As he drifted off in the most contented state he had ever known, a sudden clink jolted him back to brief consciousness. Sifting through the haze, he realized the melting ice in the champagne bucket had caused the bottle to drop ever so slightly. He glanced down and realized all was still well and relaxed with a sigh. He slowed his breathing and let his thoughts take him back into the twilight of slumber. As he did, his mind wandered to how the past few years of his life had been just as the ice in the bucket: a long, slow melt.
He wasn't sure how it began, but he definitely knew when: October 3, 1983. Another ordinary day like any other in his life: danger, excitement and frustration standard issue. No time for in depth analysis of anything: relationships, mortality, the future. Every moment was lived moment to moment, and in this moment he desperately needed help. He perhaps was unconsciously drawn to safety, and a bare faced woman in a trench coat over a nightgown looked about as safe as you could get. She resisted him at first, but mercifully relented and he was on his way. Mission complete: on to the next. But then it wasn't. He mustered every trick that had served him so well over the years: charm, mystery and skill, but found himself again in a no win situation. She wasn't going anywhere.
He found himself inexplicably paired with her in an unacceptable amount of cases moving forward. He pleaded and cajoled, but all to no avail. No one would show mercy and leave him be. Worse yet, every time she was in danger, as she inevitably found herself, he felt slightly more concerned, a bit more guilt. He had invaded her life and was now responsible for her safety going forward, adding to the penance he perpetually paid. The only way to move forward was to not let himself be involved deeply with another. The weight of caring would only serve to drag him under. Yet she caught him unaware, in that being genuinely cared for could be as dangerous to a heart as caring for someone else.
Slowly, case by case, he felt his treacherous heart begin to betray him. A slow thaw that, could perhaps, be refrozen a little too easily. A strange occurrence in that it never refroze in quite the same way: always just slightly different and a little easier to temper than before. It continued unrelentingly until one day he found that he yearned for a new kind of danger - the danger of feeling. He slowly began to let down his guard and found that love wasn't the enemy it had been made out to be. Yes, as with a calla lily, it was still dangerous, but given the right conditions it could blossom into more than his battered heart could have ever imagined.
Finally, here he was as the vestiges of his old life slipped away and completed the thaw that had begun almost four years ago. Today, they had renounced their old lives and promised to forge a new, singular life together. Tonight, as they consummated that life, the shadows of their former selves melted into the inferno of their love and passion as they emerged from the fire as one, solid and strong as iron.