The Worlds I Travel With You

...We had decided to go to the beach today. The weather's scorching hot. Rhyder and the others decided to play in the water. Vonnie and I were the only once left on the sand. We laid on the woven plastic mats, under the umbrella shade. We watched Bob teach Rhyder and Lynda how to surf. With varying success.

Rhyder comes out of the water carrying a surfboard. I watched in fascination as droplets of water ran down his body tracing his muscles. He was wearing a sailboat patterned Nautica swim trunks, one of the new ones that were quick drying. Usually I would hate anything so obnoxiously patterned, but on him it worked. He's a very attractive man.

"Like what you see?", he asked with a smirk in his tone.

"Yea I liked seeing you fall off the surfboard.", I replied in a dry manner. I straightened my back and tilted my head, my pretend lofty position made apparent.

"Oh come on, it was better than the first time.", he pouted and held his duck lips till I unleashed praises.

Determined not to feed his ego I instead asked him, "Do you like my swimsuit?" It was a plum colored Venus Siren enhancer tankini swimsuit top. It wasn't as revealing as other swimsuits and if you didn't know any better it could've been a dress.

"Yea you look gorgeous, Ava.", Rhyder spoke with his voice so soft and low.

I was embarrassed that I had shamelessly asked for compliments, while denying him praises. Rhyder had easily complimented me not caring about himself. All I could say in return was, "Thanks."

"Guys, hello-oh? Get a room." Vonnie rolls her eyes and sticks out her tongue.

"Oh? But we do have a room.", I say mischievously. Feeling a grin stretch my face from cheek to cheek. Vonnie widens her eyes and alternates looking between me and Rhyder. Rhyder only answers with a shit-eating smile of his own and a wink.

"What! Where?"

I stretch my arms out and indicate the entire beach.

"Funny."

"The sun is going down, it's ending.", I say catching sight of the red beams reflecting off Rhyder's face.

"Aw, I wanted to catch more waves today, guess I'll do it tomorrow..."

...I stared blankly at Rhyder's face for a few moments, zoning out, trying to think of what was happening.

"Like what you see?", he asked in that cocky attitude of his as he did before, as he has always done. I snap out of my thoughts and focus my attention on his set of Maximo Dutti equestrian style clothes. He wore a limited edition brown suede jacket, white riding trousers, and Oxford brown leather riding boots.

"I like what I see.", I said looking down at my own set of equestrian style collection of clothing made by Gucci. I was wearing a buttoned up black suede jacket with a Gucci crest on the left side, white riding pants, and knee-high Cocoa leather buckle boots. I still held back praises for him. I looked around. We were standing next to our horses, surrounded by tall green mossy trees. We had decided to take a breather before continuing our fox hunt.

Rhyder laughs and says, "I like what I see too." He says with fondness in his tone looking over at me.

"I see a fox over there!" A voice rang out. I was Bob, this time he was another hunter from a different group. We all came together again in this world to hunt foxes. Bob, Vonnie, Lynda, and now Jeff. Rhyder and I had split off from them to spend more time together.

A shot blasted off.

A flash of orange ran past.

And Rhyder fell to the ground.

A hunter had missed.

He laid on the ground bleeding through his jacket, the blood slowly spreading out.

I fell to my knees. Both of my hands were squeezing Rhyder's hand.

"Oh, God! I didn't see you guys!" Panic clearly heard from Jeff's throat.

"It wasn't you fault! They shouldn't have split off from the from the group. This wouldn't have happened!" Vonnie was quick to push the blame back on us. I closed my eyes shut. She was my best friend back during that nice summery beach world. But now not a single trace of amity.

I didn't bother replying them. All I could do was lean closer to Rhyder and whisper, "We'll meet again." Because the sun was going down. Red beams reflected off Rhyder's body, drowning my vision in red...

... "Like what you see?"

Rhyder was sitting at a table. We were sitting at a table in a classy Asian fusion themed restaurant.

He was fine. He was fine. Of course he was fine.

It was our one-year anniversary as a couple. We had come to Winded Willow to celebrate it. Though it was a dinner date, we were eating around 6pm just sometime before sundown. I never seemed to be able to experience a night with Ryder. Only memories of it. I wish we could actually gaze at the star together.

I looked at Rhyder, he was wearing a black wool Emporio Armani suit from Harvey Nichols. "Yea I liked seeing you eat with a knife held the wrong way.", I shot back.

Rhyder then quickly switched his knife position from pointing up as if holding a sword to pointing down with his index finger on top. "Ahem", he coughs with embarrassment, "You saw nothing." I hummed noncommittedly and look down at myself. I was wearing a Jonathan Simkhai off the shoulder navy blue dress, also from Harvey Nichols. There were black lace inserts starting at the middle of the dress to the bottom and lining my shoulders. My sandals were Alexandre Birman Clarita embellished leather. I even had a JW Anderson suede shoulder bag with a black flap, white body, golden chain, and golden barbell ring decoration.

I looked around and there were blue fans, umbrellas, and paper lantern stars on the ceiling and the walls surrounding us. The private room we were in had a wooden, circular door. The wooden windows had rectangle patterns and a Chinese character on each side.

"We should come her more often.", Rhyder said admiringly also staring at the décor.

"Yea.", I said absentmindedly. For the sun was going down. The red beams reflecting off Rhyder and the objects surrounding us...

...I stared out the window. Snow was falling, blanketing the scenery around us.It was a different scenery, with different clothes but it would end in the same way with the beams of sunset flashing over us. I would meet Rhyder again with a different story, but we would still like one another.

No matter what, in all the worlds we still loved each other.

In this world we're married. Funny. I never could tell him that I loved him, but I guess I never needed to. Rhyder always knew.

Security Guard 1: Hey look they changed the display window again.

Security Guard 2: Oh yea that store always makes the best displays. I wonder what they'll do next?

Security Guard 1: This snow one is nice, but I like the super posh one from before.

SecurityGuard 2: Well, whatever they do it'll be good. C'mon let's get out of here it'sclosing time...