Chapter Two

~ Engaged ~

I can't remember

Why we even ever

Got together

I knew one of us would have to break the silence eventually. I didn't want to be the first to speak, but I needed to know the answer to the question on the tip of my tongue.

"So…were you being serious back there?" My voice cracked as I spoke and the words felt clumsy on my tongue, but it was too late to take them back.

Drew didn't move his eyes from staring out over the frosted grass of the park. In the centre of the grass, an ornamental fountain glittered as the moonlight reflected off the frozen water. It was a beautiful - and haunting - sight.

"About what?" he asked.

I frowned. Was he being serious? Did he actually not remember, or was he playing stupid? I was tired of games; if he wanted to play one he was going to have to find a different opponent. I got straight to the point: "About getting married."

The corner of Drew's mouth lifted as if he was amused. "A complete stranger asks you to marry him and the first question you have is whether or not he was being serious?"

I scowled. The magic of the moments we had spent in silence was gone. It seemed I was the only one to feel like time spent in a stranger's company was calming and the beginning of the healing process. Though I was feeling worse by the second. "Don't laugh at me. You're not the only one who's had a rough night."

For the first time, Drew looked at me properly. When he had proposed, he hadn't really been looking at me. All he had seen was a chance to leave his ex-fiancé's house with his head held high. But now, he was actually looking at me. I swallowed nervously as he scrutinized me.

"Clearly," he said at last. Suddenly feeling self-conscious, I was horrified to remember that I was a complete mess – my hair was so sweaty that it was sticking to my head and shoulders, I was paler than the ice in the fountain, I had bags as dark as soot under my eyes, and I probably smelled pretty bad too. Drew wasn't exactly picture-perfect either, but he still looked better than I did. All of this did nothing to improve my state of mind, and I found a tornado of anger rising within me that had been gathering steam ever since I slammed the front door of my own house with myself on the wrong side of it. All of my frustration and all of my pain exploded into Drew's face.

"You think you have it bad – and yeah, from what I heard you do have it pretty bad – but none of that even compares to what I've been through. I was just minding my own business and walking down the street trying to get away from everything and not think about the fact that I'm now homeless and possession-less because my ex has taken over my house and I'd rather walk through fire than go back there when I stumbled upon a row some couple are having.

"Then a stranger proposes to me to get back at his fiancé who thinks she can control him and we walk off holding hands and don't say anything for nearly half an hour and it's the end of December and freezing cold and I don't even have a jacket and YES I HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW WHETHER OR NOT HIS PROPOSAL WAS SERIOUS BECAUSE RIGHT NOW I WOULD DO ANYTHING TO TAKE MY MIND OFF MY EX, EVEN IF THAT MEANS MARRYING SOME GRASS-HAIRED JERK WHO THINKS HE'S SO MUCH BETTER THAN ME!" As soon as I finished, I began drawing in large gulps of air. I hadn't meant to get so carried away, and by the end I had been talking so fast I barely knew what I was saying. But, looking at the surprised expression on Drew's face, it was worth it.

Drew took his time to gather his thoughts as he considered what I had said. I was beginning to worry that I had gone overboard and scared him away until he finally said, "Okay. Let's get married."

I stared at him. I don't know what I had expected, but it certainly wasn't that. "O-okay."

He gave me a slight smile. "I don't know whether I was serious or not when I proposed to you earlier. I was just angry with Brianna. But what she said about losing my inheritance if I don't get married is true, so I do need to get a wife. Besides, you're right – we've both just gotten out of relationships, it'll do us good to do something reckless." I returned his smile as he added, "Oh, and here, wrap yourself up in this." He slipped off his hoodie and I shook my head.

"I can't take that - it's yours."

He grinned. "Hey, we're engaged now. What's mine is yours."

"But you'll get cold," I protested.

"I've been in a freezing relationship for over a year; I think I can handle a bit of winter weather."

Roughly an hour later, we were standing outside the door of a house Drew said one of his friends lived in. It had taken a while to find because it was dark and Drew had never walked to his friend's house directly from the park before, but eventually we got there. The porch light had come on the moment we'd arrived, bathing us in a welcome glow.

There was a small part of me that was apprehensive about going to a strange house with a man I had only just met, but for some reason I trusted Drew. Maybe it was because no-one could have faked he fight he and Brianna had had or maybe it was just a gut feeling, but I was pretty sure he wasn't a murderer or a rapist or anything like that. And it was clear his feelings reflected mine, which helped to lift the heavy weight in my chest just a little bit. It wasn't so much that I had forgotten about my own nasty break-up as it was that Drew was a good distraction from the pain – and the excitement at not knowing where I was going to end up added a small spark back into my spirit.

"Problem," Drew stated, turning to face me. His hand hovered over the doorbell. "It's the middle of the night. I don't think my friend is going to appreciate me waking him up to come open the door."

And the spark was crushed. I folded my arms over my chest, withdrawing into his hoodie as much as I could to shelter from the frosty air. "Don't tell me you dragged me half way across town only to be scared of knocking on a door," I said, half-jokingly and half-threateningly.

Drew glanced down at his feet. "If it was just late in the evening – heck, if it was midnight, I'd knock. Or call him. But it's four am. Would you appreciate being woken up at this hour?"

I narrowed my eyes. "No. But we can't stay out here, we'll freeze to death. And as much as I hate my life right now, I'm not desperate to end it."

Something changed in Drew's expression. "Then you should go to a pokémon centre. I'm sure they can find a bed for you."

All of my anger drained away, leaving only compassion. "And what about you?" I asked, trying not to dread the answer.

Drew still wasn't looking at me. "I think I'll just go back to the park."

