A Wretched Past and The Future Divine

Fearless, fight until we die.

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ANDY'SOV:

"Yeah, I did; towards the end, before Layla...", she began to softly cry.

"Do you still love me?"

"Yes, but you have no future with me."

"Babe, you are my future and my past, and I have always loved you, I think since the very moment you collapsed in my arms." I leaned over to kiss her and in that instant I knew, after all these years, I had what I've always wanted. We were finally one and nothing is ever going to take her from me again.

I pulled her tightly to me and made love to her; a long, slow, intimate dance between lovers. All night long, whenever I touched her, she let me in; and when she finally snugged up to me, I fell asleep overflowing with happiness. I stirred once, when her phone rang and she answered it, "No, sweetie, open it up. I'll be in soon."

"Who was that?", I asked.

"Oh baby, go back to sleep. It was just Oli.", she purred.

I smiled, it was the first time I've ever heard her call me 'baby', and I liked it. Nikki was still enclosed in my arms when I awoke again, but I'm sure she hadn't been asleep for a while. "Andy?", she asked rubbing her hand across my chest.

"Yeah?"

"I was thinking... that date we missed, back then. What were we going to do?"

"Hmmm, I haven't thought about that in a long time. I a... I was going to take you out to a romantic dinner, then to the beach to watch the sunset, and, this kinda sounds silly now but, I was going to ask you to be my girlfriend. Why?"

"I was just wondering.", she sighed.

~~~Six Months Later~~~

NIKKI'S POV:

Our lives seems a whole lot brighter now, and we're so close, we're almost inseparable. We found another psychiatrist that we saw together and she was amazing; she personally understood what I was going through.

I finally heard what hell Andy endured too, he often dreamed he would be cradling Layla in his arms and she would disappear. In one reoccurring dream, he would be walking with her as a little girl; then she would look up at him and say 'I love you daddy!'. After that, she would let go of his hand and run ahead of him; she'd stop, turn around still smiling and giggling, then vanish into thin air.

His dreams were as tormenting as mine were. He told her how lost he was when I left and how he depended on alcohol to kill the pain and loneliness. I realized I should've never left, it made everything worse; we needed each other to get through it. I felt so bad for him.

And if there's a silver lining to this, it's this... I'm sleeping peacefully again, without the pills.

When I arrived at the shop this morning, Oli informed me I had a message from Andy. I looked at her cross-eyed, "Strange. What did he say?".

"Wear something nice, and red."

"Okayyy.", I giggled.

After that the day flew by, I was filled with excitement and anticipation of what he was up to. I rushed home and was ready in record time; I wore a short, flowing, blood-red, halter dress with matching heels. When I finished putting on the finishing touches, my phone buzzed with a new text... Open the door!

I did and all I could see was red roses, only the second time I had ever seen so many. He lowered them to where I could see his face, "Hi".

"WOW!", I said, taking the vase and sitting them on the table. "There beautiful Andy."

I turned around and a shiver ran up my spine as I saw him, he wore a black suit with a red tie and he looked incredibly handsome. I giggled as he bowed to me acting silly, then looked up and asked, "Is it working?"

"Yes.", I answered with a smile plastered to my face.

"Good, let's go!" Like a gentleman, he opened the car door for me, then got in himself; he held my hand as he drove us to dinner. He stopped at a quaint little Italian restaurant with a checkered tablecloth, drippy candles, red wine, and soft romantic music playing in the background.

After dinner, he took me to the same spot we sat before that overlooks the ocean, "Stay in the car.", he instructed. He opened the trunk so I couldn't see what he was doing in the mirror; and a few minutes later, he opened my door and took my hand.

I stepped out to see a huge blanket spread near the edge with an opened bottle of champagne and two filled glasses. "What are you up to?", I asked skeptically.

"We're going to watch the sunset."

I sat down, dangling my feet over the edge and he sat behind me; he handed me a glass and took his, then we just gazed out over the ocean. We watched a school of dolphins break the waves and a flock of seagulls soar with the wind. "Seagulls!", he burst out making fun of that old Stars interview and I died laughing.

Then the sun began it's descent from the sky, piercing the horizon before us. "Oh, look at that.", he said pointing at the orange glowing ball slowly disappearing into the ocean's dark abyss. He wrapped his arm around my waist and rested his head on my shoulder.

I was so enthralled in watching the sunset, I was startled when a string dropped from over my head, at the end was tied a diamond ring. "Will you marry me?", he whispered in my ear.

I turned to look in his eyes, in that particular light they glowed; and I wanted to always remember that moment. "Yes", I answered and kissed him. He removed the ring and placed it on my finger, "I love you Nikki.".

"And I love you."

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