Our linked hands swung back and forth as we walked over the wooden bridge. I was smiling that crocked smile he used to cherish so much. I giggled ever so often at his crappy jokes he saves each day just for me. The morning light softly touched my brown eyes, lightening their color (he used to love that).
A silence fell over us but it was not awkward. It was the kind of silence people long for but never get. The silence that occurs when someone loves someone else, when you are both thinking of one another too much to speak.
We approached our favorite spot: the oak tree by the pond. I was still quietly thinking of him when he broke the silence, "I have a jackknife."
"What for?"
"Your anniversary gift."
"You got me a jackknife? Well, that's...romantic."
"No!" He laughed at my answer.
"Then what is it?"
"You'll see," he promisses as he lifts me up and sets me an one of the oak tree's lower branches.
I giggle and watch him suspiciously as he takes out his Jackknife and begins to carve into the bark just beside my head. "I love you," I say still watching him studiously.
"Yeah, I know," He responds with a smirk.
I nudge him lightly and giggle. "No, really."
He stops carving and looks up to me. He reaches up to brush my cheek and looks me dead in the eyes. "I love you too," he whispers in a sincere yet, masculine voice.
That was exactly 3 years ago. He's probably moved on by now and I always told myself that I had too. Though I thought I was over him, I realize now that I am not. I'm sitting on the same branch I was three years ago only inches away from his carvings. Our initials are carved so carefully and beautifully into the oaks wood that I almost want to touch it. Sadly, I cannot. For I know if I do, I will brake down in tears.
I try so hard not to touch it, not to remember, not to cry...but I do. I brush my fingers against the wood and press my forehead against the trunk. I remember him kissing me in the exact spot I sit in now, oh how it felt. Sometimes I swore I had wings when he kissed me the way he had that day. I cry for hours slinking down millimeter by millimeter as every single memory floods back to me. I let out everything I hold in.
When I'm done crying and my tears are simply sticky spots on my cheeks, I remember the silence we shared. That silence everyone wants but never gets. The silence of our thoughts rushing through our heads. That silence I experience not only then but now. I swear I can hear him thinking "I love you."
I shut my eyes tight and think back "I love him".
I open my eyes again to the present and sigh, "It's just your imagination." I say this aloud to the empty space around me.
"No, it's not," A voice so familiar responds.
Could it be? My heart begins to race as I jump of the branch and run around the trunk thinking he might be on the other side. He is not. My heart rate slows once again as I realize how foolish I was being.
"Up here," the voice says again. "Blond."
I look up to see him sitting right above me. I gasp as a smile spreads immediately across my face.
"Miss me much?" He hops down and gracefully grabs my waist to pull me in closer. then he kisses me. He kisses me and I have wings. There is a silence among us. It is not awkward.