As Long as You're Mine

She stood in front of the door, her breathing becoming labored as she thought about all the possibilities of what’s to come. She is panicking. She rang the doorbell exactly 74 second ago, a bit over a minute, and he hasn’t opened the door. What if he isn’t home? What if she’s here instead? All these possibilities ran through her mind. None of them sounding better and better. 80 seconds. She started to play with the hem of her shirt, closing her eyes. 93 seconds. She opened her eyes, turned on her heel ready to leave the porch. 106 seconds. The door opened and he stood in the doorway, his hands stuffed into his jean pockets.

“Aliera,” his deep voice called out, his accent making her name sound different, possibly better. She turned on the last step and looked at him while biting her lip.

“H-hey,” she smiled nervously as he stepped aside in his doorway and with a nod of his head motioned for her to come in. Slowly she walked up the steps again and crossed the porch into the house. She stood in the doorway with him, the both of them not moving as his brother moved about in the kitchen.

“Oliver! Where’s the peanut butter?” The brother showed his face through the window from the kitchen, his eyes found Aliera and his eyebrows rose. “Aliera! Hey, uh, yeah I’m going to go tell Acey there’s no peanut butter.” And with quick steps, James ran out of the kitchen and down the hall to his room. Aliera bit her lip as she turned to look at Oliver.

Oliver stared at the spot where he last saw his brother, his face stoic—which made Aliera more uneasy—and his hands were stuffed into his pockets still. Aliera opened her mouth to say something but Oliver beat her to the punch. “Do you, er, want to sit?” Aliera nodded, moving around a chair to sit on the couch and Oliver went for the chair.

There was a heavy awkward silence between them, the most noise was screaming from down the hall. Aliera knew instantly it was Acey and James doing something either very immature or very wrong. Oliver fought a smile and Aliera coughed trying not to laugh. The two didn’t know what to say. Where to start. The awkward tension just fell so heavy they could feel it. Both would open their mouths to start but close them suddenly. They avoided each other’s eyes and each would twitch uncomfortably. Where should they start? Why is Aliera here? Why did she leave in the first place? What did Oliver do? What can he do? What happened?

That was the biggest question. What happened? When did things get like this?

It was only three months ago they were perfect. She had come to England to visit him after six months of email and Skype while she lived in America; her home. Oliver hated the distance. He wished Aliera could move to England like Acey had. Of course, Acey only moved to England due to the engagement and surprise pregnancy that came up. But Oliver bought Aliera tickets to come, anyway, and he’ll bring up the possibility of moving over dinner. His plan was fool proof. James and Acey were to help. Acey helped Aliera get ready for the dinner and James played the role of supportive brother.

The date went well. It was romantic, perfect, everything Aliera ever dreamed of Oliver was full-filling. And then, he dropped the bomb. James often commented the moving question as the M-Bomb and Oliver just destroyed part of Japan. That earned a few dirty looks from Oliver. But, in reality, the moving question was a bomb. As soon as the question, “how would you feel to move in with me . . . here?” left Oliver’s lips, Aliera dropped her fork. Her eyes widened, her jaw went slack and she stared at her boyfriend of just less than a year confused.

“You want me to move here? To England? That’s thousands and thousands of miles away from my home, my family, my life?” Aliera had never meant for any of her words to come out as rude as they sounded. She also didn’t mean to let her voice rise loud enough for the restaurant to hear. Random families and couples were whispering about the loud American yelling at the poor boy she was with.

Oliver stared at her with a blush on his face. His bottom lip quivered a bit before licking it quickly. “No, I-I was just thinking that—” he was cut off by Aliera shaking her head.

“You didn’t think, did you Oliver? What you thought about was your selfish reasons to always be with me. I’m sorry, the distance does suck but I thought we were okay with it. I thought we could handle it. I guess not,” she hissed the last part as she got up from the table, throwing her napkin from her lap over her food. She stormed out of the restaurant and walked down the street to the hotel she should be staying at.

It wasn’t until an hour later she realized how bad she overreacted. Her pride took over at that point. She didn’t call or text him an apology. Oliver spent the rest of his lonely dinner calling himself stupid and blaming himself for losing her. He thought it was over. She thought it was over.

So as they sit in his living room, with the tension so thick they felt it, they recollected that night. “Was it over?” The both spoke at the same time. Her voice higher, quieter than his deep voice but they heard each other. Their eyes finally met and it seemed like time stopped for them. They couldn’t answer each other’s question. So they opted for apologies.

“I’m sorry—”

“I can’t believe I left you—”

“I should never had asked you to move here—”

“I overreacted more than I should have. We should have talked about it—”

“I should have thought about your needs more than mine.”

“I should have thought about your heart more than mine.”

They stared at each other. Both just tossed up their jumbled hearts and felt like nothing was accomplished. Oliver felt it was his fault. Aliera felt it was her fault. They both still had questions that were eating away at them. They wouldn’t voice these questions, no, for the fear that they’ll get hurt. Acey found herself waddling down the hall to the silent living room, her eyes narrowing down at her friends.

