him and i - joão felix

thirty five

on the way there, my phone kept buzzing with multiple messages from ryan. i ignored them all and blocked him. he really thought i would just forget about what happened in high school and he could 'happy birthday' his way back into my life. i turned my phone on silent as we pulled into the parking lot.

joão opened my car door for me and rested his hand on my lower back while walking into the restaurant where we were greeted by a waiter. it was a super fancy restaurant and you could only be seated with a reservation.

"hi. reservation for joão?" he said.

"ah, follow me." the waiter smiled.

he walked us to our table where mateo and lina were already waiting for us. i guess we were running a little bit late.

"here are your menus." he said, placing four down on the table and turned to walk away.

lina hopped out of her seat and pulled me into a very tight hug. "happy birthday!" she squealed.

mateo hugged me next, saying happy birthday as well.

"thanks guys." i smiled as we sat down.

the table had two seats on both sides so mateo and lina sat next to each other on one side while joão and i sat on the other.

"i'll be your waiter tonight. can i get you guys started off with any drinks?" the man said when he returned.

we all ordered a water and continued to browse the menu. when he came back, i ordered fettuccini alfredo and joão ordered a steak. i didn't really pay attention to lina and mateo's orders though. we began to talk while we waited.

"so bea, how has your birthday been so far?" lina asked.

"it's been good. joão's been a sweetheart all day." i smiled.

"hey, i'm always a sweetheart." he teased, sounding offended.

"i guess." i joked.

i didn't really want to bring up what happened with ryan. i just wanted to enjoy my night.

"we got you a gift!" lina squealed as she grabbed a small bag filled with tissue paper out from under the table. "we were gonna give it to you after dinner but i just couldn't wait! here, open it!"

she handed me the bag and clapped her hands together from excitement. i pulled away the tissue paper and it revealed a small box. i opened it to reveal a kendra scott necklace with a rose quartz gem.

"you didn't have to." i smiled.

"but i wanted to. do you like it?" she asked.

"of course i do." we stood up and hugged each other.

when we finished, the waiter brought our food out and refilled our drinks. all of the food was very good, i didn't even look up from my plate.

"happy birthday." a familiar sarcastic voice said from behind me.

i looked up at lina, who looked mad or upset, i couldn't tell which. i turned around and vera was standing behind me, smiling.

"what are you doing here?" joão asked.

"i saw lina's story. she really does post everything." she said.

she was right, lina had been taking pictures the whole night. i'm sure it wasn't her intention for vera to show up here though.

"does it not speak anymore?" she pointed at me. "i said happy birthday."

"thanks. now leave." i said and turned back around.

she pulled a chair from another table and sat it down next to joão.

"why didn't i get an invite?" she said as she ran her fingers along joão's arm.

the waiter had come back at the right time. "oh do you want to order something?" he asked her.

"no, she's not even supposed to be here." i responded before she could. "you need to leave. we don't want you here."

"i'm not ready to leave. if you couldn't see, i'm talking to joão."

"if they don't want you here, i'm going to have to ask you to leave. you aren't a part of their reservation and we only let people in with one. this is your only chance to leave before i call the police and have you escorted and trespassed."

"fine." she said. "but one last thing." she walked over to me, grabbing my cup of water and dumping it on me before walking away.

"oh hell no." i said and started to push away from the table to go follow her. joão grabbed my hand and stopped me from going after her.

"not here, and especially not now." he said.

"i'm sorry." lina said. "i feel like it's my fault. i posted those things but i didn't think she would come. i'm sorry i ruined your birthday." she frowned.

"lina no, you didn't ruin my birthday. it's honestly been great. besides that and my ex trying to call me." i laughed.

"i'm still sorry." she smiled.

"you have nothing to be sorry about."

we finished our food and got boxes for whatever we didn't eat. joão and i shared a box because he didn't have much left and neither did i, but it was too good to waste.

we walked out of the restaurant and i began to shiver a bit from the water splashed on me. it was a good thing my white sweater didn't become see through though.

"i have a hoodie in the back if you want to change." joão smiled as he pulled me closed to him, keeping me warm until we got to the car.

i grabbed it from the back seat and climbed into the car. i took off the sweater and replaced it with his hoodie. it surprisingly was kind of warm for being in the cold car all night. my favorite thing about his hoodies are that they smell like him.

when we got home, we walked into our room to change. i kept his hoodie on but replaced my skirt with a pair of pajama pants. i took off my makeup, washed my face, and put my hair back.

"i got a gift for you." joão told me when we were finished.

he went into one of his dresser drawers and got a small box wrapped in wrapping paper. he handed it to me and i began to tear the paper away and opened the box, revealing an even smaller box. i opened that box and inside it was a ring.

"it's a promise ring." he smiled. "on the inside, our initials are carved in."

"that's so sweet." i said as i looked at it. he was right, our initials were carved.

"do you like it?" he asked.

"i love it. thank you."

"i love you." he said.

i pulled him in and kissed him in response. i put the ring on, never wanting to take it off again.

-

happy new year's eve! i hope you guys had a good year but i hope next year is even better! love you all!