Up until now, I had only had the honour of celebrating one of Bella's birthdays: her 18th anniversary. That had been the last human anniversary in her existence - although I did not know it at the time.

We were in very different places in terms of long-term expectations back then. We loved each other to no end, that had always been a constant - but because I loved her, I wanted to leave. And I had been looking for a reason to do so ever since the damned day when I had seen her tortured by James, frame after agonizing frame. I wanted everything with her, but I couldn't imagine the luxury of that.

The summer following the James incident and me killing Victoria, we had spent almost every waking moment together - and each second had been torture. For when she kissed me, I wondered if I could save the feeling of her soft lips on mine and the sound of her beating heart in a chamber of my mind and keep the memories alive for however long I was going to be alive. And when she told me a story she had forgotten to tell me, I wanted to ask for every little detail without sounding like the maniac that I was, hoping that these details will keep me warm long after my impending leaving. And when she told me 'I'll see you later' with an eager smile on her lips, I never failed to ask myself: 'Will you, my love?'.

I had always wondered when was the first time she had sensed that something wasn't right about my behaviour. I had tried to keep everything light, to ease any possible worries by teasing her as usual, by taking her out on all sorts of dates, by coming to her room every single night, by spending endless hours in our meadow with her. But somehow she had seen through my pretenses, as she always did. And I never had the chance to find a good enough reason to leave and let her live her human years in peace, because on the eve of her 18th birthday, as I was telling her about the party Alice had planned for her, she cut me off abruptly:

"I am not doing parties, Edward, I'm sorry."

"But she's got everything planned out already."

"And I love her for this and will find a way to repay her efforts, but I want us to be alone tomorrow, if that is possible."

"Come on, be reasonable for a minute," I pleaded.

"Is your birthday tomorrow?"

"No, it's not."

"Then why can't we do things my way?"

I could not argue with that logic. A compromise could not hurt her more than the rest of my intentions.

The following discussion with Alice had not been the most pleasant, but she didn't make as much of a fuss as I had expected. I wondered why, but she kept her mind busy by translating the amendments of the Constitution from English to Latin - one of her favourite tricks for when she wanted me completely out of her head. Most discussions with Alice had been unpleasant after Bella had got out of the hospital. My sister resented me for wanting to leave. She resented me even more for drawing things out like I did. After several attempts of her trying to convince me that her vision of a red-eyed Bella had to happen, I had given up reasoning with her altogether.

Nevertheless, Bella's wish had been granted - we were going to spend her birthday alone. But before we got to that, we had one more evening together. That evening, when I climbed into her room, I found her dressed up in her waterproof ski pants (the ones that she had despite not having any idea how to ski) and her puffy winter jacket. Puzzled by this sight, I asked:

"Is this your new sleepwear, beautiful?"

"I am not going to sleep tonight."

"And what is it that you want us to be doing then?"

"Remember when you promised me you would take me to see the Northern lights?"

And the Grand Canyon. And the coral reefs in Australia. And the salt flats in Bolivia. And all the places I knew I couldn't take her anymore, knowing full well that I had to leave and break her heart if I ever wanted to save her heart.

"Of course," I responded.

"Well, yeah, that."

"I thought you might want to get some sleep for your birthday tomorrow."

"I will call in sick for school. Problem solved."

She threw me a defying look and I had no choice but to surrender in front of her wishes. I could offer her that much, since her birthday was coming and I was convinced this could very well be my last chance of giving her one of the many experiences she deserved; experiences I thought that, at some point, another man - a man more deserving of her love - would offer her.

That summer, she had grown accustomed to being carried on my back as I ran, and that was exactly what was going to happen that night. I had run with her all the way to Alaska. It had taken us a few hours to get there. I had wrapped her in a thick blanket from head to toe and carried her in my arms, to make sure that the ever-increasing cold didn't bother her as we got closer.

It was there, in the Denali wilderness, under the turquoise veil of the Northern lights, that Bella upturned my every plan of leaving when she threw the blanket in the snow and asked me:

"You're not here for the long run, Edward, are you?"

Her question had me frozen - even more than I already was. I had not said a word to her up until that point - and I knew, for a fact, that Alice hadn't either.

"Bella, the cold is getting to your head," I offered jokingly - always joke, that was my mantra when things were getting a darker tone with her. Most of the time, it worked, or so I hoped.

