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“It’s okay. I ordered for both of us. Did everything go alright?” Alden wasn’t alarmed to get a call that his financial lawyer wanted to meet, but things have been going so well that I keep waiting for something to go wrong.
“That depends. How do you feel about being in love with a zombie?” He beams at my confusion. “Because I just came back from the dead.”
There was a lot of red tape to get through and things to get sorted out. After all, everything that was in Oliver’s name should’ve been in Alden’s, from the hospital bills to his bank accounts. It was a stressful mess.
“Really? Everything is official?”
“Yep. My social security number is active again, my old bank accounts have been pulled out of probate, and there’s no death certificate in my name anymore.”
“That’s fantastic. What a relief.” The waitress drops off our food, and he instantly steals a fry off my plate. “You have your own fries!”
“Yours taste better.” It’s so good to see him all upbeat and happy. He hasn’t gained as much memory back over the last couple of months as he hoped to, but his personality has come crashing through.
“Now you owe me a pickle.”
He plucks two slices of pickle off of his burger and slides them onto my plate. “How was your day?”
“Good. Tori and I went shopping for maternity clothes. She had another ultrasound this morning since they couldn’t tell the sex of the baby last time.” I lean forward with excitement. “Want to guess?”
“Boy?”
He cracks up at the sight of the two fingers I hold up. “Two boys.”
“After her teasing us that we’d have twins! The irony.”
“I know! I don’t know how they missed it on the first scan. She’s happy about it. Losing her mind a little, but happy.”
Once we finish eating, Alden suggests we take a walk since we’re near the river. It’s a beautiful day, chilly, but sunny. As we walk along the riverfront, I wonder if he realizes what day today is. What day it should’ve been.
“It’s been a year,” I say.
Alden looks over at me and interlocks our fingers. “I know. A year since the worst day of our lives, and what should’ve been our wedding anniversary.”
I’ve given it a lot of thought over the past week. It’s unbelievable that everything we’ve been through has happened in only a year. A lifetime of grief, fear, and pain stuffed into twelve months. It’d be so easy to feel sorry for ourselves. To mark this as a day of tragedy. But what good is screaming into the void about the unfairness of it all? What matters is that we made it. “It’s the anniversary of the day you lived. That’s how I’m going to look at it.”
His smile is soft. “I like that idea.” He tugs my hand, leading me over to a bench. I cuddle into his side, borrowing his warmth as the chilly wind sweeps over us from the water. “Now that the government recognizes my existence again, I want to talk to you about something.”
Maybe it’s because I’m always waiting for that second shoe to drop, but dread trickles into my stomach. Lately, I’ve had more and more trouble with anxiety. It’s like it waited until after everything was over to really hit me. My expression must give it away.
“Relax.” He wraps his arm around me. “Nothing’s wrong.” His fingers pinch my chin and turn my head until we’re eye to eye. “Do you still want to marry me, El?”
In my head, I see him dressed in a dark suit and tie, kneeling in my dimly lit bedroom to ask me that question a lifetime ago. I was a different person then. We both were. The tragedy has twisted and molded us into these new versions of ourselves that we’re still discovering, but our love and need for each other has never wavered. There’s nothing we can’t get through.
“There’s nothing in this world I want more.”
“Be sure, sweetheart. There’s still a lot that I don’t remember, and the memories coming back are few and far between now. This might be as far as I get. I may always be a puzzle with missing pieces.”
Concern creases his face, but all I see is our future reflected in his eyes. “There’s nothing missing when I look at you. I see the whole, beautiful picture. I seeyou. And I want to be your wife.”
Soft lips brush over mine before he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a gorgeous engagement ring. Taking my hand, he slides it onto my finger. “I know we already had rings, but it’s a new beginning for us. I thought we should start fresh.”
“I love it.”
We sit cuddled together, watching the river flow past. An occasional person passes, chatting on their phone or jogging with earbuds tucked in their ears. Soaking in the early spring sunshine. A couple make their way past with their toddler in a stroller. He’s bundled in a jacket, sleeping while they talk and laugh. That will be us soon and I can’t wait for all those sweet family moments to come.
The peace is broken by an excited cry. “Oh my god! It is him!” Two girls rush up to us, nearly tripping over each other. They’re young, maybe around fourteen years old.
“You’re Alden Stokes!”
