A Photograph of You & I

After a relatively brief ride to town, Dico finally stopped the car out front of a nice Italian restaurant. Bam's Hummer was nowhere to be seen and Dico took out his cell phone and pressed a few numbers on the keypad.

I had to pry my fingers off the seat, my grip on it had been so tight.

Dico was a horrid driver.

"Yeah, okay." He said into the phone before hanging up. I fiddled with the silver ring on my finger while I waited for him to inform me of what was going on.

"Well?" I finally asked because he apparently wasn't going to give anything up on his own.

"They're going to be a little while."

"Why?"

"Bam accidentally rear ended someone." He said calmly. I slapped my hand to my forehead.

"If he hadn't been in such a damn hurry..." I muttered, wishing I hadn't hit myself so hard.

He suddenly started the car and sped out of the parking lot. I pulled the seatbelt across my shoulder once again and held the seat with a death grip.

"Who the hell gave you a license?" I exclaimed.

"Someone at the DMV." He replied with a wide grin. I laughed and shook my head.

"Where are we going?"

"I'm gonna go get Ville so you two don't lose your reservations." He told me. I groaned.

A small part of me had hoped I could get out of this.

"Take it easy!" I yelled as he hooked a sharp left. "I just got out of the hospital, do you want me to end up back there?"

He slowed down in response.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome m'lady." He joked.

Ville's P.O.V

"Look, I can pay for the damages, I just really need to get him downtown!" Bam yelled, completely exasperated. The man whose car had just been rear-ended wouldn't budge. He was going to wait for the police and his insurance agent if it killed him.

"No, maybe this will teach you to pay attention when you're driving." The man replied coolly. I rolled my eyes, he apparently didn't know who Bam was.

"YOU WERE GOING TEN MILES UNDER THE SPEED LIMIT!" Bam screamed; I stifled my laughter.

"I just pulled out into the road!" The man yelled back. I leaned up against the front bumper of the Hummer, which had retained no serious damage.

"Well if you hadn't cut me off..." Bam threw his hands up and wandered next to me.

"Bam, just be patient..." I mumbled, trying to keep his temper restrained so he wouldn't be facing an assault charge in addition to this.

"Vil, you were supposed to be at that restaurant twenty minutes ago!"

"She'll understand..."

"No...Ville you're missing the point..." He began.

"No Bam, you are." I finally got the voice to say what I needed to. "Bam I want to make things work between Aina and me by myself, with no outside help. And if things don't work out, then they don't work out."

He looked at me blankly for a few seconds before sighing and looking at the ground. I had never before seen him rendered speechless.

I sighed and leaned back on the bumper and observed the man we'd hit. He was blabbing incessantly on the phone about how much of a moron Bam was for hitting him. I felt bad for the person on the other end of that conversation who was receiving and ear full at the moment.

"Dico is here." Bam mumbled. I turned in time to see the Lamborghini pull up behind the Hummer and come to a stop. I hesitated to look back to the passenger seat where I knew Aina would be.

Bam pushed off the bumper with his back and went to go talk to our friends. I released a heavy sigh and dug my cigarettes out of my snug black jeans.

I lit up and inhaled deeply, savoring the feeling.

"Fine mess they're landed us in, huh?" I looked to my right and found Aina had replaced Bam and was leaning against the bumper.

My jaw dropped. She looked absolutely stunning in her simple black dress. I had never before seen her wear a dress and it certainly was a pleasant change.

"Ville, darling," She said with a bright smile. "You can stop drooling now." She took my chin between her thumb and index finger and gently pushed my mouth closed.

"S-sorry." I stammered, placing my cigarette between my lips to halt any further embarrassing stutters.

"So, what happened?" She indicated the car in front of us. The man it belonged to peered at the newcomers out his rearview mirror. His gaze was locked on Aina and I made a move closer to her.

"This guy pulled out in front of Bam and of course, Bam was talking and not paying attention..."

She shook her head and laughed at the mental image my sentence must have provoked.

A siren sounded behind us and I looked back to see that the police had finally arrived. Two squad cars and three policemen was a bit much for a small fender bender...it must have been a slow day.

"You wanna go for a walk?" Aina asked, gaining my attention back. I threw my cigarette on the ground and snuffed it out with the thick sole of my shoe.

"Absolutely." I replied. Boldly, I grasped her left hand within my right and we headed down the road.

Aina's P.O.V

About twenty minutes after we'd left the vehicles, Ville and I arrived to a small park. And I used the term "park" very loosely.

It was actually a small section of a field that had been cleared off the side of the road. Someone had donated two benched and an unkempt birdbath to the small plot of land. The names of the donors on the plaque had long ago been eroded.

As we sat on a cleared off bench I noticed that Ville's hand still grasped my own. He hadn't let me go since we'd taken off, and I doubted that he intended to.

I was reluctant to admit that I didn't mind if he held my hand until we both dropped dead.

"Aina?" Ville asked me after a few quiet moments.

"Yeah?"

He hesitated for a moment. Debating with himself as to whether or not he should ask his question. I waited patiently, enjoying the cool breeze that danced around us. Despite the snow and it being winter, the day had turned pleasantly warm.

"When are you going home?" He asked finally.

I tilted my head back and looked toward him. I had wondered about that myself, my mind hadn't been made up. Ever since my first attempt at leaving was foiled, I hadn't really wanted to go home. Not yet anyway.

"Eventually." I answered after a brief moment.

He didn't press the matter; instead he just squeezed my hand and pressed his lips to my forehead, just above my stitches. I winced, only a tiny bit but he noticed.

"I'm sorry about that, Love."

I studied his green eyes. Not meaning to stare but finding myself unable to help it. He noticed my attention on him and returned it, never breaking our eye contact.

"Aina..." He whispered tenderly, his face moving dangerously closer to mine with each fraction of a second. My heart raced, I had seconds to make up my mind.

His lips came crashing down on mine and before I'd consciously made my decision, I was kissing him back, completely engulfed in the sensation.

A car horn beeping disrupted our kiss before it could go any further. I broke it and turned toward the road, seeing Bam driving the Hummer and Dico pulling up behind him in the Lamborghini.

"Get in the car you two! You still have reservations ya know!" Bam shouted.

"Perkele." Ville muttered under his breath as he took my hand and lead me to the Lamborghini.