"I am perfectly fine, I promise you that."

"I don't understand why you would say such a thing."

Imposter. Liar. Fraud. Devil.

I admonished myself for making her feel like she was imagining things. She was too pure, too good to deserve my tricks. There had to be a special fire in hell for monsters like me.

"I'm not stupid, Edward. You think I never notice how you change the subject each time I dare mention the possibility of you changing me? Or how you laugh it off when I talk about us five years from now?"

You're not stupid, my love. You're far too intelligent and far too observant for a human.

"Bella..."

"And how you look at me after you kiss me? As if it's the last time we might be doing that? What about that?"

"Okay, listen to me for a second-"

"No! Because I don't know what happens if I do! So you listen to me: if you've got anything you want to say, I'm tired of wondering what it is and when you'll do it. I'm tired of making up scenarios and wondering which one of them is right. But mostly I'm tired of walking on eggshells with you."

"Love..."

I wanted to say more, but couldn't. She had me in a trap: she knew I would never leave her alone on that mountain and the only way out was to respond. If this exact conversation would have happened in Forks, it would have been so easy to avoid it. To avoid her. It was a well-deserved trap, although not even remotely worse than the one I had her in.

I loved her. Too much for her own good. Too much for my sanity. Too much for a creature that shouldn't have been able to understand the sentiment. I loved her and that was my ultimate undoing.

"Okay, I need one thing for my birthday tomorrow," she whispered. "Please."

Another crack tore through my heart - as it had happened on a daily basis since the accident - when I took her face in my hands. I had no right to hold her like that when I knew I was only prolonging the inevitable.

"Anything," I said, too naive to realize the weight of that word - the word that ultimately saved me from myself.

"The truth."

Her eyes burned through mine and there was no escape. I could never forget the fierce determination in them.

"I love you," was all that I managed in the end. She wanted the truth, I could give her the only truth that mattered. At least that wasn't a shameful lie, like so many things I had told her that summer.

"So I need to be more precise," she groaned. "The whole truth. Please."

Her face was getting rosy from the cold and I felt the unbearable need to taste the colour of her cheeks on my tongue. With her face still cupped in my hands, I leaned down to meet the only Heaven I knew, pressing my lips on hers. She felt soft and warm, despite the temperature. Blood rushed in abundance to the spot right under my mouth, allowing me to taste the phantom of her scent through her skin. My mouth opened and hers did too, and we found each other in a way that we couldn't have done through words. Her hands, covered in mittens as they were, started to tug and pull my hair. I pulled her closer to me, feeling the fine outline of her curves through the heavy layers of clothing she was wearing.

Desire and pain weaved together until I could no longer understand which was which. When I grabbed her jacket in my fist, I didn't know if it was because I wanted to rip it and feel her body better or because I wanted to capture the texture in my mind for when I was no longer going to be by her side. When my tongue found hers and invited it to a ravenous dance, I didn't know if it was because I wanted to bury my way through her body as deep as I could or because I never wanted to forget the taste.

Bella gasped for air and that was the moment my thoughts left my brain, ripping the silence between us.

"I want to leave you," I murmured over her lips.

There you go: the whole truth, love.

It felt surreal to know that I had said the abhorrent plan out loud. Hiding it for months had taken me nowhere, because there was no taking back what I said now. No excuses. No misinterpretations. She had heard me.

When Bella pulled back to glance up at me, her skin was flushed and her heart was beating louder than ever. Her breathing was still heavy from our kiss. I didn't dare look her in the eyes. I could already smell the tinge of salt in the air, announcing her teardrops, so I looked away, like the coward that I was.

"I don't believe you."

Her voice was small, but brave. Of course she didn't believe me. I didn't believe me. I knew that living apart from her would wreck me to the point of helpless insanity, just as I knew I would only remain alive for as long as she was. What I didn't know was how to respond to this. It was too soon - as many months as I had had to prepare for this, this was not going according to the script in my mind. She was supposed to believe me.

"You wanted the truth, love."

"Don't call me that."

I knew the tears were now rolling down her cheeks freely, her voice betraying her. I still couldn't find the strength to look in her eyes.

"But you are my love," I protested softly, keeping the 'forever' in my mind to myself.

"I'm obviously your nothing if you are breaking up with me."

"I'm not breaking up with you," I rushed to say.

