Parallel

Kleid intently watched the ring as it glimmered in his eyes, seemingly taking his soul. But that was its very purpose-take his soul and start anew-as he was about to give it to the most special woman in his life. Wondering how his proposal might go since the ring he was about to offer was unlikely of her economic status, he thought of his what ifs and should haves.

As he heard the bathroom door creak, he hurriedly placed the ring under the pillow, faced Lyveve-the love of his life, and pretended to stretch and yawn. Lyveve saw beneath his actions and asked, "Hey, sexy, what are you up to?"

"Nothing. Come here, my love," he answered as he tapped the bed, motioning for her to lie down beside him. "I am just . . . thinking how uncertain our future is."

She gave a seductive smile before saying, "I think they're redundant-uncertain and future. The future is always uncertain, you know. But, boy, you really turn me on with what and how you think."

Her lotion-filled body permeated the air. They just finished a wild round of sex, but she still hoped for another, so she made sure she looked, felt, and smelled-and maybe tasted-more sensual in every minute. However, his mind was somewhere else, too busy to even notice the jasmine scent and the pink glitter she so eagerly spread through her breasts.

"Do you like that about me?" he asked. "How I think?"

Observing the hint of anxiousness in his words, she set aside her desires, smiled, and replied, "Yes. You always get me through your words, through how you see the universe, life, afterlife, and everything."

"Do you not regret loving me?" he asked.

"No," she replied with certainty. "I will never regret loving you." But the sigh he responded with made her question him, "Why, do you regret loving me?"

"Of course not," he said. "You are the best person who came into my life, the best moment that happened to me. It's just that . . . I just hope I could give you more. A stable future perhaps."

"It's too early to think that you cannot. We have years to spend with to build our present. The future we want will not exist if we do not even try."

"But you are privileged to have the life that you want, Lyv. You went to a private school, finished college, had a job . . . It was a miracle you loved me."

"It was fate that we loved each other, Kleid," she responded.

"Maybe in another universe, I'll be successful and will be able to offer you a house"-he kissed her-"a car"-and again-"a wardrobe full of clothes-"

Her fingers stopped his lips as she continued, "I do not need all those. Just you," and gently kissed him.

"But just imagine if I were richer. Your parents would approve of me, and I will be able to give the life you want."

"Kleid, I am fine with whatever I have now. I have a decent job, a punctually paid apartment-"

"Because you're earning enough, and I'm not-"

"And you. Don't you get it? I'm contented. Isn't that the goal of life? To be contented, not wanting any more worldly things?"

Again, he sighed. Their perspectives in life differ, but the question of whose view was better was unanswerable as they grew up differently. Yet they found love amid their dissimilarities, enabling them to see the other side of the coin.

"But again," he continued, "we'd live a more peaceful life. I can give you the life you deserve."

"First, I deserve you. Second, that's in another universe, Kleid," she replied. "We're here in this universe."