THEY – A YEAR IN THE RIVER OF TIME

Aya glanced sideways at the grinning Tyson, her eyes assailed by variety of emotions. Quarter of it was bemusement, quarter interest, quarter befuddlement and quarter deep-entangled love. A street lamp cast faint light upon her features, creating bewildering contrast between two sides yet. Her lips curled crescent as she blinked slowly with her eyes, stunned for a brief moment. In the end, she laughed lightly and shook her head.

“Really… you’re… aah…” she said.

“I’m what-awesome? Ah, of course! I’m the greatest ever!” Tyson exclaimed, puffing his chest out. “That’s what you were gonna say, right?”

“… yeah, yeah,” Aya said, her smile turning warm and indescribable. “You’re really beyond ordinary.”

“If you will, my lady.” Tyson extended his arms in the old-fashioned way, inviting Aya over to the bench in front of them.

Today was an entire year since their first date, since that fated night of awkwardness, contemplations and insecurities. Beneath the stark, full moon, inside the all-so-familiar park, at that very bench when they first shared a kiss, there were two heart-shaped pillows next to each other. In front of the bench was a wooden table, covered in white sheet, atop of which was a bucket of ice with champagne in it, and two sets of dinner at sides. Both on the bench’s ends as well as table’s were set of candles, burning lightly, illuminating the shade of the tree behind.

Aya wore black-laced dress, reaching down to her knees with a deep, V cut above. Atop of the dress was a black sweater, exuding fragrance of a sweet, lavender perfume. Tyson, on the other hand, wore a full, black suit with a purple tie, his face shaved cleanly and his hair gelled slightly sideways. It had taken him nearly three months to convince the park rangers to let him do this. Of course, some ‘payments’ were also necessary, but he didn’t really care.

Past year was one of – if not the happiest year of his life. While Aya claimed with fervor that any excessive expenditure on his part for the anniversary will be punished, he ignored it completely.

“… now, tell me, how much did it cost?” Aya asked immediately after she sat down, glancing over the table.

“Does it matter?” Tyson said, smiling faintly as he sat next to her.

“Of course it matters, you bastard!! Just because winter is over doesn’t mean we’re millionaires!” Aya exclaimed.

“No, it doesn’t matter,” Tyson said, still smiling. “If it mattered, I’d have ordered a pizza and sat you down to watch The Princess Bride back home. Alas, here we are.”

“… seriously, by evading my question, you’re just rising my anxiety levels…” Aya said, sighing lightly.

“Nothing my old bones can’t afford.” Tyson said.

“Oh? So you’re old now? Should I start preparing for the inevitable funeral?” Aya asked, smiling cheekily.

“Oi, don’t go twisting my wisdom-filled words with your twisted fantasies!”

“Twisted? There’s nothing twisted about you dying and leaving me abundance of wealth.”

“… right, of course,” Tyson said, shaking his head. “You’re the epitome of purity, the lofty and elusive maiden whom none can compare to.”

“Now that’s more like it.”

“Are you cold?” Tyson asked.

“No,” Aya replied. “It’s a rather warm night.”

“Even heavens are helping me.”

“Aye, it must have been those celestial contacts of yours.”

“You know about those?” Tyson played along, smiling.

“Of course! Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing when you’re shaking intensely when you think I fell asleep!”

“…” Tyson’s lips slightly twitched before he sighed. “It was once, you damn demon!! Once!! You’ve been on a trip for a week yet you just went to sleep the moment you came back!!”

“Aii, I’m not judging. I’m just saying.”

“Every word of yours is like heaven’s judgment when directed at me.” Tyson said jokingly.

“Oh? I didn’t know you think of me that highly.”

“Even more so.” Tyson said, reaching over towards the champagne and two empty glasses before popping it and pouring them full, handing one over to Aya.

“A toast? Shouldn’t we leave that for the end?” Aya asked, appearing bemused.

“What if a meteor strikes us? Or a black hole suddenly appears? Or terrorists start bombing the shit out of us?” Tyson said in a rather serious tone. “I’d have missed my chance to tell you how much I love you one last time. I would turn into a freaking specter! Full of regrets, ah!”

“Aii, you’re depressing. Let’s just do the toast and start wolfing this expensive dinner down. This woman is starving.” Aya said as she raised her glass to toast Tyson’s, but latter invaded it with ease.

“… a year ago,” Tyson said, smiling faintly. “On this very bench, we shared a kiss. And a very awkward boner. But, let’s not ruin the moment.”

“Good, so you finally understand that your boners ruin all the moments.”

“… wow, it’s been a while since you struck that deep.” Tyson said.

“Eh, gotta keep you reined in somehow. So, the kiss, the boner, what else?” Aya asked, smiling as well.

“Back then, I really didn’t think we’d last,” Tyson said, his expression somewhat serene, causing Aya’s heart to jolt somewhat. “Truth be told, I don’t even know why I thought that. Despite how well – all things considered – the date went, I still thought it would be a short fling.”