And being the charlatan that I was, I finally looked into her eyes, to check if she had believed the lie. The melted chocolate of her pupils was now blurry, covered in the thick layer of tears beyond which I doubted she could see properly. I was convinced this had to be the worst possible way for her to spend her last night being 17: freezing, crying, broken-hearted, with a vampire by her side, unable to enjoy the way the solar winds painted the sky.

"No, I think you are, Edward. And this is why we need to talk."

She blinked, letting the tears roll off from her eyes, revealing her wet irises. She had never looked sadder. And at the very same time, she had never looked bolder. I saw her sitting down on the blanket she had thrown on the snow and I followed suit, keeping a safe distance between us.

That night had been possibly the longest night in my existence. She had wanted the worst gift of all, the gift of truth, and I had delivered it with a bow on top. The real gift - the CD with all of her favourite songs played by me on the piano - had never made it to her. As I told her about all the times I thought I was strong enough to leave, I saw her tears, flowing endlessly on her face. Admitting the very things I had tried to keep from her for months hadn't been easy - my mission made even more painful by seeing the effects of my intentions in front of my very eyes. But with no getaways in sight, I had done it. And by the end of it all, I understood that my persistence would be the end of me and the end of Bella if I kept at it.

That had been the first night my plan had begun to shake. With my intentions out on the table, I could no longer hide, even if I wanted to. It had taken weeks full of sleepless nights on her part and discussions in the cafeteria to get to a resolution. It had taken countless fearful kisses and shy touches to accept that we could still be us someday, despite the odds. And It had taken me a whole lot less to realize that I could never leave her, as I had intended.

Two months after that fateful night in Alaska, I had asked Bella to marry me - and I had never been more happy in my life to hear the word 'yes'.


"Can I finally say it?"

Bella made no effort to disguise her horror upon hearing my words. She had been basking under the sun, on the porch, all morning, taking turns in talking with her parents and her friends, who all had made sure to wish her a happy birthday. She had made an effort to sound as normal as possible, despite the events that had transpired less than a day ago - and mostly everyone believed her, except Charlie.

It was always tough to deal with him. While he did not ask for as many details about Cardiff as Renée did - forcing Bella to get creative and forcing me to keep track of that creativity - he could sense any possible cracks in his daughter's tone easier. Their phone calls had begun to sound more like subtle police interrogatories than anything else.

Bella's last birthday had not been the best - she had spent most of the day sleeping, too tired after our nightly getaway and all the crying she had done. I didn't want this one to be so bad, but acting as if we hadn't almost died the night prior was not a viable option either.

We had already broken the news of our failed battle to our family. The reactions had been mixed, but they all shared the same sentiment. Emmett and Jasper had both been furious and annoyed by the fact that they hadn't been able to partake in the battle. Alice had apologized a hundred times for the incident - Bella hadn't even been mad about it, knowing the other outcome Alice had seen in her last-minute vision. Rosalie had expressed her distress passingly, without too many words, while Esme almost had a panic attack - if such a thing was even possible for creatures like us. Carlisle had been just as concerned and I could guess in the long silences during our conversation that he was trying to come up with a plan. If he did find a plan, he had not told me.

"I've heard it for way too many times now," Bella answered, stepping back into the house.

She wasn't wearing much - just boxer briefs and another camisole. From where I was standing on the sofa, I could perfectly trace with my graze her most intimate area beyond the thin fabric of her underwear, which was enough to rouse my longing.

"It's bad enough already that I don't have a proper gift for you," I groaned.

"That's just my luck."

She grinned, but didn't seem amused.

"I'm just not in the mood for celebrating, Edward."

"You weren't last year either."

"And who knows what might have happened if I were?" she provoked me.

I didn't want to consider the possibility. If she hadn't confronted me thousands of miles away from home, on a frozen mountain, I might have gone through with my plan in the end. And knowing what I knew from the conversations we've had after her 18th birthday, my actions would have murdered her happiness just as much as it would have murdered mine. We probably wouldn't have been here at all.

The dreadful scenario dissipated when Bella positioned herself on my lap. I saw her wrist, pale and delicate, marked by a fine line right where it had been broken. Gently, I pulled it up towards my face and kissed it.

"Tell me what you want to do today," I muttered. "Any wish of yours is my command."

