When I get to the Montecristo, Aden is pacing back and forth on the phone. I don't even care, I go straight for him, wrapping my arms around him and burrowing my face in his shirt. I can almost feel him looking down at me in confusion. He tells the person on the phone that they'll continue the conversation tomorrow and hangs up to hug me back.

"Hey, you okay?"

"I just witnessed the ugliest fight between Danatha and JD. I was only there to support her, and they made up in the end. But the whole thing drained me so much."

"I'm sorry."

"They're not us, right?

"You're afraid we'll end up like that?"

He pulls me away from his body to get a good look at me.

"No, we'll end way before that. But even in knowing that, I've been imagining us having some sort of future together. If they can't make it work with four years under their belts, then we don't stand a chance. I guess it's a good thing we'll wrap it up early."

I sigh again and go to the bed. Aden comes closer and he makes me look at him then.

"We're not them."

"No, why do you say things like that when you don't see a future for us?"

"I have hope. No, I have faith in us because I have faith in you."

I shrug. He doesn't get it.

"Can we go out?"

"Where?"

"Just out. I could use some fresh air."

Aden doesn't object, so we catch a cab to a nearby old collection of trees out of town. It's beautiful in the afternoon sun. I soak in the light, pretending it's a pseudo-entrance into an eternity with him by my side. As if to taunt me, we eventually find a sort of vine forming a bow shape that could almost pass for a wedding arch amongst the various trees.

It was around trees like these that I had wished for a grand love like the beautiful one between that woman and her partner. If only I'd known painful it can be, I'd never have wished for a love without mentioning that I want it to be possible in the real world - not just grand.

So, standing here with Aden is beyond tough. We'll never have any of this. We'll never have anything. But you wouldn't think so with some of his statements. In fact, there is something I want to ask him now.

"Why did you say you have faith in us?"

Aden just blinks, clearly not recalling his words from earlier.

"We're breaking up, right?"

He nods quietly and my heart sinks, even though it was highly unlikely that he would change his mind so suddenly.

"How can you claim to have faith in us: the people who won't even try to make it work?"

He moves closer to me engulfing me in his cologne. I am so drawn to him when his lemon-leaf aroma surrounds me and his eyes zero-in on me. It's as if there's a cosmical spotlight on me, like a beam of light and love.

"I was just trying to make you understand that if we could stay together, we would surely go the distance." He lifts his hand to caress my cheek and I press mine over it. "I trust you." He smiles and slides his arms around my waist, bringing me close enough to allow our breaths to mingle. "You're so kind and understanding. You put sunrays in dark windowless rooms. You make broken hearts like mine have hope - hope that there is more to life than the mundane we've grown accustomed to."

"If that's true - if I'm all that, then why let me go? Why pass me off to some other guy?"

I search his eyes desperately - maybe a little too desperately because he steps away and rakes his hand through his hair.

"My life is too complicated. I can't just decide that I'm in love and that I want you in my life."

"But that's exactly what you can - what you should - decide."

He sighs, his face is lined with fatigue. I thought I had mitigated that emotional exhaustion but clearly not.

"Even if you choose someone else..."

His eyes fly up to mine, instantly knocking the air right out of my lungs as they flash.

"I would never choose anybody else."

"You can't say that. You have your entire life ahead of you. You could still find a woman-"

"Not like you! Jesus, not like this." He slips back into my embrace, nuzzling my nose and closing his eyes. "Never like this. I'm not sure the world could even handle one more of you."

"You never know." I snort.

"Stop it; stop saying that. When I said the same things to you-"

"I doubt I'll ever meet a guy at a show, realise that he's one of the most famous singers currently, fall in love with him and have him fall in love with me."

"And you think I'll ever find-"

"There's nothing unique about me." I smile teasingly, even as it cuts my heart to admit that that statement, to a certain extent, holds truth.

"You just don't see it."

"But how can you expect me to feel special when you don't show me, Aden? Celestial signs or not, I was meant to meet you. It would never feel this right if I wasn't. But you're willing to let me go anyway? You said it yourself, I'm a meteor in your eyes, so I can't be that unique to you."

"Will you quit twisting my words?"

"Listen to me. You've said you love me over and over again, but when I finally believe you, you backpedal? No, if you've been sincere all along, then I expect you to choose me."

Aden is silent. I move closer to him, but he continues to look at me with a solemn expression.

"Penny?"

