[The Legacy Series] REDAMANCY - Love's Timeless Path

37th Note

Some years ago, somewhere in Maryland

I remembered it as though I were touching it now. A moment sealed beneath my ribs, a room suspended beyond time.

We were lying together on the couch in the living room of the five-star hotel in Maryland. The aroma of citrus, soap, and vanilla blended into one, settling around us like a quiet veil. The silence there was the kind that didn't need words. Only the rain tapping against the window and the occasional flicker of candlelight filled the air, moving like breath.

I stretched slowly, rubbing his thigh, smooth as cotton left to warm in sunlight. Sometimes I wondered how the man whose lap I rested on could look a thousand times softer, lovelier, luminous in ways I never learned to be.

"Sayang, geli ah," he whined when my fingertips rubbed his thigh again while his hand stroked my head without looking away from the book he was reading.

"Jen."

"Hmm?" His sharp nose, perched by glasses, looked perfect from my point of view. Slowly, his fingers turned over the piece of paper in his grasp.

"King..."

He took a deep breath before taking off his glasses and placing his book on the sofa.

"Yes, my queen?" He answered softly and thoughtfully. This man knew I was asking for his attention just by changing my nickname for him.

"You're not going to leave me, are you?" I whispered softly against his skin.

"I should be the one asking you that." His fingers tickled my ear. It annoyed me, but I still ended up cuddling on his lap.

"There are still times when you and I have different opinions. And sometimes I don't quite understand."

"But we've kept trying to work it out together, right?" He answered me right away, trying to get rid of the anxiety in my voice.

"Everyone who approached me only had interest in me because of what I have. But it felt like you really know me," I continued, turning my sleeping position and looking at his beautiful face.

He smiled.

His incredibly beautiful face looked more like the angels in the fairy tales I had read as a child.

"It's been so long since you talked to me like this." He stroked my hair gently. "You know what?"

I tilted my head. "What?"

"I am always grateful that you accepted me as your friend, boyfriend, fiancé, and future husband." He rubbed the ring on the ring finger of my left hand. "I wanted to give back as much as you gave to me."

"I'm not giving you anything," I answered quickly, hastily getting up from my sleep, making my hair tangle and inviting laughter from his lips.

He shook his head. "You gave me a lot, Haira. And since then, I always wanted to be someone who could give you strength, even in this anxious situation."

He moved towards me, leaning his face closer before kissing my lips.

"So, don't ever think that I will leave you in whatever situation you face later."

He kissed me again.

"Because I won't."

Again, he tasted my lips, swallowing it before pulling the nape of my neck to deepen the kiss.

Slowly, he pulled his face away, stroking my cheek with his thumb.

"You don't have to worry about paying me back or anything else on your mind. I did it because I wanted to make every day of your life easier. I also don't like it when someone else clings to you and squanders your time by using me as an excuse."