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I'm walking on the beach by the cottage one day. The water is gentle and warm. The waves roll onto the beach, coloring the white sand a dark beige.
I turn around when I hear footsteps behind me. It's Gabriel. He's walking barefoot towards me, his shirt untucked and dancing in the light breeze. He's beautiful, and I'm scared at how fast I've come to see him when I close my eyes to dream of a future I never thought I'd have.
"Hi," he says, delight all over his face at the sight of me.
I smile in return.
He takes my hand and we walk along the shore.
"Are you happy?" he asks after a moment. I stop and look up at him, struggling to answer because it's so hard for me to put into words what he's given me.
"I want to make your life better than it's ever been," he says, his eyes somber as he searches mine.
My eyes tear up and I squeeze his hands.
"Gabriel. Every day with you has been a miracle. I wouldn't wish away the last few weeks for anything."
He laughs, and I bask in the sound of it and want to call it my home.
Tentatively, he leans in towards me. Like all of his kisses, this one starts out slow and gentle. But then it becomes more. A tilt of his head, a brush of his mouth, a tug from his teeth, the slightest hint of his tongue until I'm breathless. It's as if he's savoring me. This is the kind of kiss that could last for days.
This connection, this extraordinary connection, is absolute perfection.
All of a sudden, it's not enough, and I become reckless in my response to him. From careful to careless, I can't hold myself back any longer. I take his hand and drag him behind me until we're back in the cottage.
Tall and broad, he's bathed in the failing light of dusk. I swallow down a question as he leans in to press his hands on either side of my face, watching me watch him.
"There are few things in the world I've ever been able to call my own," he says in a tone that struggles to hold in his emotion. "Please, belong to me, my Juliet."
The only thing I can do is to kiss him. Kiss away history and the uncertainty surrounding the present. His tongue sweeps into my mouth with the same urgency, until it's not enough and I want more. More of everything.
Later, when I'm wrapped in his arms, reveling in the ache of my muscles after the hours we've spent exploring one another's bodies, I can't stop myself from asking him a question.
"Do you think you'll ever love me?" I whisper. I watch the outline of his shadow as he moves behind me. In the dark, we're united perfectly, a captivating illusion. If only it was that way in real life.
He lifts my chin to look at him.
"Juliet, you foolish girl. I've loved you since the first time that I saw you walking in the street. Getting to marry you has been the completion of every dream I've had since that day."
I stare at him in disbelief. "You love me?" I whisper, my voice aching with the longing for it to be true.
His eyes find mine just as he moves to cradle my cheek. I lean into the warmth of his palm and grin. The smile that burns across his face is so stunning that I can't help but kiss it. A sloppy, teeth-touching, giggle inducing kiss that's quick to turn hot and needy as his mouth works over mine. My heart leaps before I pull back to hide in the crook of his neck, my heart racing.
This is different than I imagined it would be.
"Always," he whispers into my hair, and then he kisses me again. It's gentle this time, even when I try to deepen it, he forces the pace and it's slow, tender...perfect.
We were happy, so happy that sometimes at night I would stay awake, just watching Gabriel's chest rise as he slept, and wondering when it would all end.
We would sit on the front porch of our little house holding hands, watching the tide roll in and talking about everything and anything.
"I want to remember us just like this," I whispered to him one night as we lay intertwined, blissfully worn from hours of lovemaking.
"We'll always be like this, so you'll never have to remember it. It will just be how it is," he smiles back at me.
And then came Colin.
I cried when I first realized that my cycle hadn't appeared. Gabriel didn't understand why I was beside myself at the news. After all, what could be bad about a physical manifestation of our love as he phrased it.
