Chapter Two
7:58pm 23rd December
She led him through the dim parking lot of the restaurant she had taken him to after they had booked into the motel of her choice, darting past the cars and slipping through the darkness like a Willow the Wisp before him. Her hair was spread over her shoulders, and in her white blouse, she looked almost angelic in the half-light. Shawn's heart beat faster as he watched her, and all thoughts of Salem were banished from his mind as she beckoned him forwards.
"What is this place?" He didn't raise his voice, as if afraid to break the spell of her eyes if he spoke too loudly.
"The original Holiday Inn," she replied with a smile of glittering glee. "Only, we call it 'Kismet, Kiss Me' when old Mrs Appledore isn't around. Her grandfather built the place, and she doesn't like hearing it called anything that could be deemed the slightest bit improper."
"Why 'Kismet, Kiss Me'?" Shawn was looking past her to the sixteenth century building behind her, built in the style of an English country tavern, complete with gables and oak doors.
"Because they say if you are caught under a certain sprig of mistletoe with someone right when the song 'Always' starts playing, and you kiss them, they are the person you are meant to be with for the rest of your life. Like saying 'Snog me Destiny', but with more class." Blue Eyes joked, punching him gently in the arm.
Shawn's dark eyes fastened on hers. "Does it work?" he asked a little more seriously than he had intended.
"It has so far." She smiled up at him, and electricity shot through his body. He felt like he had been hit by lightning, like the first time he had seen her and seen that smile.
He grinned back charmingly. "Isn't it rather easy to cheat?"
"Oh, no," she put her hands up and started walking again. "You see, the only source of music in Kismet, Kiss Me is the jukebox and 'Always' isn't in there. Unless you brought in your own tape or CD player, you could never hear it unless it was destined."
"And you believe all of this?" He was teasing her, but she turned back to him, surprisingly serious. Her blue eyes were focused on a place beyond her grasp and a time she had never seen. She answered him in absolute solemnity.
"Yes." He didn't know what to reply, so they hurried into the warm restaurant out of the cold night air.
Shawn had never seen anything quite like it. It was the most old fashioned room he had ever seen outside of a museum, and it was filled with the greenery of Christmas. The halls were not so much decked with boughs of holly as weighed down by them, and the fire was nearly out with all the chestnuts being roasted over it. It was also very beautiful, and the hostess, a short bustling woman of about fifty-five with white hair and very proper clothing had the most welcoming smile he had seen for three hundred miles, or since he had left his fiancée in Salem, completed the festive scene of joviality. She took their coats and hung them on a hook near the flu of the fire so the warm air would dry them quickly, greeting them with a smile and a sugar cookie.
"I don't think I'm ever going to want to go home," Shawn breathed as he stared around him.
Blue Eyes took it in her stride, grinning at the old lady and jumping up and down almost in her excitement. "You want some dinner? They serve the best cranberry bread here in the whole of America, and for dessert, their pecan puffs are to die for."
"I'll have to try them," he smiled at her, and when she smiled back, he felt that he had been sent to some private heaven for just them two.
"This way," the lady led them to a secluded part of the restaurant, to a table with a single red candle and two chairs close together. "The menu is rather limited tonight, so I'm afraid you'll just have to have what's left in the kitchens."
Blue Eyes smiled at her sweetly. "I'm sure it will be delicious. It always is."
The lady smiled back, her brown eyes twinkling with merriment. "Thank you, dear. I'll bring you some drinks in a moment, and the food shouldn't be so much longer."
"Interesting place this," Shawn remarked, staring at his love across the flickering flame of the candle.
"Very," she took his hand in hers and rubbed it gently.
"I'm so glad you rescued me," he kissed her hand, and she simpered sweetly at him.
She stroked the side of his face lovingly. "I'm glad I rescued you too. If I hadn't, I would be stuck here all by myself tonight."
The lady returned with their drinks, and they fell into a lively conversation while they sipped them and waited for their meal, which, when it came was just as delicious as had been promised.
The plates had been cleared and coffee set out before them as the grandfather clock struck ten. Shawn had barely noticed the time passing, and was surprised to hear the chimes. Neither made a move to leave. It was enough to be with each other, if only for that moment.
A song started on the jukebox, and Shawn couldn't resist the urge.
"Dance with me?" He wasn't asking her, he was begging. He needed her in his arms, needed to feel her warmth near his own, needed to know that with snow on the ground outside and an open fire roaring in the hearth, he wasn't alone so close to Christmas and so far from home.
"I thought you'd never ask," she answered him softly, her eyes luminous and beautiful in the candlelight.
He took her in his arms, and he knew that, whatever happened from now on, he would always treasure this moment. The jukebox, the most modern item in the room, was playing 'All by Myself' by Eric Carmen, and the slow movements of the couple as they waltzed around the room entranced all the other guests.
The music washed around them, and Shawn felt her arms go around his neck and her chin rest on his shoulder in contentment. "When I was young / I never needed anyone / And making love was just for fun / Those days are gone."
Suddenly, it wasn't Eric's voice that Shawn was hearing but that of his Blue Eyes, and she, as she sang softly in his ear, was pleading with him. "Living alone / I think of all the friends I've known / But when I dial the telephone / Nobody's home."
He thought he felt a tear soak his shirt, and wondered if he was imagining it or if she really was crying as that voice of an angel serenaded him with the words he never dreamed of hearing addressed to himself.
"All by myself," she sang softly to him so only he could hear her pain. "I don't want to be / All by myself anymore." He hugged her tighter, and wondered where all of this agony came from when she seemed so confident and happy when they were together.
"Hard to be sure," she whispered, half breaking his heart with the sound of her own devastation, "Sometimes I feel so insecure / And love so distant and obscure / Remains the cure. / All by myself / I don't want to be / All by myself anymore / All by myself / Don't want to live / All by myself anymore."
He held her even closer, burying his face in her hair, and, with a love that started somewhere in the depths of his soul, answered her prayer. "You will never be alone again. I promise."
Then the strains of that song died away, and one quite different played in their ears.
"I'll be loving you - always," Shawn heard, not knowing what it meant or why Eric Carmen was no longer singing but a woman with a high-class accent instead.
"With a love that's true - always," replied a deep male voice Blue Eyes could not place but echoed in her soul and reverberated through her mind.
Then everything became clear, and as one, they looked up to find themselves beneath the mistletoe.
"Kismet," Blue Eyes whispered.
"Kiss me," Shawn muttered in a low, almost feral growl that spoke of a millennia of love in his heart, and an eternity yet to come.
So, just twenty four hours from Salem in a Holiday Inn called by its patrons 'Kismet, Kiss Me', she did and cemented a love that had grown for a time longer than the life of the world and more pure than the tears of angels.