The Rise

Chapter Thirty-Seven

"If you could relive any moment in your life, which moment would it be?" I asked.

Valerio sat in front of the fire with me, one leg straight out, the other bent. The flames were reflecting off of his face, making it look warm and inviting. He took a sip from his coffee mug and rested it on his outstretched leg. "As in, if I had the chance to re-do the moment or if I just wanted to be in the moment again - nothing changed?"

"Nothing changed. If you could just soak in the moment one more time and never let it go," I said. He paused for a moment, then chuckled and shook his head. "What is it?"

"Nothing." He grinning, showing me his teeth.

I playfully pushed his shoulder. "Come on. You can't do that to me."

He waved his hand. "Alright, alright." He placed the mug down on the floor next to him and faced me. "If I had to choose any moment to relive again, I would choose the moment I met you at the restaurant."

My lips curled into a smile. "And why is that?"

"Because it was one of my first glimpses into how strong you could be," he started. "All I had been seeing up until that point was you brushing off your dad's comments about werewolves even though you lived with one." He shook his head. "You don't know how long I had been waiting for you to finally get fed-up with him. And that night at the restaurant, I had a front row seat."

I giggled and leaned my forehead onto his shoulder.

"'Thank you so much. I will gladly take this whole cake from you if nobody else wants it. This is my favorite! Best day ever!'" Valerio teased.

I pushed his shoulder a bit harder, my cheeks warming. "Oh, god. I was so embarrassing."

"What was embarrassing was that you had chocolate on the corner of your lip when you were yelling at your dad."

My eyes widened. "I did not."

Valerio nodded and clutched his stomach to try to hold in his laughter. "You did."

I threw my head in my hands, trying to hide my embarrassment. If I had chocolate frosting on my lips when I was talking to Dad that meant I had chocolate frosting on my lips when I met Damon for the first time. I probably looked like an idiot.

"You didn't look that bad, Mae," Valerio assured, after he finally stopped laughing. "It was cute. Cute, little, innocent Mae with chocolate frosting on her lips."

I rolled my eyes. "Embarrass me all you want Valerio."

He gazed back over at me. "What moment would you relive again?"

I tilted my head. There were a lot of moments that I wanted to relive again and a lot of moments that I wished I had never lived through at all. Some moments I felt both emotions.

"My favorite moment, out of all the moments, would be..." I gazed over at Valerio and smiled. He was gazing at me the way Damon used to or maybe this was the way he always looked at me but I was too blind to see it. And, he was close, closer than I had thought he was. I placed my fingers over his on the ground and brushed them over his knuckles.

There were a lot of moments that held so much memory for me, but at that moment I couldn't relate to any of them. I was here in this moment.

"...I don't have a favorite moment..." I whispered. "I love them all."

My heart leapt in my chest as Valerio gazed at my lips to listen to my words. For the first time, in a long time, I wanted to feel a man's lips pressed to mine. And those lips didn't belong to Damon or Luca.