Chapter 22 #2
“Now we let everything cool off and settle overnight. Tomorrow morning we look it over, polish it, and put it in a pretty box for—you never did tell me who this is for.”
No, she hadn’t. “Daniel. His name is Daniel. We broke up two years ago, but he’s—he’s still in my heart, so I have to give him this. That way my heart will always be with him, even if we never see each other again after he graduates. I think it already is, but I have to be sure.”
He gave her a searching look. “Your mother—she used to talk like that. Not always, just once in a while. And then not at all.” He looked down, sighing.
“I wish she could have held on to it. I think she’d be a lot happier if she had.
” Another sigh. “I’m glad you’re doing this, Nora.
Even if this Daniel doesn’t appreciate it—he’d have to be a moron not to—you hang on to how you’re feeling.
Love isn’t ever wasted. Ever. You remember that. ”
She already knew that.
Because of Daniel.
Daniel , March 16
They’d just been wandering around Manhattan all afternoon. Bianca was being very patient, just following him around wherever his feet took him.
“Enjoy it now, Danny. Who knows when you’ll get to spend any time down here, once you start that job.”
That’s exactly what Daniel was thinking. That, and the thing he hadn’t told his cousin—he hoped he’d see inspiration for a gift for Valerie somewhere, in one of the countless storefronts they’d passed by. But so far, nothing had caught his eye.
They were on Madison, just crossing 59 th St., and something jumped out. He stopped in his tracks, and shouted, “Mont Blanc!”
It was perfect—except not for Valerie.
He hadn’t even been thinking about Nora until this instant. But he had to give her something—something special. Something she’d always carry with her, always remember him by. She was in his heart; he had to make sure she’d have something of him with her no matter where she went.
Bianca gave him a blank look. “Mont Blanc, like the fancy pens?”
Daniel pointed at the window—the Mont Blanc boutique. “Let’s go in.”
“This place is really expensive, Daniel. Are you sure?”
One other thing he’d never told Bianca: two years ago, when his father had told him about the summer job in Pittsburgh and how much it would pay, he’d mentally set aside $1,500 to buy a proper gift for Nora.
And even after they broke up, he’d kept that money set aside.
He couldn’t even say why he had, but now he knew. It was for this moment.
He went all through the store; he had no idea there were so many kinds of pens, or so many designs. But in the end he decided something simple and classic was best. It was black with a cap and gold accents—real gold.
“I think this one,” he told the sales clerk, an older man in a well-tailored suit.
“Are you certain, sir? It is $720, plus tax.”
Daniel just stared at him. “Yes, I saw the price.”
Bianca stared at him. “Daniel, that’s a lot of money. I know this girl helped you with the job offer…”
“No, it’s not for her. It’s for Nora. And I was ready to spend twice that much on her.” He turned back to the clerk. “I’ll take that, and let’s get two—no, three refills. I wouldn’t want her to run out of ink. And I believe you’ll engrave it?”
The clerk nodded, not looking Daniel in the eye. Well, it was his own fault for making assumptions.
There was one problem, though—the little sign announcing free engraving also said you could only have twenty characters on the pen. That wasn’t really very much space for a message. “Bee, I need your help with this. It has to be short, but it has to say everything.”
It took fifteen minutes for them to come up with a message he was satisfied with. He gave it to the clerk and then remembered that his original goal was a gift for Valerie, and that still wasn’t accomplished.
“I need one more thing. Another gift. I think…” He looked over to Bianca. “What about—I think I saw business card holders. She’s about to graduate, she’ll need that, right?”
“You’re crazy, Daniel. Buying an expensive gift for one ex-girlfriend is nuts already, but for two of them?”
“It’s my money, Bee. And they both deserve it. So what do you think? Business card holder, yes or no?”
“Yes. And I’d better get something fantastic from you at Christmas this year, Danny. Remember, I’ve loved you way longer than Nora or Valerie or anybody else.”
He hugged her. “Count on it, Bee.”
He found a pink leather card holder that he thought Valerie would love, and they personalized that, too—although there was only room for her initials, and he’d had to wrack his brain to remember the one time she’d mentioned her middle name. “You can put VAV—Valerie Angelica Vance.”
When he finally checked out, between both gifts and the pen refills and sales tax, he ended up spending over $1,200. But they were both worth it.
And even if they didn’t appreciate it—impossible as that seemed—it was worth it because he’d kept a promise to himself.
That was worth everything in the world.