In Memoriam ✓

Epilogue Pt 2.

Mallory

Reid's eyes were dark and intent as they looked into mine. I sat up on his bed, bringing my bare legs to my chest under the covers. "So what now?" I asked, not intending to make this conversation easy for him. He'd left me hanging for two years. A few minutes was barely recompense.

Reid sighed. "It's hard to know where to begin."

"Yes." I agreed simply. Waiting. I needed to ask a million questions, but I wanted to know which one he'd answer first. I watched him warily.

Reid leaned back onto the headboard, crossing his arms over his head as he stared at me. I tried not to look at his arms; they were one of my favourite things about him, crude as it was. "You don't want to ask me why I came?"

"I knew you'd come back someday." I answered, feeling a brief sense of satisfaction as Reid flinched. I didn't cause him a tenth of the pain he caused me. "But why now?"

Reid glanced over at me, and he answered straight away. "I spent the last two years looking for something. To be honest, I still don't know what it was. But I was looking at pictures yesterday, and when I saw you, I realised that I was still running from everything. It was time for me to come home."

"So you went back to your parents?" I ran my fingers through my hair, feeling the tangles where Reid's hands used to be. "I called them every day, you know. For the first month of you being gone. Thirty one days of hell. Then I realised that maybe, just maybe, you weren't thinking about me."

Reid shook his head adamantly. "What I did wasn't right, but I never forgot you. Every day, I remembered you." he thought about something, then he glanced at me. "Can I show you something?"

He was looking at me oddly. "Sure." I agreed hesitantly, my voice betraying my confusion. He took out his phone, scrolling until he gave it to me.

I took it and stared at the screen uncomprehendingly. It was a restaurant front, with elegant gold lettering on the arch. My eyes widened.

"What's this?" I asked weakly, my eyes seeking out Reid's.

He smiled brightly at me, the tips of his fingers brushing my shoulder. "My restaurant. I started it two years ago; business is pretty good. The name takes after someone very important to me."

I couldn't stop the tears from coming. They fell in earnest down my cheeks, and Reid's expression dropped when he saw them. He reached out gently to brush them away with his fingers, his touch lingering on my skin moments after. "I wasn't trying to make you cry."

"You named your restaurant after me?" I asked him, still teary-eyed.

He nodded, his fingertips resting on my cheek. "I always liked your name. It's almost as gorgeous as you. Maloret was my first and only choice."

I frowned slightly. "But you know what my name means, right?"

Reid rolled his eyes. "Ill-omened? Unlucky, unhappy? It means nothing, Mallory. Our names carve a part of our identity for us, that's true. Your name's beauty suits you, but its meaning never held a resemblance to what your life would be. You are the most incredible person I've known. I love you, your name, your everything. Being near you is a gift, and it's been all the luck I ever needed."

I was tongue tied. Completely bowled over by the series of revelations the evening yielded, and completely spun by Reid's frank confession. He was my oasis at the end of a long walk through the desert.

Reid smiled understandingly at me. "The point is, I could never forget you, because you were always there. Every day I woke up and drove to work, I saw you in everything. But it could never be close to the real thing."