"Well come on. It hasn't been that long."

Arik stared, still as a corpse. His very existence was being challenged by fate and words let alone thoughts became an impossible task under his immense distress. This was precisely what he was afraid of happening. The reason he couldn't fully enjoy the expo.

Her smile persisted, but her garishly green eyes glinted with rising confusion, or perhaps that was frustration. "You're gonna tell me you don't remember your—"

"Celesti Mercurio," he choked out with maximum effort.

"Ding ding ding! There you go." She poked him in the chest.

"Uh, h-hi. What are you d-doing here?" His face immediately twisted with regret. He knew exactly why she was there.

"It's the annual Chesslace Expo. I go every year and interview artists and take pictures of their creations for my job... You know that."

Arik's body felt numb and vulnerable. He had been side-blinded by the one person he was keeping his nose to the ground for. You may think of Arik as pathetic and dramatic in this scenario, and honestly, you wouldn't be far off. But this woman, Celesti, had shared the most intimate moments in Arik's dwindling life and was there when he needed it. And yet, he ruined it still.

He had never quite gotten over it, or himself, rather. How he pushed her loving embrace away due to paranoid self-esteem issues, thinking that he was inferior to his counterpart. How he lied to cover up his true feelings or how his jealousy forced him to wear a monster's mask.

No matter how many good memories they had shared together, they served as constant reminders of the wrongs he committed. To him, for a long time they were nothing more than additional spikes at the bottom of a pitfall trap he so haphazardly fell into.

He didn't deserve to speak with her anymore, let alone ask for forgiveness.

As time froze still around him, all of these thoughts rushed through his mind and poisoned his body. The ground beneath him began to cave in as he slipped through the cracks of reality like he once did on that bed in the hospital. Fear sank its noxious claws into his flesh. But before he was completely toppled from the overwhelming fear brought on from the beautiful woman in front of him, a sight for sore eyes appeared a distance behind her.

It was a single bird flying from a tree. That's it. But with that, the memories of Arik's extravagant flying flooded his mind. And then the recent memories of Kilvio and Veronica being so kind and loving to him. The cheerful memories melted the fear from his body and pulled reality back together before it was too late, before Arik was crying and screaming in the fetal position like a crazy person.

'If I can literally fly then I sure as hell can talk to my damn ex,' he chided himself.

"Are you okay?" asked Celesti with a concerned and confused face.

'Come on you damn wimp,' his thoughts whipping him to action.

Arik's body inflated with vigor and his face opened up with a bright smile.

"Yeah!.. I-I'm awesome actually. I just didn't expect to see you here. I suppose I forgot that you covered this event every year."

Her face was visibly relieved from Arik's burst of energy. "Yeah. No, yeah, I do this every year. Not everyone can make it and I think that everyone should have a way to see it. Plus, I'd be lying if I didn't say that this was for personal satisfaction as well."

The fear knocked on Arik's psyche to come back, but he banished it once more with a heavy gulp. "Well you know me. I'm Mr. Artist, so I love this stuff as well."

"Yeah. Hey I didn't see you at the expo last year. Were you okay?"

Arik caught glimpse of two figures in the distance, Kilvio and Veronica. Their eyes met his from afar as they slyly retreated into the crowd with smug smiles on their faces. While not entirely sure, Arik had thought he had seen a thumbs up from them as well before they vanished.

'Dammit. Was this all premeditated? They knew, didn't they?'

His narrowed eyes darted back to Celesti. "Uhm, yeah. I was sick last year. I wasn't seeing much of anybody at that time." What was once the scariest thought in the world to him was quickly becoming second nature again and he decided to ride the current; his general theme as of late. Another heavy gulp beckoned his gall. "But hey, I-I think I saw a coffee shop just on the outskirts of the expo. Do you maybe... want to?" he gestured behind himself.

She looked around and smiled, her pearlescent teeth glittering with content. "I think I've been working hard enough today. Sure. Let's go."

The next 30 or so minutes of Arik's life was unadulterated bliss. They walked and talked about life and their hobbies through the vibrant park adorned with art and trees alike. It was like a verbal dance between the two charged with curious yet fond emotions. A dance between two people that knew each other's moves like a good book that they had read a hundred times over, for they've had these dances before.

But this dance was undeniably different than the ones in the past. How could they be the same? Arik was constantly trying his hardest to stay one step ahead so as to not drive the conversation into a place where he had to talk about how disgraceful his past two years had been. He didn't want to come off as miserable in front of the great Celesti Mercurio, top journalist of the Zoro Newspaper company.

Not that he wasn't miserable, a blind pig could see that, but because he was on such a sweet road to redemption. He knew what he was capable of, and that made his past even harder to talk about. So he led with being led. He desperately reflected and refracted, ensuring that she would be doing the bulk of the chattering and that negative topics transmogrified into opportunistic topics that made him look as good as possible.

