Something about a southern girl

Make me feel right

In a Mississippi morning

She's an angel in flight

In a blink of an eye

She'll be out of your sight

Something about a southern girl

-Amos Lee

His hand is softly holding onto mine, and we’re walking around the city, just looking for anything to do. 

“Come with me,” he says.

And I do. If there’s one thing in my life that I know how to do, it’s follow him. I know that with him I’m safe, and no matter what hell everyone else tries to inflict on us, I know his hand will still be holding mine, just like it is now. His fingers intertwined with mine with his thumb just gingerly caressing my hand as we go along.

We wind up in a little coffee shop, a quaint hole in the wall that is situated between numerous skyscrapers. 

“Two peppermint mochas.” He says to the cashier who looks like she’s been struck by a bolt of lightening. 

“Uh, uh okay. I’m sorry, wow.” She stutters while preparing the drinks.

“It’s quite okay,” he says back.

I lean into him and whisper nothings to him while she continues to get our drinks together. He softly kisses my forehead as he grabs the prepared drinks from the counter.

“Here,” he says while handing the teenage girl a card, “call this number if I ever do a show in town, they’ll be sure to hook you up with anything you’ll need.”

“Wow, thanks Mr. Timberlake,” she says.

“It’s Justin, and your name?” 

The girl replies, “Marie, I just have one request if you can help. Hold on one second.”

She runs to the back room and comes back with a CD, “Can you sign this?”

Justin takes out his pen and signs his name on the cover and the CD, “There ya go,” he says.

We say our goodbyes and Justin and I continue our walk around Pittsburgh.

“I haven’t seen you that nice to a fan in such a long time,” I say.

“Yeah, well you haven’t been my girlfriend for that long of a time,” he replies.

“So I have something to do with this?”

“Precisely.”

______________________

After walking around the city for hours, we finally made it back to her house where there was no one to be found. Walking in, we saw the decorated Christmas tree and the lit fireplace and decided to relax on the couch. 

“What are you thinking about, Timb?” she asks.

“You,” I simply reply while kissing her.

“I love you, Timb.”

“Love you too, Di.”

Taking out a little box, she jumps up and looks back at me.

“Wh- what’s that?” she asks.

“Just listen to me, I say.”

“Okay.”

“What do you remember from your Christmases?” I ask.

“Lots of stuff, why?”

“Anything specific? Did you ever remember not getting what you wanted so bad?” I enquire. 

“Yeah, quite a few times. But what does this have to do with us?” she says.

“Because I remember quite a few times when I didn’t get what I wanted,” I say, “And every Christmas was the same. Me wishing for something that I knew wasn't really possible. I just wanted a little bit more out of a commercialized holiday than the holiday was willing to give. I wanted love, I wanted happiness, and I wanted the guarantee that throughout everything I would encounter in my life, somebody would be there- my last wish being the craziest notion. But this year, this year things will be different. This year you're going to realize that deep down, we share the same wants, the same goals and hopefully you'll want me to be there through everything you encounter in life, too. You know, they say kids only make Christmas lists, but I think you'll soon find that if adults made them, life would just be a whole lot easier."

She smiles and begins to let tears come out of her eyes as I continue. 

“So, the only thing on my Christmas list, is you. You’re all I want, all I need. You’re the only thing that I’ll need for the rest of my life. Being able to wake up next to you in the morning is comfort enough for me to die happy. So, no, this isn’t an ‘engagement’ ring, because I’m not viewing this as an engagement, more like a lifelong promise. We can do all that fancy wedding shit when you want to, but right now I’m content just knowing you’re willing to be a part of this promise.”

She moves closer to me as I put the ring on her hand. She kisses me and all of a sudden I feel like the pieces of the puzzle that were once out of whack, now suddenly fall right into place.