awae - i n s t a g r a m

149

The next couple of weeks went by excruciatingly slow and painful for Anne. She was in the very depths of despair without her dear Matthew.

Most of her days were spent mindlessly staring into space on her bed, or being held by Gilbert while she sobbed into his chest. Although it was slowly getting better, the feeling of emptiness never left, leaving her feeling unattached and boxed in.

Tonight was not much different, she sat in front of her fire place, face lit by the scrumptious golden glow dancing across her moonlit skin. She pulled her legs to her chest as she watched the dancing flames that seemed as if they were apart of a beautiful ballet, swirling and tumbling gracefully over each other, lit with an infinite array of oranges and golds, with the occasional blue joining the twirling flames. Her mind began to imagine she was in an enormous and sophisticated theater, gold pillars holding up upper levels of seating and red velvet cascading down the aisles lined with wooden benches carved from the finest oak. She imagined getting lost in the music and movements of the dancers, all working harmoniously to tell a most harrowing story. Imaging the freeness of the gloriously graceful dancers leaping from the stage with such elegance and precision, made her wish she could dance as freely and effortlessly as them. The though of feeling so light, flying through the air without a care in the world seemed like a dream.

The heaviness that stood guard on her heart drug her down, even in her favorite dreams. She would imagine leaping up into the air, only to be forced down by her own weight burdening her mind and spirit. She wished more then anything she could leap with the dancers and spin and twirl with the music without a worry in her mind. She begun to imagine twirling effortlessly across the stage, tutu flying, heart racing, stomach filling with butterflies at the mere amount of freedom she felt. A soft smile spread across her face as she saw herself moving perfectly in sync with the music that caressed the glorious walls of the theater. This had always been her greatest talent, imagining herself out of a bad headspace. Although now the effort to take over the radiating sadness and heart ache that filled her body was astounding. For if you tried to imagine a boulder into a feather without proper fixation and determination, it would stay a boulder weighing on your every move.

As she got lost further into her imagination, she began humming to the music softly. The song seemed to relax her mind, her heart softening. Before she even began to hum the second verse she heard the music start slowly playing from a phone near by, waking her from her day dream. She turned to see a boyish smile and reckless curls gazing in her direction. He turned the music up and set his phone on the floor before standing and extending his hand to her.

"May I have this dance?" He asked softly, knowing she's particularly fragile at the moment.

"Gil..." she sighed reluctantly, usually she would be up before he could even get the words out to ask, but now, she felt it was weird to be dancing when her heart felt like it was in the very depths of despair. She carefully took his hand, seeing in his eyes he wasn't going to let her refuse and found herself being pulled towards him.

His hands connected with hers as the swayed gently with the music. Anne, still reluctant was half-heartedly dancing, moving slowly, eyes still overflowing with the pain of a great loss. Gilbert spun her gently catching her off guard as he began pulling her closing and pushing them apart with the rhythm. She couldn't help but smile at his adorable relief when a giggle escaped her lips on the second spin. Relaxing a bit more she began to sway with him, wrapping her arms around his neck and laying her head on his shoulder. His hands found her waist and they stayed there, dancing perfectly and harmoniously with the instrumental music for what seemed like hours.

Anne felt perfectly safe and content in his arms. Her heart fluttered with every one of his breaths she felt run down her neck, and she felt the pain melt into pure bliss. She admired the way his curls bounced over his eyes and his eyebrows softened when she nuzzled in closer to him. Every little feature about him made her, well acquainted, butterflies erupt in her stomach, fluttering every which way. She breathed in the smell of his cologne mixed with the sweet apples from his orchard, it smelt sweet and exactly like home.

He slowly pulled away and began spinning her again, bright smile playing on his face with every laugh that erupted from her stomach. After a while of giggles and shining smiles they returned to their slow swaying, reeling in each other presence.

Anne moved her head slightly to look at his eyes as she spoke "thank you gil, for everything"

"Anything for you my love" his face softened and he lent his forehead against hers, "I'll always be here for you" he smiled gently

"I know, and I'll always be there for you, I hope you know that, because I love you and I would never want to make you feel like the relationship is one sided, because you do so much good for me and I can't help but feel I'm not doing enough on my part, and of course I genuinely care about every thought that you think, and—"

"Shhh" he said muffling her ramble with a sweet kiss,  "Anne-girl, I know, I know. You are the first person I'll go to if I need anything. I promise" she smiled up at him, relieved, and pulled him into another slow kiss.

"I love you gil" she murmured against his lips

"I love you carrots" he smiled "now," he pulled away to look her in her eyes, chuckling at her disappointed expression. "We need to talk about our wedding" he smirked

"seems we do" she smiled "I was thinking, what if we did it this summer?"

"But that's-"

"In two months, I know, but I believe we've waited long enough." She giggled

A grin spread across his face, lifting his cheeks and eyebrows, "Well I can't argue with that"

"So, this summer?"

"This summer."

A/N sorry this took a little while! I'm having a bit of writers block so this isn't my favorite... but I wanted to push through and update so here ya go!

Thank you for 23k reads!!! 🥺