Gracie's birthday is tomorrow and I couldn't be more excited. She says that I shouldn't get her anything because 'being here was enough' but there's no way she expected me to actually follow that. I got her an Italian charm bracelet and I picked out a bunch of charms, a music note, star, G, one that said I ❤️ NY in hopes it inspires her to visit more, a guitar and a piano and like a billion others. The one I'm on the fence about giving her is one with an 'S' I don't want it to come across as to "I want to wear her initial on a chain 'round my neck not because she owns me but cuz he really knows me" you know?
Anyway the last few days of this trip have been amazing. Beach trips, coffee runs, long drives leading to nowhere and midnight snack corner store adventures. It's been amazing and I feel like it's only going to get better. Gracie's even gotten hooked on Gilmore girls?!
Today i woke up and Gracie was in the bathroom. I sit up and check my texts
Gracie come in and dramatically flopped on the bad "there's nothing to do today" she signs
"Cmon it's LA there's something" I retort laughing
Gracie blankly stares at me "we're living in a global pandemic- there's nothing to do"
I nod knowing she's right, probably nothings open. "Well we can do something here" I say with a reassuring smile. Gracie was trying really hard to make this trip special but all I care about is bringing with her.
"Yea I guess" she says looking up at me from where her head laying on the pillow.
I smile she looks really cute- oh about that, I like am starting to like her a lot more and I don't know if I'm like Delulu or something but like the cuddling every night and I always catch her staring at me... I don't know it just feels like it might be mutual.
Gracie snaps me back into reality "Hey!" She says tapping my knee
"Sorry" I say rubbing my eyes
"You ok?"
I smiles at her concern "yeah I'm just not a morning person"
She hums grabbing my hand and pulling me out of bed. I follow her to the kitchen where she gets a container of fruit from the fridge. We go outside to the the back porch to enjoy our breakfast.
"You should teach me to surf" Gracie blurts out
I immediately agree "okay! When?" I ask
"I didn't think you'd say yes" she laughes "I mean if we can find somewhere to rent gear- today?"
I aggressively nod my head and find a surf shop not to far that has rentals.
We quickly get our swim suits and get in the car. When we arrive she asks me to do the talking since I know what I'm talking about. Once we get inside we walk up to the counter to find a woman in her late 50s asking if we need help.
"Yes actually we were interested in renting gear?" I ask
"Yes of course! What do you need?" She's very helpful
"Uhm I know I need one size 6 wetsuit probably two but she should probably try it since it's her first time" I say looking from the woman at the counter to Gracie
The woman nods for me to continue
"And do you guys have soft top boards?" I ask knowing they can be easier to start out with
"Yes we have a 9 foot"
"Perfect! And do you have like a regular 8 foot board?" I ask
"Uhm yea- let me go get someone to get those boards for you and I'll take you to try on the wetsuit" she says to me and Gracie
We both nod splitting of to help the guys outside tie the boards to the roof of the car. We sign out the gear and get the wetsuits and then we are on our way. We get to the beach the same one Gracie had shown me a few days before. The waves were fairly small but that was for the better.
We got in the water and I was sitting straddling my board and Gracie was laying on hers. I was explaining before any set of waves came up.
"Okay so you probably won't be standing up at first but basically if there's a wave you want to catch you get on your stomach and lay on the part of the board that will have it so when you stand up your feet will be near the tail and when the wave is a little behind you start paddling in- sorry I'm like a shit teacher" I laugh
"Nono I think I got that, I've seen a bunch kids do it growing up too"
"Here's a good one" I say motioning for her to get ready
She paddles and catches the wave for a minute lifting her chest up before her nose dives down making her fall. As soon as she pops out of the water she laughs "that was so fun oh my gosh"
I smiles catching the next wave in to where she was we continue riding them back in forth until she's confident enough to get on her knees and I explain to her how to pop up on the board.
She try's it on the next one and looses her balance falling backward almost immediately. We both laugh "you make it look so easy" she says throwing her hands up
"Thanks!" I shout starting to paddle for the next one taking it all the way in.
We stayed out for another hour, gracie even stood up successfully once!
We got home around just in time for dinner. Her mom made the TikTok feta pasta that's been going viral. It was really good. Her family asked about my mom, and growing up in New York, I think just generally trying to get to know me better. It was really sweet I really like her family. Gracie kept smiling at me, when our eyes met her eyes would sparkle, she seemed happy too. I hope she can visit and know my mom the same too.
After dinner we go to her family's tv room. We turned on SNL laughing at the first few skits before we both became to tried to focus. We fall asleep on the sofa sharing a blanket.
"Psst!" I was awoken to Gracie rubbing my shoulder "We fell asleep let's go to bed"
We get up and brush our teeth and lay back down in Gracie bed. I notice it's past midnight "Happy birthday" I whisper before drifting back off.
Authors note:
Filler the next one will be good I swear!
Finals prep has been kicking my ass so don't expect consistent updates 💗
