We love you, Tess!
Monica let out a deep sigh as she remembered the day on the beach when she and Andrew said goodbye for a while, the last day of their honeymoon, nearly 4 weeks before. Inside the cabin, looking through the kitchen window, the Irish angel was permanently holding the heart shaped pendant in her necklace and had a slight sad look upon her face. Although she loved being an angel and accomplishing God’s work, she also missed her beloved Andrew badly and wondered when they would meet again.
And now, when she had been given a day off, it was the time when she missed him the most. So, to put those sad feelings aside, the Irish angel had decided to do a small party for Tess as it was her supervisor’s anniversary. She had managed to invite some of their angelic friends – Adam, Sam, Emma, Gabriel, Philip and, of course, Tess’ biggest fan, Ronald. But the saddest thing was that she hadn’t managed to contact Andrew and it only made her feel even worse.
She let out another sigh but a sudden smell of smoke finally reached her nose and took her out of her reverie. With her eyes wide open, the little angel looked to the gas stove and she saw that there was something burning inside of it – the chocolate cake she had so carefully prepared for her dear friend. Quickly, Monica opened the stove and grabbed a bucket full of water to put out the small fire inside of it. The smoke and the smell of something burned now invaded the kitchen and, while trying to shove the smoke away, she could finally see that the cake was now completely ruined.
“Oh no!” she murmured, with deception all over her face, “It’s totally burned... What am I gonna do now?”
A few tears escaped from her eyes and she started to cough due to the smoke that was still filling the kitchen. Due to this, Monica left the room and went to the living room, with a pensive and deeply worried expression on her face – what would she do now? Preparing and baking another big cake all over again wouldn’t be easy, not for her, considering her culinary abilities. She wiped the tears from her eyes thinking that everything was ruined when suddenly something lying on the coffee table caused her heartbeats to accelerate: a rose had been left there. She covered her mouth with both hands and came closer to the table, taking the beautiful red flower.
Her eyes immediately started to scan the interior of cabin, searching for a certain blond angel whose presence Monica was already feeling. Following her intuition, she opened the front door and saw her beloved Andrew standing right in front of the porch steps, with his hands tugged in his pockets and a broad smile upon his handsome face – secretly, he was counting how much time it would take her to find him there and now the angel was pleased that it didn’t take more than a few seconds.
“Andrew!” Monica quickly climbed down the steps and threw herself into his arms, which were wide open to her.
“Monica... Angel, it’s so good to hold you again!” he said, lifting her off the ground and spinning her around, holding her as tightly as he could.
“I didn’t know you were coming... I’m so happy that you’re here, though! So happy, Andrew... I missed you so much!” she spoke, clutching his shirt. He placed some kisses on her shoulder and carefully placed her on the ground. Then, he pulled away just a few inches so that he could look at her pretty face. “I missed you too, angel... So much that I almost gave up the rose thing and entered there to hold you tight at the moment I got here!” the blond angel said, tenderly caressing her cheek and marvelled at the loving way she looked at him.
“Why didn’t you tell me that you were coming?”
“Because I didn’t know I was coming myself, you know... I got the day off just a few minutes ago and I was already thinking about finding you wherever you might be when I met Adam and he told me about the small testimonial for Tess that you were organising here at the cabin and then... I didn’t waste another second.” He placed a few strands of hair that had fallen from her ponytail behind her ear and studied every little trait on her meek face, “Let me look at you... You’re prettier than never, baby...”
Blushing a little, she looked inside his green pools with a few tears already threatening to fall from her eyes, “I couldn’t find you anywhere to tell you about this testimonial... I thought you wouldn’t come...”
“But the Father wouldn’t keep us apart for a long time, you should know that!” his smile never disappeared from his face.
“Tess said the same thing... and I knew that too, to be honest. I guess I’m just a wee bit fool to believe that if we stay away from each other just a few days we’ll never come to see each other again...”
“Well, that makes you the prettiest and most adorable fool in this whole wide universe...” with gentle fingers, he wiped away the few tears from her face and chuckled as she blushed even more. Then, his eyes moved from her own brown pools to her rosy lips and he remembered how much he missed kissing them. A second later, they were already sharing a loving and tender kiss and a warm embrace; Andrew stroked her brown hair and wrapped his other arm around her waist, bringing her closer to him; she repeated the same action and also started to caress the back of his head.
Only a long minute later did that sweet and romantic kiss turned into tiny ones – Andrew also kissed her cheeks, the tip of her nose and, once again, her lips. They held each other one more time and both let out a contented sigh and a silent prayer of thanks for being together after 4 long weeks.
“Oh, Monica... my Monica... my little angel... the one I will always love for the rest of the eternity.” He whispered, kissing the top of her head repeatedly.