The repelling cold air was filled with descriptions of work load and relationships. Gentle and kind words dressed the picture of her new dog and recent occupational successes, while scolding and distasteful ones about things such as horrible bosses, repetitive car problems, and the falling out of friendships. It was all kind of the same stuff, different year material, but hearing it through her mouth was like catching up on your favorite show that you have been robbed of for years. Arik's previous anxiety had melted like butter, leaving nothing but soothing attentiveness.

They eventually made their way to the fabled coffee shop just outside the expo. Celesti knew exactly what she wanted: a vanilla bean with a shot of espresso. But Arik wasn't keen on the world of coffee and just asked for something sweet and delicious; a somewhat embarrassing moment.

"Don't you dare. I'll pay for it," Arik declared.

"Oh! Mr. Moneybags over here, huh?"

They sat down on a wooden bench just outside the shop, Celesti with her Vanilla Bean and Arik with his Caramel Frappuccino, and stared at the bustling park a couple dozen yards from them, savoring the moment along with their caffeinated drinks.

Celesti had been passionately talking for so long that the current silence was amplified with awkwardness.

"I'm really glad to hear that everything has been pretty good with you," Arik said to break the silent tension brought on from the drinks. "Mostly everything, at least."

"If there is one thing my job has taught me it's where there is a story. And I get the feeling you are holding out on me, Arik.

His heart jumped. "What makes you say that?" 'Shoot. She's onto me.'

She turned to face him as if the answer was obvious. "A journalist never reveals their sources."

While intended to be light-hearted and comical, it actually incited suspicion and dull panic in Arik's ever-guarded thoughts. Seeing that her joke didn't reap the intended result, she backed it up with a thoughtful stare and a sharp yet held inhale.

"I'm sorry, but you know I've never been one to beat around the bush." Her eyes closed as she continued. "I know about your trip to the hospital a few days ago."

Arik felt as if his body had just been struck by a rod of lightning from Zeus himself. But rather than jump at her words in shock, he sulked further into himself.

"Look, that's–"

"No, please just listen," she interrupted him pleadingly. "I know you've had a rough time as of late. But I also know you have been trying your hardest to correct yourself as well."

The suspicion he had devised earlier had finally clicked. "Kilvio told you, huh?"

"Can neither confirm nor deny. But could you blame him? He just wants what's best for you. He loves you... We all do."

The words were a speeding collision to his brittle heart. He never would have dreamed that he would hear those kinds of words from her again. And with that, a lump grew in Arik's throat that threatened him not to speak.

After a few seconds of insufferable silence, she turned forward to the park once again.

"I don't hate you, Arik. You did some pretty crappy things to me in the past but I know it all came from a troubled heart. I left you because no matter what I did you just wouldn't share those troubles with me. And you can't truly help somebody unless they want to help themselves."

Arik strained to keep himself together with every fiber of his being against her words. The more she spoke, the more puissant her aura grew and the harder it became to contain his festering emotions. His body began to tremble.

"I... I don't know what to say," he managed to choke out. The words stung his mouth. She had just spilled her true reason for leaving him being his reluctance to open up about what was going on in his mind and now he replies with some of the same thing. But it was the truth. Nothing in life had ever trained him for these kinds of scenarios.

"That's perfectly fine. You don't have to say anything." She deftly stood up from the bench after checking her watch. "This was a really nice catch up. I mean it. Hit me up if you ever decide that you do have something to say. But right now I have somewhere to be. So, au revoir," she gave a small curtsy before walking off.

Arik had been sitting so idly by that whole time, frozen with guilt and panic, that he feared moving would break his body asunder. But the succinct departure of his company broke him out of his stupor.

"Wait," he yelled after her, rocketing from the bench.

She spun around, her golden blonde hair twirling around the heart-shaped frame of her head.

Arik's body was beyond trembling at this point, now more in line with vibrating than anything. "How ab-bout next f-friday?"

She raised an eyebrow and smirked.

"I'll t-take you out for dinner. We can talk then." Arik felt like a kid asking out their crush all over again, and he was worried that his pounding heart was visible, even through his leather jacket.

Her brow fell and her smirk grew to a grin. "I think I'd like that."

Euphoria thawed his half numb body. "Great. Uhm, I got a new phone but I still have your number. So I'll text you so you can have mine too."

"Ok. Sounds good." She began slowly walking backwards. "Oh, and word to the wise: maybe don't get a cold drink on a cold day. Gives you the shivers." She winked and walked away for good.

"Wow." He felt as if the rollercoaster of emotions that had just transpired were enough to knock an elephant on its ass. But his current rush of endorphins made him want to run circles around the expo.

He made his way back into the park exhibit, his head spinning with what future awaited him. Then he stopped cold in his tracks.

'Awe shit. How am I gonna pick her up? I don't have a car!'