secrets

twenty

-SIMON-
______

"I'll wait in the car." I say to Adele as she nervously bites her plump bottom lip.

"I'm not sure this is a good idea." She pouts, uncertainty written across every inch of her perfect face.

Comfortingly, I take her soft hand and hold onto it, giving it a reassuring squeeze. "It is, I promise. I want you to find your old self, the young fearless woman who didn't care what anyone thought of her."

"She's long gone, Simon. She went away after she got beat up and then again when she was kissed against her will." She says, changing the lighthearted mood drastically. I frown, still upset over the fact that she indeed did suffer through both of those moments.

"It's never going to happen again, I promise you." I say, sounding confident and really meaning it.

"It doesn't happen when you're with me, Si. It happens the moment you leave me, and the second I walk into that grocery store without you by my side, everything is going to-"

I interrupt her panicked speech by gently pressing my lips onto hers. Her tensed body immediately relaxes at my touch, and I can almost feel her rapid heartbeat slowing down to a normal pace.

"I have an idea." I state as I pull away, our hands still intwined together. She looks up at me with big eyes, waiting for me to continue.

At first, I thought taking her to grocery shop all by herself was a good idea. It will bring the last missing piece of herself back when she realizes that she is fully capable of doing mundane, ordinary things without her life being jeopardized.

But maybe the smart thing to do is take baby steps. "Instead of me waiting here and sending you in there all alone, I'll go in with you and get half of what it is on the list, and you get the other half." Her face relaxes at the sound of that alone. I continue, "We'll meet each other where the ice cream is."

She smiles, amused. "Why there?"

"Because then we can pick a flavor of ice cream and go home, watch a movie, and eat it." I say in an obvious tone.

With a laugh, she says, "You know the way to my heart more than I do!"

We walk through the rainy parking lot to the front doors, and I give her hand one last reassuring squeeze. "You've got this, babe." I say, and I let her go off on her own, armed only with the faith that everything will be ok and confidence in herself.

______

There are no words to describe how proud I became the moment I turned the corner of the ice cream aisle and saw the most beautiful woman in the world looking straight at me, waiting patiently.

She did it, she believed in herself. It may have seemed small to everyone else; the simple act of grocery shopping by yourself. But to me, and to her, it meant the world that she could do it.

I hurried my walking pace and engulfed her in a tight hug, kissing her cheek several times and saying, "You did it!"

"I did it!" She reiterated, a smile of relief painted on her lips.

"Did it all go ok?" I ask her, releasing her from my arms.

She nods, "Better than I thought it would."

"Did you find your old self again?"

Another smile creeps upon her lips. "I did, actually. You know where I found her?"

"Where?"

"I was looking for cheese and remembered how much I love it, and suddenly, she just came back."

I laugh and hug her again. Every missing piece is finally put back together.

We each picked out an ice cream flavor, her choosing Oreo and me choosing chocolate.

After paying and leaving, we started to talk about which movie we would watch once we got home.

"How do you feel about scary movies?" I ask her, stopping at a red light.

Quick to answer, she says, "They're only fun when someone is there to hold you while you're scared, honestly. Otherwise they just make you lose sleep."

Laughing, I say, "Why don't we watch a scary one then, and I'll make sure to hold you." I take her hand as the light turns green.

Turning to look at me, she says, "Okay."

I would hold her in my arms even if we were watching a cooking show, because nothing feels more like home than when she's in my arms.