After a year and a half of trying to move on from the what-ifs, the tides have pulled Alexandra Rivera and Zachariah Kim back together again.
*****
In the h...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
When sunlight pours through the window and drenches his skin in gold, I wonder how it's possible to be this in love.
It's early enough in the morning that the rest of the island still feels asleep, but it's all an illusion. The ocean is alive, lapping gently against the shore outside the window. A heart beats next to mine, faster as his eyes slowly open, taking in his surroundings like the first steps through a misty morning. Once they arrive at me, there's nowhere else left to look, and the tide pulls me deeper until I'm submerged in him—only ever him.
My fingers trace over the arm draped across my waist, slowly making its way down every hill and valley along the curve of my side. His fingers leisurely skip around my hip, the same way in which his lips peppered kisses last night. But it's different this morning. Every move is a precursor to the same outcome but a different path requiring less energy. Slow, thoughtful, carving itself deep into a memory neither of us wants to forget. A dream so elaborate that reality had no choice but to take hold of it until they were one and the same.
He tugs my lips down to his where he whispers how much he loves me, and for the first time in my life, I accept it wholly without hesitation.
As a symphony of nature's morning calls rings out around us, I pull myself on top of him and move to the same uneven rhythm of the waves dancing along the shore outside. Pulling him in, breathing him out, and gliding along the surface until I'm left gasping for air. There's a vulnerability to morning sex nobody ever talks about. How each move feels more instinctive because our mind is still waking up.
He hugs me to his chest when we're done and keeps me close like he's not convinced this isn't a dream, afraid that if he lets me go, I'll never find my way back to him. Part of me feels that way, too, but the warmth radiating off him brings me back down to Earth. Back down to him, this person I call home. It's only ever been him. The universe allowing me this opportunity to recognize that is one of the greatest blessings I've received.
"I never want this to stop," he murmurs breathily with his eyes still closed.
I chuckle, feeling the vibrations between our bare chests. "The being together part or—"
"Both," he replies. His arms tighten around my waist until our bodies align with one another and not even a breath of air separates us. "Both."
The two of us remain entangled with one another until he slowly drifts back to sleep. Normally, I would quickly follow right behind him, but my mind is too awake to allow it. Not a mind racing against the clock to outrun a beating heart, but one alive with all the wonders of the good things in life.
It's the greatest surprise in life, to see what falling in love can do to a person.
As soon as I know I can slip away without waking him, I tiptoe around the house and find my way to the garage. Like just about every house in Hawai'i, it's used primarily for storage, and leaning up against the back wall rests a few surfboards. A short, bright red board sticks out at me, and my thoughts flood with the memories tethered to it. I pull it away and tuck it under my arms before heading out to the beach.
