57
Aaron holds me in his arms, whispering my name, and then his mouth crashes over mine and I cling to him as a wave of love washes over me. I forgot. How could I forget this?
Aaron runs his hands over me as if he’s desperate to touch every inch, as if he has to hold me to make certain I’m real. I lift my hands to his face, feel the heat of the stubble at his jaw, and run my hands through his hair—longer now than before.
He makes a low sound in the back of his throat and takes my mouth, kissing me with the passion of years of waiting for this single moment. His mouth is warm, his lips the seeking softness I remember. Snowflakes light on my skin and melt in pinpricks against my heat.
The aching hole in my chest, the echo of a song forgotten, is filled with the sound of my name on Aaron’s lips, the feel of his hands brushing over my face, and the light of sparks dancing over me and settling in a sun-bright glow in my heart.
He settles his mouth on mine, and in the touch of his lips and the whisper of my name I taste the yearning and the love he’s kept these past two years.
I fold into him then, pressing my chest against the warmth of him, and he pulls me closer, wrapping his warmth around me. I’m spinning like the snowflakes whirling around us. My cheeks sting from the cold and our kiss tastes like the salt of the ocean. A tear pools at the corner of my lips and Aaron kisses it away.
“It’s okay,” he whispers. “Fi, it’s okay. I found you. I came to Geneva.”
I look at him then, pressing my hand to the warmth of his cheek. “I forgot you. I forgot my dreams.”
He nods, settles his hand to the crook of my spine, and holds me close. “I couldn’t find you. Geneva is a big city to find one woman named Fi.” He smiles down at me, his eyes warming. “Until you made that watch.”
I wrap my arms around him and hold him close. “Aaron.”
I feel his lips curve into a smile against my forehead as he traces kisses over me. “So, you’re Fi.”
“I’m Fi,” I say.
A gust of wind rushes past, blowing snow in a whirlwind around us. I shiver, and Aaron pulls me closer. I rest my cheek against the beating of his heart. He was gone. Yet now he’s here.
I’ve remembered my dreams, everything that happened in the past. But now, standing in the falling snow, wrapped in Aaron’s warm arms, I remember another dream.
A dream where I’m loved. Where I love. Where every day I accept love and give love. Where I give my heart, where I dive in to the ocean of love, and I’m not afraid.
Aaron strokes his finger across my lips, a warm light in his eyes. “You’re real. I found you.”
“Do you remember when you said it felt like the hand of fate pulling us together?”
He nods.
“I think you were right.”
He smiles then and says, “Fi, I want to know everything. I want to hear everything. I want to know you. I want to love you in this life. Will you let me? Will you take my hand?”
My heart opens. It opens as wide as the great blue sea. “Yes.”