t wait.”
I wish there were a way to slow down time.