He’d never known anyone like her.  She’d held him spellbound from the moment they’d met and now she was walking toward him, as if she’d just stepped from a dream, about to become his wife.  

She slipped her hand into his and whispered “I love you” with a smile that took his breath away.

She was everything he wasn’t: open and accepting, inviting everyone to talk and share.  He was an artist: solitary in his work and his world, quiet and alone.    

He loved that everyone wanted to be with her, be around her.  She was sunshine.  It was impossible to walk away from her feeling cold and unloved.  Her laughter was contagious, like a splendid virus everyone leaned in closer to catch.  It made him proud that someone he loved so much could be so loved and so lovable. 

How they were so undeniably in love he didn’t understand, but he didn’t need to.  It worked for them, despite their personality differences.  They loved each other with a crazy love, claiming one another physically.  They made love for hours – caressing, tasting, connecting, taking in the essence of one another; it seemed they simply couldn’t get enough of being with one another. 

No one had ever loved him the way she did.  She listened to his dreams, cared about his past and his future, accepting him wholly for who he was.  He'd never known that was possible. He kept waiting, anticipating the moment when she'd realize she'd made a mistake - discover that one thing about him she couldn't live with, couldn't accept.   

Through the distance a voice was drawing him closer, saying his name; warming him, taking the shape of a face he knew.  

“Please, come back to me.” she begged, “Please, open your eyes.”

He felt her hand slide into his as she whispered “I love you” and kissed his cheek. 

From far away he heard the music of their wedding day as the album of their life together came to him in oddly formed, surreal snapshots, disordered and incomplete.  He saw her walking on a beach, windswept and laughing, waves chasing her feet. He felt sunshine on his face. He held a baby, beautiful and fragile. They picnicked in a park.  Her eyes were pools, so blue and deep he became lost in them. A sculpture in a gallery showing melted as if it were ice.  She was singing to him. She was crying because of him.  The music faded. He felt himself fading as well.  

He squeezed her hand, lost once again to the darkness. 

Part III coming soon

Previously

Contrapposto - I