Page 125 of Poetry of Flowers

“Not gonna happen, love, I need to get ready to talk about my future career.” He kissed my head before he walked over to our tiny closet in his underwear.

The so-called brunch was a meeting about his new album, and I had to attend too because I was not only his girlfriend traveling with him, but also a co-lyricist.

It was fun, some of my poems were still only for my eyes, but sometimes I felt like sharing feelings in the form of lyrics can help people not to feel completely alone with their mental health.

Kayden and I were a team like we had always been.

Dragging myself out of bed, I walked over to my closet and took out a floaty red dress. It was perfect for summer.

Getting dressed, I see Kayden outside our bus. He was leaning against the side, gazing at the sky.

Every time I looked at this man, I couldn’t believe how lucky I was.

His stage name was Kayden Avril in honor of my mother’s memory. He didn’t have to think long after he decided that he didn’t want the world to know him as Kayden Kidd anymore.

This was something he had built alone.

When he noticed me, he smiled and pulled me into his arms, hugging me from behind.

His forget-me-not necklace rested on my shoulder. We never took them off, and we wouldn’t do it any time soon or ever.

“Tillie?”

When I turned around to face him, he was already smiling.

“Yes?”

“Should I tell you a secret?” he asked and leaned down to me, our lips only inches away.

“Yeah?” knowing what was coming, I already smiled.

“You’re the most beautiful girl I have ever seen.”

With a soft laugh, I kissed him.

We might be adults by now, but deep inside we were still a couple of fools who completely in love with one another.

* * *

Kayden

Lookingat my childhood best friend and seeing how far we had come made my heart flutter every day. Having her sleep in my arms every night while our bodies melted into one would have shocked the younger Kayden.

He had always imagined attending her wedding as a guest in the future, never as the groom. Watching Tillie walking down the aisle, looking like an angel in a white wedding gown.

He had always imagined what a lucky bastard her future husband would be with the prettiest girl by his side for the rest of his life, and being worthy of her love and affection.

He had never imagined he was going to be the lucky bastard in this scenario.

Well, the ring in my drawer spoke more than a thousand words ever could.

After twenty years with her by my side, seventeen of them as friends and fools in love, three of them as partners, I knew that we had been soulmates the entire time. But there was no way we could have confessed our love if we hadn’t begun to heal before.

Tillie’s healing journey had begun the day we had taken the train to Chicago. My healing took longer, it started the day I saw my biological father behind bars. It was the day of his sentencing that made me realize that I was on my own now and free. I learned to forgive my mother, but it could never be the same again, sometimes she felt like a stranger to me. All those years I fought for the love of a father I never had, enduring all the cruel words and pain because I believed I was the problem.

I saw the light at the end of the tunnel when I found out Patrick wasn’t my father and that there could be someone else with love enough for me.

The light wasn’t love, at least not his.

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