We both knew there were not many options, but this day didn't have to be a disaster again. I knew we could get creative.

"Well, I have this idea..." she started. "I haven't heard you playing the piano in forever."

She was right. The last time I had done it was in Alaska, the day we left with no warnings. I had promised myself I would do it again here, in Mati, as soon as I had seen the grand piano in the living, but with the loaded schedule of the past few days, I had completely forgotten.

"You want me to play it for you?" I smiled.

"If you're in the mood."

"Bella, for you, I am in the mood for a whole recital."

She smiled in return and rose up from my lap, sprinting towards the piano.

"Do you have any special requests?" I asked, as I followed her and began the process of tuning the piano.

"Yes! Play our songs - all of them!"

She was uncharacteristically giddy as she waited for me to finish. I had composed many songs for her and for us in the past year and a half, endlessly inspired by her. She had heard them all countless times and I had always liked to joke that she would eventually get bored of the same tunes. But she never did.

I sat down on the wooden bench in front of the piano and invited Bella to join me. She seemed a little unsure as to where to sit, so I made her task easier and grabbed her in my arms, positioning her on the bench, right between my legs.

"There you go," I murmured in her hair.

I straddled her hips and felt her back molding to my torso. My hands reached for the keys and I caressed the fine ivory with my fingertips for a second, before beginning. The music started flowing around us, enveloping us in a cape, and for a while, I had managed to forget about everything else and only be aware of the only things that mattered: my wife listening patiently in my arms, with her hands pressed on my thighs, and the sounds reverberating in the air flawlessly.

It was dangerous to get too lost in my own hope for normalcy, but being with Bella like this almost felt like we were back in Forks, simply enjoying a late morning without our family around. There had been so many peaceful mornings in the months prior to her change - mornings when I would cook something for Bella, we would take a shower together after her breakfast and I would play all of her favourite songs on the piano after.

"Is this the one you wrote after we came back from Isle Esme?" Bella asked.

"It is exactly that one - the one you wouldn't let me finish," I teased her.

She laughed. After we came home from our honeymoon, we had had a particularly difficult time trying to keep our hands off of each other - not that we were any better now. The beginning of our married life had inspired me greatly, so one afternoon I started composing a song. The only problem was that Bella had other plans with me, which involved my fingers in entirely different places - places that were not the keys of my piano.

"It is beautiful," she said.

"You've inspired it, it has to be."

I dragged the song a little longer, before letting it fade into another one. As the melodies rolled in, the sun rose higher on the sky, the light penetrating through the large windows and reflecting from our skin in a kaleidoscope of sparkling colours. Bella remained rested against me, her hands moving from my thighs to my bare forearms and tracing lines there. Her touch sent galvanic vibrations to the rest of my body, making me achingly aware of our closeness. My hands itched to rip the few clothes she had on.

As I began her lullaby, Bella resumed touching the inside of my thighs, not helping with my concentration one bit. My erection grew harder in my trousers, pressing tightly against her back. But I wanted to be a gentleman and finish the song for her. She didn't seem to care about that when she pushed her bottom intently against me, provoking me as she always did.

"Mmmmm, Bella, love, you're already getting bored?"

"Not at all. I don't want you to stop."

"Then keep that perfect ass seated, so I can concentrate."

She laughed and reached to kiss my arm. She then remained unmoved, but I was past the point of no return. My member kept poking her in the back and I wished there was a way I could control it. But she didn't seem to mind that at all, because soon enough she was back to grinding herself against me.

"You really don't want me to finish, do you?" I smiled, gathering enough willpower to not stop playing.

"Oh, I want nothing more than for you to finish."

The double meaning of her words hit me to my core, arousing and powerful. With my fingers still on the keys, I leaned down and made my way to her throat with my lips, imagining all the ways in which I wanted to finish: inside her, on her face, in her mouth, on her hair...

This wasn't helping my focus at all. Nor was Bella's hand reaching for the band of my trousers.

"Don't stop," she whispered, as she slid her hand under the fabric and grabbed the base of my shaft tightly.

She didn't do anything else, just kept me there, in her hold. The song was coming to me automatically, almost as if I was on autopilot, because my mind was most definitely not concentrating on that anymore.

"Bella…"

My control was slipping away faster than my fingers on the keys.

"I want this," she said, gripping my penis tighter and slowly making her way up my length.

