Cold Nights and Silver Bows

If there was something A utterly detested, it was waiting.

The woman drummed her fingers across her lap and sighed loudly, frowning as she glanced at her phone from time to time. Over and over she hoped that she’d receive a message with a smiley and two words, but the time hadn’t come yet. She had ten minutes until the call would come, but after thirteen days and a large number of hours, minutes, and seconds, waiting seemed to overwhelm her, seemed like too much for her to handle.

She felt like throwing her phone against the wall, but resolved to keep it in her fumbling hands. Over and over she looked, and sighed upon the sight of no such text yet. The wallpaper flashed repeatedly, a picture of a young ginger man and his laughing British girlfriend, she in his arms over at the park. A had forgotten who had taken the picture for them, but she did remember her boyfriend grinning and tickling her sides just before the kind person snapped the picture.

It was a beautiful memory and she wanted to relive it once more. If she recalled rightly, it had occurred around two months or so ago, and they were on their nth date. She had lost count, to be honest. But he remembered, and that made her smile slightly. They had gone to a small café, had a light dinner, and then he surprised her with dancing and a trip to the ice cream parlor. She had asked for a walk in the park and he agreed, soon sliding his jacket onto her shoulders upon seeing her shiver at the cold weather.

And then she remembered his gentle kiss on her cold, chapped lips. 

He tasted like vanilla ice cream when they kissed-

The black iPhone buzzed, and she immediately pressed ‘answer’, holding the device to her ear excitedly with slightly shaky fingers.

“Matt?”

All those days and minutes and seconds seemed so long. 

“Hi babe,” came his voice. She felt herself redden. “You doing alright over there?”

“Y-Yeah, I’m fine,” she replied, sinking into the sheets. “Never mind me, are you okay? Did anything happen? Is Matsumoto bossing you around again?” she could hear him laugh and a disgruntled voice speak from the background, who she assumed was the Japanese. “Tell Matsumoto I can here him from here.”

“She can hear you, idiot,” Matt called and continued laughing. “I’m alright, don’t worry. Nothing bad happened, and yes, he’s bossing me around.” She smiled, pleased, but began to worry upon the short silence that came between them. “…love, I’m not sure if I can come any time soon.”

“…what?”

“It’s getting tricky, and we might have to move soon.” She could hear him shift in his seat. Matsumoto had either gone away or was really, really quiet. “Are you okay with that?”

“…yeah, sure. Totally okay,” she lied, feeling a large wave of disappointment. “So when are you coming back?”

“It’s going to take until next month, baby. I’m sorry.”

A month.

One more goddamned month.

But she was used to that, she could take a month.

“I see,” she spoke softly, tugging at a lock of her hair. “I can just work and I’ll be able to handle myself over here. Really.”

“I know you can.” From another place, Matt smiled slightly to himself. “I ordered something for you, by the way. Has it arrived yet?”

“Nothing came in the mail so far. What is it?”

“I’m not going to ruin that surprise,” he laughed. “Find out for yourself.” She felt like smacking him in the face and was about to retort back when the doorbell rang. “Was that the doorbell, love?”

“Yeah, I think so. Hold on for a bit, I’ll see if it’s that surprise you got me.”

“Alright, don’t rush.”

He smirked and listened as she left her phone on the bed and walked out of the room, Matt shifting slightly and tucking his hands into his pockets. He set the phone down for a moment and merely looked forward, brushing his hair back from his blue eyes.

“…it’s almost ten o’clock, why would he have something delivered at this time?”

The door opened and Matt grinned, opening his arms for a hug.

There was a large bow on top of his head, shiny and silver.

Self restraint seemed non-existent as A pulled him into the house, launching herself into his arms as the door swung and closed gently, clicking from the inside and signaling that it was locked.

A surprise indeed, she thought, finally sealing her lips against his smirking own.