“Wow, you’ve been learning from me to strike deep, eh? Not bad.”

“Still,” Tyson continued, looking up as he ignored her comment. “Somewhere along the line, I began realizing that you were both less and more than meets the eye.”

“…”

“Less in a sense that you didn’t pretend to be someone you were not,” Tyson elaborated. “Headstrong, firm. You were who people saw you to be, exactly that. More in a sense that, however headstrong you are, beneath that surface lay far more than what you ever told me. It wasn’t until we started living together that I finally began understanding your depths,” Tyson continued, his expression somewhat solemn. “And, the more I got to know you, the more scared I got.”

“Scared?” Aya never broke off their eye contact as she arched her brow slightly.

“Terrified,” Tyson smiled. “When things were tough, you never crumbled. When things were good, you never grew complacent. You would go three days straight working twelve-hour shifts, and the first thing you’d do when you came back home was to ask me how I was. You never lied to me. And, even if at times you doubted me, you still decided to trust me and never ask. The more we lived together, the more I woke up facing you, the more terrified I grew that one day none of that would remain. In a mere year,” Tyson continued, rising his glass finally to meet Aya’s. “You have confounded me to the point of insanity.” the two glasses clanked against each other as Tyson drew his back and drank, while Aya’s still remained in the air, her expression dancing between shock and tear-inducing joy.

“… aah,” she sighed after some moments, drinking as well. “Being with you is worse than having a mountain of chocolate gifted to me.”

“I know, I way more sweet than that crap.” Tyson said, grinning.

“I didn’t prepare a toast,” Aya said, rising her gaze toward the starlit, nightly sky. “Nor am I that good at impromptu speeches. However, I know words,” she lowered her gaze and looked into Tyson’s eyes deeply. “And, from the bottom of my heart, all that I can say is: I love you.”

“… heh, I-I know… idiot… khm, toast, to, you know, love…” even while shaded away by the tree, Tyson’s cheeks burned somewhat crimson, causing Aya’s smile to beam like the sun itself.

“If I’m the mountain,” Aya said. “Then you’re my sole river.”

“… your metaphors run deep, woman.” Tyson said.

“Much deeper than certain somethings of yours.” Aya said, smiling wryly.

“… aah, even a year later, I just walk right into them,” Tyson said, shaking his head bitterly. “I really should grow up.”

“You really should. Otherwise, those coquettish colleges and students of yours may even grow to disrespect you.”

“Oh? Is that jealousy I’m feeling? How reinvigorating.”

“If you’re that addicted,” Aya said. “I don’t mind joining one of your classes and slapping those little girls who’ve got their eyes on you silly.”

“… why am I terrified that you might actually do it if I say yes?” Tyson said, his eyes narrowing into slits for a moment.

“Who knows? Maybe you just know me too well.”

“Somehow, I feel like I can never know you well enough,” Tyson said. “Let alone too well. Keep surprising me.”

“That’s a heavy burden to bear, no? What about you? Will you keep surprising me with sudden dinners out in the park where a bear might come out and eat us?”

“Why a bear?” Tyson said. “If you’re gonna make shit up, at least make it up big. Let dragons descend and devour us whole while we rot in their bellies!”

“I know you have a dragon fetish, but I’m really not willing to partake in it.”

“But a damn bear is fine?”

“What are you talking about?” Aya said, arching her brows. “Bears are the cutest thing in the world!”

“Didn’t you say that about seals just a week ago?”

“What, I can’t have a change of heart?”

“Your heart changes too often,” Tyson said. “I’m getting worried.”

“You ought to be,” Aya said, smiling. “A beautiful woman like me? I’d be rising heads even if I were in hell!”

“Yeah, you definitely would.” Tyson said, his expression somewhat solemn and determined.

“… smooth.”

“… criminal.”

“Don’t ruin it.” Aya said.

“Oh, screw you! What, you’re allowed to step over me when I fall into the pit, but I’m not?”

“Of course not!” Aya said. “Don’t you know that the maiden’s heart is really fragile?” Tyson rolled his eyes for a moment before replying.

“If your heart is fragile, then what about the rest of us? Are our hearts even whole anymore?”

“Yours certainly isn’t. I have to thank Emma sometime for that.”

“… oh, right, speaking of those two, did you get the invite?”

“Of course I did.” Aya said. “You?”

“Me? An invite to the wedding of my two best friends?! Whom I have known since I could piss standing up?!! No way!!!”

“…”

“Went a little too far, eh?” Tyson said, sighing.

“You’re getting there.” Aya said, smiling.

“Hopefully, by the time I die, I’ll manage to make you acknowledge my mastery of sarcasm…”

“Oh, what a lofty goal! You really have to put in effort, then.”

“Every day, every night…”