I let out a long sigh and stopped right when the melody was hitting its climax. With whirlwind speed, that would have made my movements a blur for human eyes, I made Bella stand up, ripped her boxers, closed the lid of the piano and bent her over it, her thighs making haywire sounds as they pressed on the keys.

Her ass was now at the level of my face. bent over the piano, I could see everything perfectly. The appetizing flesh of her buttocks, demanding to be spanked. The rose bud of her clitoris, demanding to be rubbed. The glistening entrance into her body, demanding to be invaded. All my senses detonated at the hedonistic sight and I reached out to devour her. My tongue dragged its way through Bella's small wet folds, until it reached her clitoris. Once there, it began to move rapidly, feeling the small bundle of nerves getting engorged.

Bella cried out loudly and in her excitement, ripped a small piece of the piano's lid. I didn't stop, but made sure to offer her buttocks a good smacking.

"Sorry..." she managed, but she didn't sound apologetic at all.

In response, I smacked her again and felt her getting wetter on my tongue as I did that. So she liked this - it was always a blessing to discover something new about her. Getting faster and firmer with my tongue on her clitoris, I hit her ass once more. At the exact moment my palm met her flesh, her knees bent forward and she exploded in my mouth. Her taste overwhelmed my taste buds, unreasonably delicious: sweet and salty and primal, the very essence of sex.

Full of rapacity, I inserted two fingers in her, riding the aftershock of her orgasm. Her muscles contracted around me and my patience flew out the window. Without another thought, I slid the rest of my fingers in, going as deep as I could with my hand.

"Goddamn, you're so tight, love," I moaned. "Do you realize how tight you are?"

She reached back with one hand, until she found my hair and pulled.

"Fuck me, Edward," she pleaded.

There she went again, using that word. I wasn't as shocked as the first time she did that, but the same pleasure rushed through every inch of my body upon hearing her. It didn't feel wrong or vulgar or crude. Coming from her lips, the word sounded like the most exquisite invitation, poetical and tempting to the extreme.

"I am," my hand started pushing harder inside her, to emphasize my words. "You want more?"

"Yes, yes… I want to feel how big you are..."

Her wish was my command - that day more than usual, even if she wanted me to pretend that it wasn't her birthday. I retracted my hand from her body and I couldn't resist the sight of my fingers dripping with the sap of her arousal, so I began licking them clean, as I lifted Bella on top of the piano with my free hand. Her camisole was still there, so I made sure to get rid of it while I propped myself in front of her. She lifted her legs in the air, resting her calves on my shoulders.

When I liberated myself from my trousers, her eyes sparked. I would have given a limb to hear her thoughts now. Whatever it was that had made her shield drop two days ago, it had not come back. And I needed it to come back.

Slowly, to allow her to feel every inch of me, I plunged inside her. Her body reacted in all the ways I knew and loved, welcoming me with erratic squeezes and getting more slippery as I got deeper and deeper.

"You feel so good," she whispered.

Our eyes met and I felt obliterated from all the love and lust hidden in the small honey streaks of her scarlet irises. Her hair was spread out over the piano carcass, contrasting in spectral ways with the diamonds adorning her sun-touched skin. I couldn't believe that just a year ago - so little time in the ocean of eternity - I was set on leaving this woman. The only woman that had ever touched my heart. The only woman that had ever meant something to me. The only woman that could both save me and ruin me.

What a terrible mistake that would have been. While I could still remember my reasoning for wanting to leave her, I couldn't, for the life of me, understand how I could ever believe that I would have been able to live without her, unable to hear her voice, to kiss her, to love her everyday. While there might have been life after her, I knew it would never be worth living. There was so much happiness here, just being inside her, in my perfect warm home.

Her hand stroked my lips, and my mouth opened to take one of her fingers in, to suck on it for a few seconds. Then I saw it again: the delicate bracelet-like mark on her wrist. My movements grew rougher, more desperate, at the reminder that the monster had marked her body. I hated the fact that she would forever have a visual reminder of the pain - and that I would always be reminded of not being fast enough to save her in time.

I was grunting like an animal as I plunged in and out her body, my heart suddenly wretched from the memory. She was taking me in with helpless moans, her nails now deep in my shoulders, digging. I watched the tantalizing joggle of her breasts caused by movements and I didn't need more to erupt. As my venom shot out inside her, my hand reached between her legs, finding her warm slit and starting to stroke her clitoris immediately.

