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Alex knew that this morning would be like no other for Eliza. He had planned everything out the night before, making sure that everything would turn out perfect for the woman he loved so much.
He and Eliza had just started dating a year ago after a little squabble with Eliza’s older sister, Angelica. It was long ago, and the two sisters made amends over the matter, but there were still times when Angelica made it clear that she was not over him, trying to get him to leave Eliza for her and claiming that he “would never be satisfied” with Eliza.
But Alexander was a loyal man, and loved Eliza more than anything in life. He made sure to stow away time just for Eliza even though he basically drowned in assignments and essays given to him by his unruly professor, Mr. Ramsey.
He was planning of surprising his dear Eliza on the most random of days. Eliza hadn’t always been one to enjoy surprises, mostly because it was her little sister Peggy surprising her with a good scare. But this surprise was different, and it was going to be one that she would really enjoy.
Alex had never gotten Eliza flowers before in their one year of dating, and he felt bad for all the times he could have. As a result, he didn’t know which type of flower to get her. He had never noticed the exceptionally wide selection he could chose from at a Sunday market. When you went to the gardening section of the market the previous day, he just gawked at how many types of flowers there were on this planet.
After seeing and considering almost every flower there was to choose from, which took him close to two hours, he finally opted for some Petunia Tumbelina Eliza flowers, mostly because Eliza’s name was part of the name of the flower.
When he got to his small apartment that him and Eliza shared, he realized he had no way of hiding them without them dying, considering the fact that he didn’t know how to actually take care of a flower.
So, after he thanked God for Youtube and watched a video of how to take care of cut flowers, he put them in a vase and filled it with water, realizing it was a lot easier than he thought, and put it behind one of the chairs in the bedroom. He made sure that Eliza wouldn’t be able to see it.
Eliza came in to the bedroom late at night after her internship as a nurse and yawned, her nose scrunching up when she noticed that something seemed different. She turned the flashlight to her phone on and found Alex lying in bed, sound asleep with the sheets only covering half of his bare torso. The white-furred cat that they had found and named Marie, was lying at the end of the bed, her head perking up at the beam of light that shone from Eliza’s phone.
Then, she felt a familiar feeling start to build, the pressure starting at the top of her nose. She felt a sneeze approaching, and her sneezes could scare someone to death. What she thought would happen, did happen, and Eliza let out a sneeze that made Marie jump up and run away from her comfortable spot on the bed. Her sneeze also woke Alex, who shifted in the sheets and opened his eyes.
The light from Eliza’s phone made Alex shut his eyes tight until they got used to it. Once Alex was finally able to open his eyes, he saw Eliza plop her purse down on the floor and kick of her shoes lazily, giving away her sleepiness.
He closed his eyes again to try and fall back asleep. A couple minutes later he felt the bed move as Eliza climbed in. Alex snuggled up to Eliza once she got comfortable, wrapping an arm around her and drifted off to sleep.
When Eliza fluttered her eyes open, she didn’t see Alexnder beside her sleeping soundly. Alexander was always one to wake up last, while Eliza was the one to wake up first. She got confused for a moment, wondering where Alex was, until she smelled pancakes coming from the kitchen. That’s when her eyes widened and she jumped out of bed and raced towards the kitchen, worried that Alex was going to burn the entire complex down due to his lack of cooking skills.
When she entered the kitchen, her hair disheveled and her face un-washed, she was surprised to see Alex making the pancakes while humming a small tune and not burning the arpartment down.
“Woah,” Alex said as he caught sight of Eliza. Eliza relaxed when she saw no danger, slugging her shoulders and walking over to one of the bar stools.
“I thought you were going to burn down the arpartment,” she replied as Alex slid a glass of orange juice in front of her. She took a sip of the fresh and homemade orange juice she had made from the oranges she recieved from Peggy.
“Nah, I was the one who made breakfast for the dorks downstairs when they were hungover and disfuntional.” Alex refered to his previous roomates who lived in an apartment one floor below them. They had been friends with Alex ever since high school, showing him around the school and bringing him into their group when he popped up one day in the middle of the semester.
“Mmm, smells good,” Eliza commented.
“Why thank you,” Alex said. He took the last pancake of the pan and put it on Eliza’s plate. He grabbed two forks and set the plates out on the bar, placing the forks beside them. Right after he set the fork down, Eliza snatched it away, digging into her food like it was the end of the world.
“Someone’s hungry,” Alex said as he turned the stove off. He walked over to his seat and sat down, observing Eliza as she ate. Eliza ingorned Alex’s comment and cotinued eating. They both ate in comfortable silence, enjoy each others presence.
A thought popped into Alex’s head as he ate. He dropped his fork on the plate, making it clatter, and rushed to the bedroom. He got the flowers out from behind the chair and prayed that Eliza would like them.
He walked out of the bedroom and into the kitchen, the flowers behind his back. Eliza turned her head towards him, raising an eyebrow quizzically. Alex cleared his throat and began to speak.
“Eliza, I feel like I haven’t appreciated you enough, and I feel bad for not doing so. I wanted to plan a day to remind you that I still love you, and I always will. You brighten my day so much, even when I get upset, and I’m blessed that you walked into my life. So, to go long with breakfast, I also got you some flowers.” Alex brought out the flowers from behind his back and awaited a response.
Eliza was speechless, mosty because her mouth was full of pancakes, but smiled at Alex. She put a finger up, telling him to wait, and began to chew. After swallowed, she smiled again, tears almost approaching.
But then, she felt the familiar pressure in her nose build again, and she sneezed. Alex’s smile dropped. It was rare that Eliza got colds, so when she sneezed after the appearance of flowers, he knew it could only be one thing: allergies.
If one wasn’t enough to get the message across, Eliza sneezed again. This time her smile dropped as she too realized that she was allergic to the flowers.
“Well, uh… sorry about the flowers. I didn’t know,” Alex apologized, looking down. He felt guilty for not knowing what his girlfriend was allergic to and what she wasn’t allergic to.
“Oh, it’s okay, I didn’t know either.” Alex looked up again with hope and saw Eliza with her sweet smile. “But it’s the thought that counts,” Eliza continued.
Alex placed the flower on the counter and walked to Eliza, leaning up and kissing her on the forehead gently.
“I love you,” Eliza said softly.
“I love you too,” Alex whispered, wondering what he did to deserve Eliza.