Resting her head against his chest, she smiled, “You’re my Andrew too, you know?”
He chuckled and was going to say something else when suddenly a strong smell of smoke reached his nose. “Monica... is there something burning?” he asked, frowning with concern. The Irish angel pulled away and turned to face him again, now with a rather embarrassed and worried face, “Well... I... I was preparing a cake for Tess...”
“Y-you prepared the cake?” he had to make a lot of effort not to show how scared he was to hear that piece of news. “I... I thought that there would be someone to help you, that Emma or Ronald would...”
“Well, they’re coming, eventually, but I insisted on making the cake... But... I had a little accident a few minutes ago, just before you arrived...
His eyes grew wider, “You had an accident? Are you hurt? Did you get burnt?” he immediately started to look for a wound or burn in her soft skin, but she was quick to put his heart at ease, “No, no, I’m fine! But... The cake is totally burned and the kitchen is kind of... smoky right now...” some tears appeared in her eyes and her face was one of disappointment, “I don’t know what to do now... Tess and the others will arrive and I don’t have anything ready for them, I burnt the cake and there’s no time to make another one...”
Sighing with some relief – at least she was fine, he nodded his head and took her hand to his lips, “Okay... calm down sweetie, let’s go inside and see what we can do...”
“There’s nothing else to do, Andrew, it’s totally destroyed...” she replied, but her beloved Andrew placed his hands over her small shoulders and gently rubbed her arms, “There must be something we can do, angel. Remember we must never give up hope!”
His reassuring words managed to bring her some peace – of course she always believed things would be better, but if Andrew was the one to tell her so, then she felt even better. If there was an angel who really had a way with her heart, this angel was him.
Slowly, Monica nodded her head, “Okay...”
X
The two entered the cabin and, as they approached the kitchen, the smell of smoke got more evident, leading Andrew to dread to imagine what had happened there before he arrived and to fear for the little angel’s physical integrity.
“This is the cake... well, at least what was left of it...” she pointed out, showing him the totally burnt cake that was now over the kitchen table. Andrew had, once again, to make a lot of effort not to show how amazed he was with the destruction scenery into which his sweet angel girl had managed to transform the kitchen. “I guess there must’ve been a little problem with the gas stove, Andrew... this wasn’t supposed to happen...”
“Erm... yes... probably that’s what happened, sweetie...” he spoke, and then, once again, surveyed her arms and her face, still looking for some bruise, “Are you sure you didn’t get hurt?” his hands were again holding hers.
“Yes, I’m not hurt, Andrew... But... I wonder how we’ll fix this before the others arrive...”
“We will, Monica. And you will make your little testimonial! Let’s get started right now!”
X
During the time they remained in the kitchen trying to reconstruct everything in it, Andrew tried to keep Monica busy by giving her small tasks, such as setting the table or arranging the living room – all of them far away from the cake he was baking. Of course she didn’t notice that, much on the contrary, the little Irish angel was happy to help, as she felt rather guilty for what had happened.
Later, at night, Tess parked her car outside the cabin and got off, happy that she had been given some days off. She knew that Monica was waiting for her in the cabin and was only sorry that Andrew wouldn’t be there, as the oldest angel loved to spend all her free time with her two “angel babies”. The supervisor climbed the stairs of the cabin and opened the door and, when she stepped inside the house the most complete silence was broken by lots of voices that spoke, at the same time.
“Surprise!!!”
Tess covered her mouth with both hands and her eyes grew wide in amazement and surprise: Monica, Andrew, Adam, Ronald, Sam and many other angelic friends were there, smiling at her, in a living room decorated with many coloured balloons – Monica’s idea.
“Oh dear Father! I can’t believe you remembered that when I myself almost forgot it!” the oldest angel spoke, still not believing they had organised a party for her.
“But we would never forget your supervisor’s anniversary! Congratulations, Tess!” The Irish angel was the first one to hug the supervisor.
“Oh angel girl! Thank you, thank you so much, baby...”
“You’re welcome, Tess. It’s just a wee thing to tell you once again that we love you...” she replied, and kissed the older angel’s cheek.
“I love you too, baby!”
Andrew was the next to place a kiss on Tess’ cheek and hold her tightly, “Congratulations, Tess! We love you a lot!”
“Angel boy... oh baby, I’m so happy to see you again! I’m so happy to see you two, my two angel babies, together again!” she exclaimed, wrapping her arms around Monica’s and Andrew’s.
“And if we’re together here today it’s because of you, Tess!” Monica replied and then turned her eyes from the supervisor to her beloved Andrew.
“You see? I told you it wouldn’t take so long for you two to meet again! You make the cutest angelic couple in all universe!”
