The Surprise

“Stop teasing me!” she said. 

“I am not” replied Gino, “it is true. I have just booked us on a seven day cruise of the Caribbean.”  

Selena could not believe it. It was so unexpected. She had only mentioned it once in passing that she would love to take a cruise once before her life was over. It was beyond her wildest dreams that it would ever happen and Gino had made it happen. 

“Where did you get the money?” She asked. 

“I sold something that I did not need anymore” he replied,”Nothing to worry about. We leave Friday, so start getting your things together.” 

It was a moment that he wanted to remember for the rest of his life. Selena was truly happy and was still dazed from the shock of it. She may have been a little woozy from the chemotherapy, but she had enough energy to feel happy and amazed at his acknowledgement of their love. 

He did not know how much time they had left to be together, and he wanted her to have this experience that she had so badly wanted to have. 

She was ecstatic and wanted to tell her mum and sister about the cruise and got busy doing that. 

“Who said money can’t buy happiness?” He thought, “Maybe they didn’t know that you could rent it for seven days on the Caribbean.” 

He was feeling mighty pleased with this impulsive decision he had made. “All good moves happen when you don’t think of the consequences” he thought. 

This was totally going to be worth it. He knew that it had been a hard year for her, even though she was dealing with it much better than he was. 

Selena was on the phone with her mum, “Yes mum, Gino surprised me with a cruise, we leave Friday” she said. 

Gino walked around their apartment and looked at the pictures on the walls from their earlier trips. He smiled to himself, “this is going to put all you guys to shame” he said to the pictures on the walls. 

There was something about this trip that had brought a ray of sunshine into their drab, hospital visiting lives. The monotony and sheer depressive state of her hospital visits had made them impervious to the little joys of daily life. Everything was done for the sake of getting over with it. They had not looked forward to anything fun for the last one year. 

But this trip was gonna change everything. They would drink and eat and laugh and take pictures and make videos and have sex and laugh again and again and do all the things that they didn’t do anymore. 

This was what life should have been like. And there was a good dream to have, to look forward to and to cherish for the rest of his life when she was gone.

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