I frown as he turns away from me, rubbing his eyes.

"Aden?"

Nothing. He continues to block me out. There's nothing I can do but wait for him to come back to me. Eventually he does return.

"What happened to not expecting anything from each other?"

I wheeze like a deflated balloon. He's gone all the way back to when we hadn't even kissed yet? That's the standard he still wants? How can he even bring those resolutions and opinions from back then to this conversation?

How can he ask me to expect nothing from him after I let him touch me repeatedly? How can he be so cool when he traced and kissed his way around my entire body? How can he make himself my shelter only to threaten to leave me out in the rain again? Wouldn't it have been better to stay in the rain from the start?

A part of me is glad I never let him into my body, but more than anything, I wish I wasn't glad for that. I wish I was still desperate enough to give myself over to him, to trust in the longevity of his love blindly.

He holds my hand and I want to cry, defeated. Of course, I would do it all again, regardless of the outcome - even of this one in particular.

"Okay, if that's what you want, then I'll do my best not to." I nod, blinking back tears.

"Please, McKay. My world isn't for you; trust me. If I for one second, thought that I could be with you, do you really think I would let you go?"

"I trust you." is all I can say.

He stares at me for a while as I watch the ants move behind him from rock to rock.

"Come here."

He tugs my arm eventually and leads me to the arch.

"You cannot be serious." I mutter, with an aching heart.

I don't understand why he keeps pushing me away with his words then drawing me back in with actions. Which one am I supposed to believe?

"Hey." He lifts my chin so I'm looking straight at him. "I want to promise you some things."

"Yeah, I mean, it doesn't matter that their validity will end in a few days. Go ahead." I snap.

That just leads him to clasping my hands firmly and boring holes into my likely dilated pupils.

"Not these ones."

He clears his throat before proceeding.

"McKenzie Da Sil-"

"I don't want this." I whine and try to pull my arms away, but he doesn't allow it.

"No-no-no, Let me do this."

I sigh with emptiness filling my heart. I always let him do whatever to me in the name of love. The more I do it, the more I question it. I don't know when I will exceed the quota of common decency when it comes to giving. But I allow him to continue anyway.

"McKenzie Da Silva, from this day forth, I promise to always value every second of love you gave to me." My eyes immediately water. "I promise to always remember you fondly and let nothing taint my memories of you - of this - of us.
"I promise to always be a friendly face and a helping hand if ever you need me. I promise to constantly remind myself of the good in this world in your honour. I promise to try to emulate your kindness every day. I promise to expound that goodness into the world via my music and my actions.
"Believe me when I say that you have changed the course of my life with the very few days that you have been afforded."

I pout, and he steals a quick kiss, making me gasp as he instantly spins on his heel and jokingly walks away whistling like a cartoon character. I burst into laughter and lunge at him. He turns me in his arms laughing with me.

"So, I see I'm just going to have to make up my vows on the spot."

"No, you shouldn't do them. I just wanted to tell you the truth; tell you how I feel despite not being able to give you what you deserve."

"What is it that you think I deserve?"

His face falls, and his gaze hits the sandy terrain.

"More," he mumbles after a while. "More of my time, more of my touch. You deserve to be my priority."

Right; his career. I sigh and wrap my arms around his waist forcing his eyes to me.

"Okay."

All I can think of is to offer up my lips which he takes with immediacy. His arms come around my shoulders. This is all I'll ever have, and it needs to be enough - and it is. Just the slightest bit of him is already more than I could ever ask for.

"I love you."

We open our eyes at the same time and having them so close to me is slightly frightening. His eyes are so beautiful. He is so beautiful - inside and out. He kisses the tip of my nose then pays attention to my lips again before veering down my neck. His tongue is rumbustious in its trailing of my collarbone, my chest and my breasts.

He stands back to get a good look at his work. I can only imagine my lips plump and pink, wisps of my hair leaving my braid to fly in the wind, and my flushed chest heaving. If Aden's reaction to me is anything to go by, I'm correct. His lips have dried up from his heavy breathing and his cheeks are pale.

He approaches me, slipping my cardigan off my shoulders and going around me to plant sweet, distracting kisses at my nape before laying it down on the ground behind me and sitting. I step over his knees to turn and slip between his thighs.

In Aden's arms, I find myself praying for the first time in a long time to whichever entity can hear me. I'm going to need Herculean strength to unstitch Aden's grip on my heart.