Everybody laughed and, after the other angels congratulated Tess, Monica took the supervisor’s hand and guided her to the dining room, “There is one more wee surprise for you, Tess!”
“Really? And what is it, angel girl?”
They entered the room and the oldest angel saw let her mouth drop open for the second time: there was a big cake on the table, beautifully decorated and where they could read: ‘We love you, Tess!’
“I... I really don’t know what to say other than thank you... thank you all!” there were some tears in the corner of her eyes and the supervisor was trying hard to hide them.
“Monica had the idea to make a little party, Tess,” Ronald explained, “And she deserves all the credit, in fact. We did very little.”
“Oh no, that’s not true, Tess.” The little angel gently objected, “Everybody here helped us – at the moment I told them there was a wee ‘tessimonial’ for you, they offered to help!”
“ ‘Tessimonial’?” Tess frowned to hear the new invented word as Monica kept on talking, “If it wasn’t for them, the cabin wouldn’t have been so beautifully decorated. Besides...” Andrew was standing right behind her, with his hands over her small shoulders, and she turned her head to shoot him a loving gaze. “...I had a technical problem with the cake and it was Andrew who made this one. He deserves all the credit!”
Smiling, the blond angel bent his head to place a kiss on her cheek while Tess’ eyes grew wide for the third time on that night. “You wanted to make the cake?!” she spoke, poorly managing to hide her worry to know that Monica had actually been cooking.
“Yes... but... well, I guess the stove had a little problem, you know. Fortunately, Andrew managed to fix it and made this beautiful cake for you!” she replied, unaware of the secret glance Tess, Andrew and Adam exchanged (as the 3 angels knew pretty well what were Monica’s culinary abilities like).
X
During the rest of the night all the angels celebrated with their friends – some of them they hadn’t seen for a long time, and everybody had a very happy time together. After the last angel had said goodbye, Monica and Andrew cleaned up the little mess that they had made and the two of them, together with Tess, sat down on the couch and spent some more pleasant time chatting with one another, talking about their latest assignments. But soon the oldest angel stood up and, feeling the effects of being in human form, announced she would go to bed.
“It was a great night but this old angel here is about to fall asleep at any moment! Have a good night, babies!” she said, kissing each of them.
“G’night Tess,” Andrew placed a kiss on the back of her hand.
“Sleep well, Tess,” Monica spoke, “We love you!”
The supervisor smiled with those loving gestures, “I love you both too, angel girl!”
Monica and Andrew watched as Tess climbed the stairs and then cuddled together in a loving embrace. “That was a wonderful party, I must say!”
“It sure was, angel. I’m not only glad that that we actually had this party; I’m also glad that it served to bring us all together!” he agreed.
The Irish angel sighed deeply, “Yes... You know, human beings say that happiness is an abstract feeling, but I disagree... It has faces and a beautiful sound!”
Smiling at her philosophical mood (one of the thousands things he loved about her), Andrew nodded and ran his fingers through her hair, “I couldn’t agree more!”
Enjoying to hear that, she kept on talking, “And, although it’s night already, I feel all sunny and happy, you know, Andrew?” she let out another happy sigh and caused her dear Andrew to chuckle.
“You know something, Monica? You’ve always been a sunny little angel!” he placed a tiny kiss on her temple. “That’s why I’m always saying that you light up my life!”
Giggling, she raised her head and gave him a tender look, “Well, some people... I mean, some angels are responsible for that!”
The blond angel gazed deeply at her soft brown eyes and playfully raised his eyebrows, with a mock surprised face, “Oh really?”
“Really!”
“Hum... I wonder who these angels might be...”
With a solemn expression on her pretty face, Monica straightened her body on the sofa and looked at him, “Well, one of these is upstairs, peacefully sleeping. And the other one is downstairs, sitting on this couch and, although he doesn’t know, he’s about to receive lots of kisses in... 3 seconds!”
Saying no more, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled a smiling Andrew for a tight embrace, followed by lots of tiny kisses on his cheek and lips.
X
“I love you, angel... For the rest of eternity...” he spoke, a couple of minutes later, caressing her face and looking at her with tenderness and deep love.
Watching as his green pools sparkled with affection, she smiled, moved with the sincerity of his words, “I know... I can feel it right here in my heart... Maybe it’s because we both together form only one heart...”
Silently nodding, the blond angel brushed a gentle kiss on her forehead, and another one on the tip of her nose, “I have no doubt about it...”
And then their lips finally met, in one more sweet and tender kiss. On that night the two angels fell asleep in each others arms and spent the next two days together enjoying the company of the other until the moment they received a message informing them they had a new assignment waiting for them.
But this time there wasn’t any crying or sad goodbyes as, together with Tess (their angelic mother), they would be working together on that new mission, and on the ones that followed it.
To be continued