“My God, I swear on my unborn children, that you two better get back together or I’ll kick the both of you in the shin.” The small but mighty, five foot tall, girl stared at them with her stomach wider than it was a few months ago. Oliver pulled a face and Aliera stared at her friend confused.

“Children?”

“Yeah, I think they’re twins, I mean I’m really so wide for being only five months. But, seriously, if you two aren’t together by the time I come back with my industrial sized jar of peanut butter, I’m kicking you.” Acey gave them a look before grabbing the keys off the table, waddling out the door with James in tow. James wished the pair in the living room good luck before leaving after Acey, Aliera heard him shouting something about there is no industrial size of peanut butter.

“How does she think that?” Aliera wondered out loud at the possibility that Acey just doesn’t know she has two living beings growing inside of her.

“She’s going for a surprised angle, I think, she has an appointment tomorrow.” Oliver shrugged, obviously guessing because one person couldn’t possibly figure out how Acey’s brain worked. She didn’t know herself. Aliera’s mouth curved into a smile, her eye caught Oliver and he too was smiling. Then they both started laughing. Moments later the laughing died down. The pair had tears streaming down their cheeks, their cheeks and stomachs hurt from laughing just too hard and they looked at each other with the occasional giggle escaping their lips. It was this particular moment that the three months seemed like they never passed. They felt the same two kids in love like they were, like they are. Oliver stared at the gorgeous dark haired girl in front of him and his heart hammered in his chest. Aliera looked at the dark haired boy with a small smile on her lips, much like the one she’d get when she’d be caught staring at him or thinking about him.

They were still two kids in love.

“Aliera,” Oliver licked his lips and watched the girl look at him, not saying a word, waiting for him to continue. He almost forgot all the words he wanted to spill to her. Just the same three words came to his mind and it scared him. Three words, eight letters, they haunted him. He stumbled over his words and his mouth went dry. “I-I asked you t-to move here be-because—well, uh, I guess because I didn’t want, want to say,” he paused and took in a deep breath. “I love you,” he paused again and watched the girl straighten up and tears instantly sprang to her eyes, “in person.”

Those three words, those eight letters awoke something inside of both Oliver and Aliera. It was like their bodies were sleeping for the last three months and now they needed to make up lost time. They both stood up, walked those little steps to each other and stood there. They stood in front of each other, looking into each other’s faces and searching for the right moment to touch, to kiss, to forget the last three months. But this moment wouldn’t come, not yet. Aliera put two hands on Oliver’s chest and looked up at him with her brow furrowed only a little.

“Oliver,” she paused, getting lost in Oliver’s stare for a few seconds. “I said no because I thought I couldn’t leave my family, my friends, my life. I couldn’t think of leaving Michigan.” She stopped and she could see Oliver become more disheartened by her words. Aliera shook her head. “I stayed, Oliver, I stayed in England and I fell in love.” His eyes flickered to hers and she smiled. “And I love you too.”

That was the moment. The moment when Aliera’s hands slid up Oliver’s chest to loop around his neck as he bent down. Aliera went up on her toes, their lips met in the middle and Oliver’s hands rested on Aliera’s hips. He pulled her closer and the kiss deepened. Oliver’s hands slipped down from Aliera’s hips to just below her butt and lifted her up so her legs would wrap around him. He moved them a few steps to the couch, laying her down gingerly and their lips never disconnected. Their tongues danced together. Aliera’s hands mixed themselves into Oliver’s dark brown hair, messing up the strategically messed up look Oliver was going for that day.

Then the door opened and Aliera almost bit down on Oliver’s tongue and Oliver jumped so far that he fell off the bed. There were loud giggles coming from the door and Aliera looked up to Acey falling into James, cackling. “Oh my God, they were kissing!” She squealed and the two who were just in fact kissing blushed a deep red.

“Shut it, Acey,” Oliver called and straightened himself, sharing a sly smile with Aliera. Acey glared at her fiancé’s brother. But the glare melted when she smiled wide and stared at her friends in front of her.

“I’m just glad you two are together again. I don’t think I would have liked kicking your shins.” She grabbed James’ hand, the bag that held three large jars of peanut butter and marched into the kitchen. Aliera and Oliver shared a look and shook their heads with a laugh. A few bangs and clangs came from the kitchen and James was running out of the kitchen with a jar of peanut butter, Acey running after him waving a spoon. “Get back here, you stupid man! That’s mine!”

Oliver sat down next to Aliera, placed an arm around her shoulders and she leaned into him. They both were laughing softly at the scene that just happened. “She’s a nutter. Promise me something, baby?” Oliver looked down at Aliera and she looked up raising an eyebrow. “Please don’t be as weird as Acey is when you’re pregnant.”

Aliera laughed, “don’t worry, I don’t see that happening that soon.” Oliver smiled and Aliera went on, “plus, Acey’s really just that insane, pregnant or not.”

“True,” Oliver laughed and Aliera smiled, they sat on the couch playing with each other’s hands and enjoying the moment. It was normal. This moment is exactly the way it should have went three months ago. As long as Oliver is Aliera’s and Aliera is Oliver’s, this is how it will feel. Completely and utterly content.