Chapter 6 (finale)

Vanessa looked at herself in the bathroom mirror, the sound of water echoing behind her as Zac took a shower before getting ready to go out for dinner. A towel was wrapped loosely around her tanned body, her lips were still a bit swollen and a bluish purple mark stood out on her neck. "Good thing nobody can see the other one" –She thought.

She lifted her towel up a little and stared at the bigger mark he had made on her inner thing. Smiling and looking back in the mirror she was surprised to see herself blushing slightly. Vanessa wrinkled her nose at the image in front of her, poked her tongue out and finished curling her short brown hair with the curling iron.

A few minutes later her voiced resounded loudly off the bathroom walls. – "You know I'm never ever going to take the ring off, right?" –Zac moved his head away from the water and whipped the foggy glass door with his hand to look at his girlfriend.

"Well, I would hope so!" –He said, pushing his hair back and out of his face. She turned her head and replayed. –"I was just saying, you know…in case people saw it and started asking questions about it. I could avoid answering if you want me to, but I'm not taking it off". Without looking back in the mirror, she ran her fingers through her loose curls to finish off with her hair.

"No wonder they say 'great minds think alike'" –He winked at her and then reached for the shampoo. Vanessa smiled happily and grabbed her eyelash curler.

Afterwards, she went through her makeup pouch and -deciding she wasn't really in the mood for heavy makeup- only took her mascara and her favorite "cherry fizz" lip gloss out.

As she put the case down, she spotted on top of the sink the plain silver ring he had been wearing lately ; amidst a small clutter of makeup, hair & body products and accessories. She smiled suddenly as a wonderful idea formed in her mind.

Zac was already rinsing the conditioner off his blonde hair inside the shower, so she knew he'd be done soon. Trying his ring quickly on several fingers, she finally found that it fitted perfectly on her left thumb.

Vanessa was applying the finishing touches as he stepped out of the shower and started drying his wet body. By the time he was done, she was still in front of the mirror…this time putting on some perfume.

"Alright V…you need to go get ready now, cause I'm starving!" –He told her, reaching for his Axe body spray. And she stepped aside to give him more room.

Looking down at her left hand again, she asked as casually as she could. –"Baby, would you mind if I wore this silver ring of yours?" –And lifted her hand up to show him that she had already taken it.

He saw, he smiled…and then he said –"Sure. But, don't you have enough rings to last you like...two lifetimes?" –She stepped out of the bathroom and made her way to the closet.

"Yeah, but none of them are a plain band like this one. And I think it looks cute on me. So, thank you!" –She shouted; and he didn't need to see her face to know she had her signature cheeky smile on.

Some time passed quietly as they selected their respective outfits. Although throwing together whatever he found in the closet and just putting it on was Zac's specialty, tonight he wanted to make an effort.

As she was putting her sandals on, she looked up to see him buckling his belt and asked if he could tell her where he had bought the "Kuuipo" ring. When he wanted to know why, she simply said –"oh, you know how curious I am. And maybe you could also tell me that story you heard from the man at the store!"

He shrugged and agreed. She didn't want to lie to him, but her mother always said that a little suspense helps keep the flame alive… And, besides, she couldn't just right out tell him that it was because now she had the measure of his ring finger to get him a Kuuipo too. Where would be the fun in that?...

Half an hour later they were both dressed and ready to go. She went into the bedroom one final time, to turn on the light on the nightstand, when she heard a familiar sound.

Right there, under a small tote bag she had bought the day before, and next to a package of Nutter Butter peanut butter crackers, was her beloved Sidekick.

THE END