I didn't reply immediately. It became so clear in that moment that Brianna wasn't just a trophy wife to him; she had never been 'just a trophy wife'. He was hurting a whole lot more than he was letting on. Maybe I should have let him go back to the park. Maybe I should have let him slowly give in to the cold and sink deeper and deeper into the darkness of his mind until his heart stopped trying to beat. We could have parted ways – me to the pokémon centre, pretending I'd never met this handsome stranger who had asked me for my hand in marriage upon our very first meeting until I forgot he had ever existed… and him to his death. I could have so easily turned my back on him. I doubted he would have blamed me.

I slowly reached out a hand until I could touch his cold, unshaven face. He didn't flinch or move away. He didn't even seem to register the gesture. Gently, I turned his head towards mine, so I could look into his eyes. They were empty of everything except despair. He wants me to let him go…

"What about your house?" I asked softly. "Or was it your house that you left Brianna in?"

"No. My house is just outside the far side of town. It takes too long to get there. I can't walk anymore. I don't… I don't want to go on. I just want to go back. May, I – I want to go back."

I had a feeling he wasn't just talking about the park. "I know," I murmured in a voice barely above a whisper. "But sometimes, when bad things happen and we want nothing more than to just go back and try to fix what's broken, going back is the worst thing to do. It's going forward that helps. There's a reason the sun sets at the end of the old day and rises at the beginning of the new day. It's because the sun can't go back, it can't 'un-set', it can only go forward – and it brings a whole lot of golden light with it. You don't see it now because the darkness seems endless, but that break-up was the setting of an old day. You and I getting married? That's the golden sunrise of the new day." I surprised myself with the words that came out of my mouth, but they weren't just for him – I think I needed to hear them too. He certainly wasn't going to say them, and someone had to.

Finally, he looked at me. His eyes were dark, but when I searched deeper into his gaze I noticed a tiny spark of light. I smiled and stepped closer, closing the gap between us. Wrapping my arms around his shoulders, I pulled him into a hug.

We were both freezing and we were both hurting. But as our bodies shivered together they created warmth to share, and as our hearts bled together the other's blood began to stitch our own wounds.

"We'll be okay," I whispered into his ear, standing on tiptoes.

I felt him smile against my cheek. He carefully slipped his arms around my back, drawing me closer. "Yes," he murmured back, "we will."

We stayed like that for a while, just breathing in and out together. The serenity felt good; it was a sharp contrast to everything I had left behind.

"It really is cold," Drew muttered at last through chattering teeth. "Maybe we should find somewhere warm now. Not the pokémon centre though – there's a hotel about a ten-minute walk from here?"

I withdrew my hands from his shoulders and lifted my head from where it had come to rest in the crook of his neck. To any onlooker, we would have seemed like a couple sharing an intimate embrace. I wanted to laugh bitterly. Drew seemed to be feeling a little better – the light had come back into his eyes. But I was beginning to regret not leaving when I had the chance. I didn't want to go to a hotel. Heck, I was beginning to want to go back to the park myself. This whole night was such a rollercoaster that up until hugging Drew I'd been completely numb. However, the warmth from his body seemed to have melted the numbness around my heart, and pain throbbed from the wound afresh. "Is it too late to go back to the park?" I muttered under my breath.

"What?" Drew asked, not having heard my words.

I swallowed, feeling the roughness of the lump in my throat. "I said, why not the pokémon centre?"

Drew took a step back, officially breaking our embrace. A fresh wave of coldness crashed over my head. "I just don't want to get, um, recognised. Attention from the media is the last thing I need right now and words spreads fast in open places like pokémon centres. The hotel down the road is a lot more… selective about its guests. They'll make sure we get enough privacy."

"Uh…" I was unsure how to react to that. Who was this guy, some kind of celebrity? "Why would you get recognised"

He raised an eyebrow. "You don't know who I am?" he asked in disbelief. "Well, at least I know you're not just another fangirl trying to take advantage of me," he remarked, somewhat sarcastically.

"Hang on…" Now that I thought about it, his striking green hair and eyes were familiar… He was short by most people's standards (though still taller than me)… and Brianna had mentioned that he was a coordinator… A distant memory emerged from under the surface of my mind, of Dawn and I watching last year's Grand Festival and giggling over the attractiveness of the green-haired winner… "You're Drew Hayden?" I exclaimed, the darkness fading from my mind as something similar to excitement took over. "Oh my gosh – you're actually Drew Hayden!"

He rolled his eyes. "Great. So you are a fangirl. I just can't catch a break, can I?"

I gritted my teeth. My fangirl moment was well and truly over. "So you're an all-star coordinator, so what? You're still an arrogant grasshead," I growled, turning and marching down the steps to the porch we were standing on.

Drew hurried after me. "Hey – that's the second time you've called me a grasshead! Pot calling the kettle black, much?"

I shot a scowl at him over my shoulder, speeding up my walking pace. "Is my hair the colour of shrubbery? No, it is not."

"I resent that – my hair is the epitome of life, nature, energy, and growth; everything I stand for as a coordinator. What's your hair the colour of, hmm?"

He was catching up, and I broke into a light jog to stay ahead. "Chocolate – the only thing in life worth living for. Especially when you consider that your hair is also the colour of slime and gross, unmentionable things," I shot back, turning a corner.

"At least I don't look like there are dead leaves sprouting from my skull!"

"No, you look like there's a full bush growing on your head, and not only that but it's clearly been pooped on by a bird. I'd take dead leaves over that any day!" I glanced back at him once more, smiling. He was grinning too.

"You're going the wrong way, by the way."

My smile faded. He just had to ruin the moment.