The Bonus Date 

2 Years Later

Something soft and fluffy brushed against my face and I opened my eyes to find Rumi glaring at me with disdain.

That was until I put my hand on her and as soon as the tips of my fingers touched the top of her ears her internal motor boat went off.

“Good morning to you too,” I mumbled and turned on my back.

Samir was sitting up in bed, caressing Zoe who was sitting on his chest and counting something with his free hand. Of course he was awake already. He was always up way before me praying or feeding the cats or working on his picture books inspired by Ella and our unique situation.

But he was doing none of those at the moment. He was just…counting.

“Morning, babe,” I said, suppressing a yawn but Samir barely registered my greeting.

I put my hand on him, and Rumi, the beggar for affection she was, jumped between us just so she could get more attention.

“Hey, are you okay?” I asked Samir, sitting up in bed, my shoulder brushing past his.

“Ahem,” he nodded and accepted my fleeting kiss before adding another finger to his count.

“Are you counting kisses or something? Do I owe you any?” I asked and kissed his cheek, but he ignored me and didn’t lift another finger so there went my theory. “Okay. Let me know when you’re done.”

I chuckled and got out of bed. Rumi, Zoe, and Mira—who’d been sitting opposite the bed, on top of the chest of drawers, watching us as if we were her very personal TV ran after me—meowing up a storm.

They were soon joined by all the other cats lying around the house and since they wouldn’t quieten down until I’d fed them, I filled their bowls, got the coffee started and then went into Ella’s bedroom to check on her.

I opened the door and she immediately hid under the covers.

“Ella? Are you awake?”

She didn’t answer, pretending to be asleep, but the closer to the bed I got the louder a buzzing rhythm got.

I pulled the covers down and she giggled, curled up in the fetal position, hugging Samir’s phone closer to her stomach. I fished it out of her and sighed.

“Ella boo, what did we say about taking Sami’s phone?”

Ella pursed her lips and thought about it for a second before she said: “Uhmmm, do it?”

I laughed.

“You’re incorrigible.”

“Am not!” she grimaced.

“Do you even know what it means?” I chuckled.

She turned to me and crossed her arms with a pout.

“No, but I’m not,” she said.

“It means you never change,” I said and put my fingers to her belly, threatening her with an attack.

I teased her for a good few moments before I tickled her so much she was gasping for air.

“Daddy, stop!” she giggled.

“Never!”

The phone fell from my free hand onto the mattress and “Golden” started blasting from it. Again.

I stopped tickling my daughter and she wasted no time to start dancing to the tune of her latest obsession. KPop Demon Hunters.

“Aren’t you sick of listening to the same song over and over again?”

“No!” She pouted.

I laughed.

“Okay,” I said.

It was a pretty good song but if I heard it one more time I’d probably lose my mind. Then again, it was much more preferable to the baby songs from the kiddie shows she watched, so I’d take my wins where I could.

“Come on. Let’s make you some breakfast.” I offered her my hand and she crawled up in my arms.

“Is Sami awake?”

“He is. But he’s counting something.”

“What?” she asked.

“I’m as clueless as you, honey. Come on.” I placed her on the kitchen island and immediately she got a visit from several cats, including our own adopted ones, the Huntr/X trio. “Cereal, oatmeal, or toast?”

Ella pondered her choices for a second before announcing oatmeal with a lot more enthusiasm than oats warranted. As I made it for her, Samir appeared and planted a kiss on her forehead, still counting something.

“God, Sami! What the hell are you counting?”

Samir took a seat next to Ella and narrowed his gaze on me.

“Did you know we never went on twelve dates?” he said.

“Huh?” I asked.

“We never went on twelve dates,” he repeated.

“Yes, I heard you the first time. I have no idea what you’re talking about though.”

He sighed.

“Back when we met. I bought twelve dates with you.”

“Okay. Starting to make more sense now.”

“Yeah. We never went on our twelve dates of Christmas.”

I glared at my fiancé for a moment.

“So what? You want a refund?”

“No.” He chuckled.

“Good. Cause you ain’t getting one. It was for charity.”

“I know,” he replied and pulled me into his arms for a kiss.

“Ewww, kissing!” Ella shrieked.

Samir and I pulled away from one another and stared at my daughter.

“Hater,” I muttered and she giggled.

I missed the days when the sight of her parents kissing or hugging wasn’t gross, or “ewww”.

“Here, have your porridge and don’t look at us,” I told her after a few moments and turned my attention back to Samir.

He looked deep in contemplation.

“Are you still thinking about the twelve dates?”

He nodded.

“Why do you care? It wasn’t, like, mandatory,” I said.

“Yeah, but it’s the principle of it.”

“Why does it matter? We’ve been on a hundred dates since. We’ve overfilled our quota,” I said and rolled my eyes.

“But did we go on twelve Christmas dates?”

I sighed.

“Okay, so you’re not going to let this go today of all days. I’m sure we did. There was the first date at the Crown.”

Samir held up one hand.

“And the second one at the Atelier,” he added a second finger.

“The skating, the tree farm trip,” I counted four in my own hand.

“What? That wasn’t a double date. That was all on the same day.”

I laughed.

“You’re being pedantic.”

“Nope. Just normal,” he said and put down one of my fingers.

I resisted the urge to give him my middle one and stared at him.

“There was the time I came to yours and cooked for you.”

I nodded.

“Ella’s nativity play,” I added.

“And the litter rescue.”

“And the one time you helped out at the Grill.”

“Oh yeah. I forgot about that one.” Samir scratched his head.

“And then that one time you watched Ella for me when there was an emergency at work.”

“That was the same day as the nativity play. And you weren’t even there,” he said.

“I was. I came home after, when we laid in bed and just slept.”

“That’s not a date!” Samir laughed.

I raised an eyebrow.

“Oh really? I didn’t realize bedroom time didn’t count as dates now. I’ll remember that tonight.”

Samir’s eyes went wide open and he kissed by way of apology.

“No. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.”

I kept staring at him just to make him feel guiltier.

“There was the Christmas day bedroom time,” I added. “And the morning after.”

“Not dates,” he said.

“They are!” I insisted. “Fine, I’ll count them as one. But there was the New Year’s Eve dinner.”

“That was way after Christmas.”

“Still counts as the holidays!” I groaned.

“Fine. That still leaves us two dates short,” Samir said.

“Boston. You forgot about Boston,” I said. “That’s eleven.”

Samir rolled his eyes.

“That was a weekend getaway. Not a date.”

“Pedantic!” I sang.

“Okay. Let’s pretend Boston was the eleventh date, we’re still missing a twelfth.”

I took a deep breath and bit my lip.

“Okay and what do you want to do about it? Do you want to get into my time machine and we can go back and fix it?”

Samir leaned in and gave me a kiss.

“Very funny. Haha. You’re hilarious.”

I smiled.

“I’m a born comedian. You still haven’t told me what the point of this whole conversation is.”

Samir shrugged.

“I just thought of how far we’ve come.”

We had. We’d been together for two years now. Two magical years full of happiness, joy and wonder.

“And also I was thinking…” Samir added and leaned his forehead to mine.

“Uh-oh, that’s never good,” I mumbled.

“Shut up. I was just thinking…since we’re missing a twelfth date…how about we have one today?”

I pushed my lips to the side and frowned.

“But we’re getting married today,” I said.

“Yup. That could be our twelfth date,” he said.

I couldn’t help but smile.

He was so ridiculously cute sometimes. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Okay,” I said and kissed him. “Let’s go get married.”