Love You Too: PART THIRTEEN

These are all from different people's viewpoints now, so at the top I'll write who!

TIFFANY

He was a much faster swimmer than me. I knew that, and it was finally being proved again. We'd set off at the same time towards the cove but he'd sped up and after about 4 minutes of swimming he was too far ahead for me to catch him up. I deliberated slowing down and swimming breaststroke, but then I thought about the cave and how many memories there are there.
The cave was an area eroded into a small cliff face, it's surrounded on the rock surface with colourful flowers that ranged from the greener plants on the bottom; long grasses that dangled into the calm waters, and the purple flowers who's heads drooped down, and the small blue 'forget-me-nots' that dappled around the cliff face, erupting and scattering from any free gap on the rock face.
As soon as I caught a glimpse of it, the memories came flooding back, and I had to slow down for a second to take in this moment. I hadn't been back to the cove for about 3 years, and I'd only ever been with Nate: no one else. That summer was the summer after Nate first began to love me, and the more I thought about those two summers, the more things I remember, and the more signs I see that point to him loving me.
When we were 14, he'd brought a small boat out, and we rowed it together. I remembered the boat going in a circular motion initially, as the oar he was rowing was being rowed a lot stronger than mine. Eventually, he took them both, and he asked me just to look pretty on the front. That made me laugh, so I did so, resting my face on my hands and laughing as I tried to look my absolute prettiest for him. When we reached the cave it wasn't a shock: we'd been there everyday the summer before. He unpacked a small picnic and we sat on the rocky ledge that surrounded the inside of the cave and we ate it, laughing and joking, jumping into the plunge pool below us.
No one knew where we went everyday, but it wasn't like my parents cared, and he told his that we went to the beach. No one knew where we were now: Mollie never knew about our little hide out, and I imagined a scene of slight panic as soon as they realised we were missing. But at the same time I knew they'd take the same view as my parents: she's with Nate, she'll be absolutely fine.
When I got into the mouth of the cave, I looked across to the area of the ledge that was smoothest. He was lying on it, facing away from the mouth. I decided to swim as slowly as I could up to him, and as I did he didn't hear me, perhaps because of the sound of the waves outside crashing against the outer walls of the cave. I knew I couldn't stand in the water, as it was almost 3 metres deep, so I tread water for a little while until I had gained enough power to push myself up and kiss him on the back of the head. He jumped a little and turned around to see me treading water. He laughed and lay back down, before turning around and sitting up to give me space to sit down. He offered me both of his hands, and as I grabbed them he began to pull me up onto the ledge that was at least a metre above the water. I've never known how he managed to get onto it without help, as I always found myself relying on his strong arms to lift me up.
"The cave? Very romantic. It's a shame though, because it's your birthday and I'm supposed to plan things for you, and so far I feel like you've done everything" I said, feeling a wave of sadness hit me.
"The best birthday you could arrange for me is to be with you, away from the hospital." he said, leaning his head over to kiss me. "When I was lying there I was thinking about how good this place would be to bring our children. Like the birthplace of our love" he said leaning in again.
Our children? I realised I wasn't kissing him back like I normally would. I was startled and a little shocked. Then, the worry seeped out of my body, and was replaced by anticipation. My eyes began to sparkle again, as I realised what he wanted was indeed what I wanted too.
"Children?" I asked, wanting confirmation.
"If you want them, that is?" he said, running his flat palm across from one side of my stomach to the other and back again.
"Yes. Yes yes yes yes yes" I said, beginning to smile wider than I have for a long time. I kept repeating that simple word that had brought us both so much joy until he interrupted me by kissing me ferociously putting his hand behind my head and lowering me down onto the rocky surface. He kept his hand under my head to protect it from the hard rocks, but I didn't care at this point. I was so consumed with the thought of being a family and having a child with this perfect man that I couldn't focus on anything else. I felt like I was whole again, like no one in the world could destroy this feeling I had.

Little did I know that at that very moment, Victoria was on the phone to her imprisoned sister, plotting her revenge.