"Come with me," I begged. "Come, my Bella, I want to feel you."

Not even a second after I finished, her orgasm hit as well. Her entire body trembled under mine and I rubbed more intently against her most sensitive spot, squeezing out a second climax from her. She threw back her head, revealing her inviting neck, and called out my name. She was still gasping when the last waves of pleasure had left her body. I was ready to take her in my arms, bite her beautiful neck and move our lovemaking outside, on the deserted beach, but something stopped me right as I was raising her body from the piano.

"How is it even possible to get more intense each time? It's like sorcery."

Her voice, loud and clear. But her lips had remained unmoved this whole time. It couldn't possibly be. Yet it was.

"It's happening again," I whispered, unable to keep myself from voicing my revelation out loud.

And there was a God out there, because her thoughts kept on pouring this time around:

"It would most certainly happen again if he didn't stop moving. I want back on the piano. We barely got to do it on his piano in Forks, in fear of breaking it. I like the piano."

In her frenzy she had not understood my initial words. A small frown darkened her gaze.

"Why are you staring?"

"Had I done something wrong? We didn't break anything. Or so I think. The piano looks fine."

I held back the laughter that threatened to explode from my chest when I spoke again:

"I can hear you again, Bella."

"My thoughts? What am I doing? You're hearing me now?"

Her bewildered eyes couldn't grasp what was happening fully, and neither could I.

"Yes… my love, you sound so beautiful!"

I was wasting precious time on talking instead of just listening. I focused on that. But just as I was doing it, her mind closed back. There had been no warning, just a sudden silence, as if someone had turned off the radio.

"Still?" she whispered.

"No, it's gone."

I had not realized we were both holding our breaths until I heard her inhale. I did the same, letting her scent wash over my senses, trying to process what had just gone down.

"I'm sorry it didn't last longer," she murmured and took my face in her hands.

"Oh, don't say that, please, I am happy with whatever I can get."

I pressed my lips to hers, completely spellbound, before pulling away and getting lost in her eyes once more. Hearing her thoughts again had been way more than I had hoped for. I had been so convinced it would take us weeks, if not more, to even understand how it happened the first time around. I was prepared to wait and not press her for more, too afraid that the pressure would ultimately make her keep her guard up even stronger, albeit unwillingly.

Yet there we were, staring at each other in awe. The longing to feel close to Bella in all the ways in which this was possible was the only reality I knew. And that longing came in all shapes and forms... such as holding her hand whenever we were out in public. Silently tucking her hair beneath her ear when it covered her beautiful face. Hearing her stories and telling her mine. Kissing her ever soft lips. Touching every single inch of her skin. Holding her in my arms when she was upset. Making love to her slowly. Bargaining with her to let me taste her blood. Marking her body with my bites. Healing those bites with my venom. Having that venom flow freely in her frozen veins, as a testament of her being mine and only mine forever. Tasting her orgasms on my tongue. Entering her body in all the ways we craved. Fucking her to oblivion. Loving her and loving her and loving her.

And now, hearing her beyond what she could say out loud.

"I love to see you smile like this," she said.

"Well, you've just given me the best gift of all, which is ironic, considering it is your-"

"Shhh, you promised me!"

"Of course, my bad."

She offered me a thankful smile in return and I had no choice but to kiss her again, too in love to be able to do much else.

This birthday of hers was not what I would have dreamed of months ago - and for very different reasons, not what I would have imagined one year ago either. It very much felt like we were playing with fate, as we allowed ourselves to be a little normal, even if just for a day. For I knew that normalcy had been a really changing concept for us ever since that black night in Forks, when nothing - not even Alice's visions - could have prevented the hazard to come.


Can I just say how much I loved writing this particular chapter? After reading "Midnight Sun" and realizing that Edward had been set on leaving Bella right after the James incident, I started feeling as if there was a loophole in my own story. Because one of the first premises of it was that Edward simply never left, like he did in "New Moon". But after finding out just how decided on breaking up with Bella he actually was, I wanted to explore that a bit and understand what made him change his notoriously stubborn mind.

Okay, rant over.

If you have any thoughts on this chapter, it would me my greatest joy to read and respond to them :).

Thank you all for still hanging on for this ride, you're the best!

Stay safe and happy, guys!