Page 64 of Wishes for August
Caleb was devastatingly beautiful like this - exhausted, dishevelled, covered in tiny purple marks, his smile sleepy and his eyes bright.
After fooling around for hours, we were exhausted and it wasn’t long before we eventually fell asleep wrapped in the sticky, sweaty sheets. My stomach growled, making me realise it had been ages since we’d last eaten. I nudged the heavy body off of me and rolled out of bed.
“Where are you going?” Caleb asked, his voice husky from sleep.
“I need sustenance. I cannot exist on you alone, I’m afraid.”
He sat up and stretched his arms above his head. “Good point. How about we clean up, then take Hamlet for a walk down to the bakery.” He looked at his phone. “They will still be serving breakfast for another hour, so we have time.”
We showered and got ourselves and Hamlet ready, then walked down the road to the small bakery nestled between the residential houses.
“We should probably call your parents and tell them the news,” I said, taking a bite out of my toastie.
Caleb swallowed his food and nodded, “A word of warning, my mother’s excitement level will be through the roof. I hope you like big, fancy, over the top weddings. Good luck telling her no.” He smirked. I hadn’t given any thought yet to what I wanted our wedding to be like. I only knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Caleb. If Lottie wanted to throw us a huge party, I guess I was fine with that.
I shrugged my shoulders. “Fine with me. Just so long as I can pick my own suit, I don’t mind.”
After breakfast we let Hamlet off the lead and threw the ball for him for a while before heading back home.
“I think Hamlet needs a friend,” I said once we were sitting, cuddled together on the sofa, scrolling through Netflix.
“Marriage, babies and another pet? Where is my grumpy August?” Caleb joked and I pretended to scowl at him.
Caleb picked some awful reality TV show for us, and I rested my head on his lap, closing my eyes to the feel of his hand gently running through my hair.
“You were always meant to be mine, you know that right?” Caleb said and I opened my eyes to meet his. His green eyes sparkled.
“Is that so?” I asked, reaching up to run my finger over his pretty pink lips.
“Yep
“And why is that?
“Because I wished for you. I wished for you, August and you came true.”
Epilogue
Six months later - Caleb
The mother elephant stepped in front of her calf as the Land Rover we were in drove past. To my right, August snapped photo after photo of the creatures, his eyes never leaving the expanse of land before us.
“Wow, they are so much bigger in real life,” he said, amazed at the enormity of the grey creature in front of us.
“That’s four of the big five we’ve seen now, Aug, only one left to go.”
“Which do you still need to see?” our tour guide, Christo asked in his thick Afrikaans accent. We’d been at Bright Sun Wildlife Reserve for five days already and been treated to an array of animal sightings. Every day, we took a driving tour through the open plains, looking out for the famous Big Five. Earlier in the day, we had spotted a rhino near a watering hole and just now a herd of elephants had crossed our path.
“A leopard,” he said in reply. The elusive leopard was the one animal we still had to see and the hardest of the lot to find too.
“Oh, ya they are very hard to find. There are sadly not many left in this part of the world but if you book an early morning tour, you may get lucky. I could get yououenstomorrow morning at around five if you want?” Christo offered and we jumped at the opportunity.
A few hours later, we sat around a campfire and listened to other guests talk about their day. We were staying in a small luxury park near the South Africa and Botswana border. It had come highly recommended by my sister who had written a blog about it a year ago. We had two more nights before we would fly to Cape Town to see her.
A rustle in our bungalow woke me early the next morning and I turned the side light on to find August gathering up our backpack and water bottles.
“What are you doing up already sweetheart?” I asked, coughing to clear the dryness from my throat.
“It’s almost five, Christo will be here soon. It’s time to find us a leopard.” I loved seeing him like this, carefree and excited. My eyes caught on the glint of platinum on his left hand. We wore matching engagement rings, and our wedding was set for summer next year. Mum was beside herself with excitement when we told her and had thrown herself into wedding planner mode immediately. Our wedding was set to be a huge affair though August continually reminded me that he only had three friends and he was marrying one of them.
