Twice Shy

20 TWICE SHY

"If I can skip this to the end, we will attend our walimah tonight," He says, while weighing a stone he picked up.

"Sure," My sentence ends in a scoff, "The lake is frozen,"

He looks over his shoulder, his gaze pinning me to the ground. "I know, and if that works against my favour, we'll submit our divorce papers right away. But I've already signed the papers, either way you have nothing to lose from this,"

He walks over in my direction, "But if I can, you'll have to give us another chance. Remember that,"

It takes a moment before I can answer, "Okay,"

He smiles, bringing his hand out from his pocket, "Shake on it?"

Shaking my head, I clasp my hand in his. His gloved skin is warm, a stark contrast against my frostbitten touch. I suppose he notices it too, so he takes his gloves off and without giving me time to protest, he puts the gloves on my hands, tightly enclosing my hands in his for insulation. I snatch my hand out of his, breaking from a trance.

"Promise me you'll stay if I do this," I raise a brow at his request. What is he playing at?

His eyes glint this time, catching me off guard as he repeats himself, "You promise?"

I pause before I reply. I'd have to be an idiot to root for him, so that's what I do. There is a strange deja vu here.

"Sure, I promise."

And then, he smiles.

I don't remember how fast it happens, Ilyaz pulls his sweater over his shoulders in a split of the second, leaving him in a tank amidst the winter evening. It all happens too fast for me to react as he strides towards the lake, and memories from our first meeting in London rush back to me.

Is he—

He is.

"What are you doing? Oh my god,"

"Yes?" The audacity of this man.

"Shut up, you suicidal dimwit! You'll slip and fall to your death," My voice tears through the silent mist, "Or you'll die out of hypothermia and your mother will cremate me to thaw your popsicle circumcised dick!"

Even in this situation, Ilyaz has the courage to laugh.

He balances his boots on the thin sheet of ice, nearly slipping which causes my steps to rush towards him.

"I'm coming to help!"

"Sure, but you know what they call an ugly old woman who dies of hypothermia?"

I swear to God.

"A snow crone,"

"Shut up, you— you fossil!" He grabs my arm, my feet gliding over the ice beneath them as he pulls me towards him.

Ilyaz snatches my wrist, preventing me from slapping him further.

"Remember what you promised me," he says, before stomping on the sheet of ice just two feet away from us.

The move causes me to yell, but as Ilyaz harshly drags his feet over the layer, I notice the existing co ordinated splinters in an recognisable pattern. Small, stagnant puddles, began to grow towards the centre of the frozen lake thawing to reveal it reflected the dark, brooding sky above.

A cold, sharp breath drew in my lungs. It was a heart shaped puddle.

He skipped the rock and perhaps the weather was on his side—clouds had scattered away and the lake rarely disturbed by the callous slices of moonlight seeping through the clouds—created a specular reflection through a ripple forming in the languid water. It is the most beautiful scene I have witnessed.

The rock skips to the end of the puddle, the sound of it quietly splashing against the water was not so quiet in this secluded part of the town.

"Do you have plans to be cremated alongside my death to thaw a particular manhood?" I jump as Ilyaz sneaks up from behind me, a a snowball hitting against my shoulder, "Sati and all, I'm flattered but I didn't know romance was so morbid to you,"

I turn around to find him grinning, and then he gets down on one knee.

"I didn't want to leave you and I up to chance, not when I first met you again and not now either. You're the only person I want to torture for the rest of my life, will you promise to let me have you the rest of my life?"

I look at him for a moment.

"Yes,"
"Achoo!"

I doubt he even heard my yes, but he knows I've learnt by now to keep my promises. Today is January Seventeenth, marking the last day of our war. As I look back, I meet my husband, Ilyaz Zaviyar Ali, for the second time in a house called Evermore, and I am one hundred percent in love with the second chances of us.

When I look into my husband's determined and sincere eyes reflecting back my own, I could finally say we are no longer twice shy.